Independent Film Review – #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead

I’m probably the worst person to send this to. Firstly, I’m not a fan of horror films. Particularly not the slasher sub-genre. I saw most of Saw, the first half of Hostel, and a couple of Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street offerings. I know that there are of plenty of perfectly nice people out there who enjoy trimming gladioli, brushing their Bichon Frisé, and munching handfuls of popcorn while watching the bad guy waving a machete around. They aren’t bad people because they enjoy watching blood and body parts spraying across the screen. They just enjoy that sort of excitement.

Similarly, there are people who’s life revolves around their social media presence and there are people like myself whose only reason for getting a Facebook account was to be irritating because the rest of the world was clamouring to get on My Space. Then inertia meant that I couldn’t be bothered to try out all the other new things that were popping up so I stayed put. Besides, I’ve probably got even more photos of my grandchildren to bore everyone with. What I never managed to get on board with is the whole influencer thing. I suppose, given that my followers number only in double digits, that’s no bad thing.

She Who Has Nothing To Share…

Where #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead loses me as a fan is, unfortunately, right at the beginning when the characters are introduced. Well…not quite right at the beginning. #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead opens with a VCR playing a news bulletin from 2004 which talks about a shocking discovery. Seven college students had gone to a music event called Karma Palooza which was advertised as a dream come true for music fans. Unfortunately it turned into a nightmare for the seven friends; they were found tortured and murdered in what appeared to be depictions of the Seven Deadly Sins.

It seems that this event spawned a number of podcasts and films based around SDSK. Incidentally, SDSK isn’t actually explained but I think that it must mean Seven Deadly Sins Killings or Karma Palooza. SDSK: From Concert To Carnage, The Sounds Of Sin, Friends Till The End: The Hunt For SDSK, and Fear Festival: The SDSK Murder are just a few that get rattled off by the announcers. One announcer tries to spread the blame and guilt around by saying that if you’ve watched any of this stuff then you are a “Dark Tourist”.

…Must Have Something To Hide

But on the 20^th anniversary of the unsolved murders, Karma Palooza returns. After the opening credits we cut to a building somewhere rustic while a woman does a voice over and still photos and clips of her are flashed on screen. This lasts about a minute and was enough to get JoJo Siwa star billing. Frankly, I’d never heard of her and didn’t recognise her but, as I mentioned earlier, I’m not the target audience. Anyway, Colette (JoJo Siwa) talks, runs around, screams, and shoots herself. This happens two years before what is starting now. What is happening now is shown in a brief montage…

There is someone saying that it is an emergency if someone doesn’t like their video, someone else is sleeping with someone else, another person is snorting cocaine, yet another person is tucked up in bed, while the last chap is bemoaning the fact that he can’t come, and the last woman is saying that she is on the way to pick everyone up. We’re five minutes in and I haven’t seen a likeable character. At least they are identified as college students so ranging in age from mid twenties to mid thirties is better than them being high school students. Ultimately the performances are good but just of people that I didn’t like. Still, if you fancy killing an hour and a half with a campy, well made, slasher flick, #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead is just right.

#AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead is released on digital 18^th November 2024 by 101 Films.

Independent Film Grade: C-