Demons Never Die (2011)

Dir: Arjun Rose

A group of depressed high schoolers make a suicide pact and decide they'll all "go out in style" at an upcoming party. However, a helpful masked gentleman dressed in black shows up and picks them off one by one, thus removing the need for it. This is obviously an odd, slightly contradictory premise for a slasher but - in fairness - the script initially manages to sell it. The characters, while a little stereotypical, are passable and the dialogue is nice and naturalistic. It tackles a few heavy teen issues (suicide, bulimia, depression, grief, etc) in a slightly crass, surface-level way but that doesn't seem too troublesome until everything goes to pieces in the final reel. This combines direct scene lifts from "Scream" with gimmicky hand-held footage and a completely confusing, hideous misfire of a twist ending that devalues the whole thing. One of those "you'll never guess because it makes no sense" types. The movie was apparently made for £90,000 so you can forgive the ugly washed-out videography a little but there's no excuse for the dodgy writing. *1/2