Last Shift (2014)

“One Hell of a First Night”

Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers, shall we?

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Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

Last Shift (directed by Anthony DiBlasi) is a lean, terrifying supernatural horror film set almost entirely in a single location: a decommissioned police station. Rookie cop Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy) volunteers for her first assignment, a simple overnight shift guarding evidence until a hazmat crew arrives. Sounds easy, right? Just sit tight, answer the phone, and wait until dawn.

Except, the station has a bloody history — it was the site of a mass suicide by the Paymon cult, a Manson-esque group who worshipped a demonic entity. Jessica’s father, a fellow cop, died in the raid that stopped them. As the night drags on, Jessica realizes she’s not alone. Doors slam, phones ring, voices whisper, and shadows dance where no one should be. Her father’s past case bleeds into her present, and soon Jessica finds herself facing the same evil that destroyed him.


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Character Rundown

Officer Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy): Our rookie cop protagonist. Driven, tough, but still raw with grief over her father’s death. She’s desperate to prove herself, even when the odds are stacked against her.

Detective John Walsh (Matt Doman): A seemingly ordinary cop who stops by to check in on Jessica… only for us to later learn he was her father’s partner the night of the cult raid. His big reveal is chilling.

The Homeless Man (J. LaRose): A disturbing drifter Jessica arrests early on. His fate sets the tone for the supernatural nightmare.

The Paymon Cult Members: Maniacal, ghostly figures who taunt Jessica throughout the night. Their leader, John Michael Paymon, looms as the demonic presence behind it all.

Jessica’s Father (mentioned throughout): Though dead before the film begins, his shadow lingers over every choice Jessica makes. His history with the cult is the reason she’s trapped in this nightmare.



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Pacing / Episode Flow

The pacing is tight. The entire film takes place in one location and unfolds in real time. That limited setting turns the station into a pressure cooker — every flicker of light, every creak of a chair is amplified. Instead of cheap jump scares every five minutes, the film builds a relentless atmosphere of dread. By the time the cult fully manifests, you feel like Jessica’s sanity has been worn down alongside your own.


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Pros

The claustrophobic one-location setting works perfectly, making the station feel both expansive and inescapable.

Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere. The film nails mood with its stark lighting, eerie silences, and slow-burn escalation.

The low budget actually helps the movie — it forces creativity with shadows, sound design, and suggestion rather than overblown effects.

Juliana Harkavy’s performance as Jessica is stellar. She anchors the film with grit, fear, and vulnerability.

Some unforgettable scare set-pieces (more on those in spoilers).



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Cons

The story is very stripped down — if you want complex mythology, you won’t get it here.

Some of the cult visions could feel repetitive, though that works toward the film’s disorienting effect.

A few viewers might find the ending bleak or abrupt, but honestly, it fits the movie’s nihilistic tone.



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Final Thoughts

Last Shift is proof you don’t need a blockbuster budget to scare the hell out of an audience. By focusing on atmosphere, tight storytelling, and psychological terror, it becomes one of the most effective horror films of the 2010s. This is my favorite kind of horror — low-budget, high-ingenuity, and utterly relentless.


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Rating

10/10


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Spoiler Warning

From here on out, we’re diving into full spoilers. If you haven’t seen Last Shift, stop reading, watch it, and then come back.


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Spoilers

Jessica’s night spirals into pure madness. One of the early unnerving moments comes when she detains a homeless man found loitering in the station. She locks him up in a cell, but later, when she investigates noises, she finds him sprawled in the hallway. She kneels to check on him, turns his face — and his eyes are bulging grotesquely out of their sockets, staring blankly as if they were about to burst. It’s one of the most nightmarish visuals in the entire movie.

Things get darker when Jessica is visited by Detective John Walsh. He chats with her about her father and the cult, eventually revealing he was there the night her father raided the Paymon cult compound. He tells her that Jessica’s dad saved a child that night, but his partner never made it. As he turns to leave, Jessica notices something horrifying: there’s a gaping bullet hole in the back of his head. He’s a ghost — one of the many phantoms now tethered to this cursed building.

Phones won’t stop ringing throughout the night, even though the station is supposed to have been disconnected. Jessica answers one call only to hear the voice of a terrified young woman begging for help. It slowly dawns on her that these are calls from the past, victims of the cult bleeding into her present.

As Jessica’s sanity breaks, the cult finally manifests in full force. Hallways fill with screaming figures, blood smears, and chanting. She arms herself and fights back, but the lines between real and illusion blur. In the climax, Jessica storms into the evidence room where the cult’s remnants are stored. Thinking she’s taking down cult members, she opens fire on shadowy figures… but in a devastating twist, she’s actually shooting the hazmat team sent to clear the station.

The final moments are brutal: Jessica collapses, bleeding and broken, surrounded by the corpses of innocent people. The police storm in, guns drawn, and kill her on sight. The implication? The cult — or Paymon himself — manipulated her into carrying out their will. Just as her father was consumed by the cult, Jessica too becomes another victim in the station’s cursed legacy.

It’s a bleak, merciless ending that cements Last Shift as not just scary, but unforgettable.