Ravers is a film with what should have been an hilarious, balls to the wall concept. The idea of a lethally dosed energy drink that turns consumers into mindless zombies that can be controlled through the heavy beats of a good illegal rave has such potential in it that it didn’t take long for the film to feel like it had squandered the opportunity it was presented with.
Becky (Georgia Hurst – Vikings) is an investigative journalist. Desperate for a breaking story to make it big and impress her boss; credited as simply “Editor” and played by Species’ Natasha Henstridge. Her biggest hurdle isn’t her writing, or her ambition, however; it’s her super-sterile germaphobe lifestyle that means she barely wants to leave the house and boils herself when she does. It’s a lifestyle she fights against when she heads to a warehouse rave with her cousin Ozzy, hoping for something resembling fun.
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The problems arise when cans of accidentally, near lethally, dosed energy drinks start being handed out with the rest of the many and varied pills about the place, which turn the patrons into angry, bloodthirsty zombies. Think 28 Days Later’s Rage infected creatures with added ecstasy. Now Becky, Ozzy and the field of idiots they have been saddled with on this night out have to survive each other and the monsters and try to escape the warehouse intact.
Survivors running through a place and forcing their way into smaller and smaller rooms as things get progressively worse for the group is about as run-of-the-mill as a zombie inspired horror film can get. But that’s not to say it’s a bad thing. Ravers knows what it is, and every cliche, every surprisingly blocked hallway, every vent they need to go down is embraced for the idiocy that it is.
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This daft flick does have a fun idea or two buried in its hour and a half running time. Becky being terrified of literally getting her hands dirty does bring an interesting calamity or two for our hero. The ability to win the day by getting all gross and mucky does get a chuckle when you watch it, but you do have the slightly unnerving feeling that any toddler at dinner time is more well prepared to deal with these monsters. More subtle is the throwaway line that inside the warehouse there’s no phone signal, setting up the reason every horror film needs to remove mobile phones from the equation. It’s not particularly original, but it does feel organic enough to not be forced in to prove that the writers and those behind the camera did put a little thought into their film and didn’t just throw the flick together haphazardly.
Becky’s need to find something “more personal”, her fear of all things even remotely dusty, and an old canning plant filled with roid-raging ravers is a fun, if overly forgettable 90 minutes. But as and when it hits your favourite streaming service – this has page three of the Shudder collection written all over it – it’s not half as bad as you think it’s going to be.
Ravers is available on Digital Download from 16th March.
