TIFF Report: END OF THE LINE Review

Another day, another Canadian zombie film. End of the Line was the weaker of the two films due to lack of focus by director Maurice Devereaux. Starting out with premonitions of demons walking the earth, then moving into a Creep or Kontroll type thriller set in the Subway system (the underground here being the Toronto Transit Commission) involving a pre-programmed group of religious Zealots (you know, the Zombies).

The film follows mental health worker Karen who is having bad dreams of dark lurkers of the night and is on edge (jumping at noises in the dark in several quite effective, if workmanlike jump-scares early on in the film). She also works longs shifts at the mental ward of an urban (Toronto?) hospital. And to top it off, a co-worker jumped in front of a subway train this particular morning. Yes, End of the Line's cheif aim is to give you a chill the next time you walk by the local Scientology office or when you are standing on the Bay Street Subway platform which is feature prominently in the early chapters of the film. Enter happy, preppy suit attired cultists on their way back from a convention from their revered, well, reverend (A cross between Jerry Falwell and Rush Limbaugh). Their pagers go off suddenly and out come the worst movie props I’ve seen in a while, bulky wide silver crosses which open up into sacrificial daggers. Not something anyone easily could fit into a purse, and only around your neck if you are going to a GWAR concert.

While in the Bay street subway station, Karen meets nice, handsome, secular, Carl Sagan reading, Mike. He
gives her a hand warding off a crazy blonde fellow (Kyle Allat channelling Matthew Lillard) aggressively hitting on her. Following the conventions of Night of the Living Dead, the film puts together a rag-tag band of Zom..er..Cultist survivors in a trapped, tighly enclosed space as they try to push their way out. And judging by messed up radio and TV signals, if this band of transit refugees make it up to the surface, there still may or may not be a full Biblical apocalypse happening.

There are some good points to be found in this somewhat clunky film. Certainly the director was willing to go all the way with some scenes, including a tense encounter of a doubting cult member and his zealous nine-month-pregnant wife. The scene has a similar tone to the father being eaten by his daughter in Night of the Living Dead and ends with a gruesomely poetic family portrait composition. The acting for most of the major players is quite good. Scenes not involving the cultists have some convincing dialogue and play out quite well. However, when the cultists are around, things devolve into amateur hour. The tone of End of the Line is quite serious and seems to be going for legitimate scares, however the cultists are neither scary nor over-the-top funny. The HD visual aesthetic leaves a bit to be desired, whereas the gore and monster effects are good in the same way The Descent was. So when watching some of the scenes, which are not funny, but at the same time, not played straight you get the feeling you are on one of those bad carnival haunted houses. You know those rides, which are somewhat embarrassing if you are not drunk or just out for a lark. Still, there are some promisingly smart elements of the script which play the survivors choices and difficult decisions without a lot of the stupid things required for the plot of many entries for the genre. Seeing as more often than not, the characters make smart decisions, it is too bad Maurice Devereaux could not make the decision whether or not he wanted a full on horror film or a ZomCom.