USA, 1995
Review:
JA Kerswell
A ho-hum semi-slasher from the wilderness year before SCREAM revitalised the genre in 1996. A morally bankrupt property developer becomes possessed by the spirit of the chief of an indigenous Mexican tribe and is driven to continue to kill when he returns to the United States. Despite a half-decent premise and the presence of the collective talents of Robert Patrick and Joanna Pacula, LAST GASP never quite inflates. Although it is the only film I know that suggests - even for a moment - death by cunnilingus.
Leslie Chase (Robert Patrick) takes extreme measures to protect the construction of a tourist hotel in Mexico after a native tribe is suspected of ritualistic killing of workers. After bribing the police, the tribe are hunted down and killed - with Chase personally shooting one of them dead. He is warned not to get too close in case his victim’s spirit jumps into his body - something he dismisses as mere superstition. Later that night the tribal chief - who survived the massacre - exacts his revenge and kills the head of the police, but is felled when Chase gets the upper hand during a tussle. He dies face-to-face with his killer.
Cut to six years later and back in the United States, Nora (Joanna Pacula) hires a private investigator Ray (Vyto Ruginis) to look into the disappearance of her husband (Jim Davidson). His investigation leads him into the orbit of Chase, who has returned to his home country. When Ray also vanishes, Nora begins to suspect that Chase is responsible and could also be tied to a series of brutal murders that the press and police are linking to Indigenous American tribes. With her best friend Goldie (Wes’ ex-wife Mimi Craven), Nora takes up the investigation and puts them firmly in danger …
LAST GASP plays with some interesting ideas but doesn’t really do much with any of them. The film skirts around different genres without committing to any one of them fully. It flirts with the erotic thriller, with plenty of breasts and naked flesh shot lovingly in sweaty slo-mo - whilst banal ballads or generic guitars wail in the background. The private investigator angle could have been a good way to navigate the story but it fizzles out halfway through. The script fumbles around a cannibalism angle but never really commits to it. Even worse, the slasher action is largely half-hearted and really only comes alive briefly in a showdown between Chase and Nora towards the film’s conclusion. It does at least mean that Patrick spends much of the movie half-naked in a nod presumably to his star-making role in TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991).
It doesn’t help that the plot throws up more questions than answers. Like why does Nora think her husband has gone AWOL when he turns up halfway through the movie as if nothing has happened? If the spirits of the dead demand blood, why has it taken six years before Chase is compelled to kill again? The film also misses a trick with his character. It would have been potentially much more interesting had Chase been a good man compelled to do awful things after becoming possessed and struggling with his dual personality akin to a modern-day Jekyll and Hyde. However, he is already shown to be bad to the bone - so any attempt to engender sympathy falls flat.
LAST GASP was filmed largely in Romania (which doubled for the USA in a good number of 90s horror movies). It was competently shot by director Scott McGinnis without ever being remarkable or throwing up any real surprises. McGinnis was previously an actor - and had a pivotal role in Greydon Clark’s slasher spoof WACKO (1982). For what it’s worth, exploitation legend Don Edmonds adds some more slasher pedigree with a line producer credit and a small cameo as a removal man. He had previously produced and starred in Thanksgiving slasher HOME SWEET HOME (1981).
The production is polished enough to suggest that a theatrical release may have originally been planned (it was shot on 35mm), but LAST GASP unceremoniously went straight-to-video with little more than a death rattle.
BODY COUNT 10:
Female 2 / Male 8
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