12 Hour Shift Review (Film, 2020)

content warning: foul language, drug abuse, gore, violence against women, surgical footage

Mandy is a nurse involved in illegal organ trade. She works with the head nurse to pick out patients near death and uses bleach to end their lives sooner. Someone else comes in on the next shift, grabs what needs grabbing, and sets up the delivery. A lot can go wrong during an overnight shift at the hospital.

Writer/director Brea Grant’s 12 Hour Shift is a dry, dark comedy/horror film. The characters are not likeable, but they are entertaining. That’s the point. The ensemble cast has the dynamics of a tight sitcom, if sitcoms were made about murder, organ harvesting, and drug addiction.

Her direction is excellent. This film runs the gamut of emotions, action, and genre. It can shift in tone within the same line. Grant has a specific vision for this story and she leads a large ensemble cast to bring it across. Every role is essential to the story being told and no detail is overlooked. Grant is in total control of every moment.

The structure of the screenplay and the editing make this horror film stand out. Multiple storylines are set up at the start of the film that happen at the same time. Aside from Mandy and Karen (the head nurse) setting up their plans at the start of the shift, we meet all of Mandy’s patients for the night, her cousin Regina who collects the organs, and Regina’s cousin who runs the organ trafficking ring. That’s before any new patients, family members, staff, or police show up throughout the night. Grant’s screenplay sets the story up and Amy McGrath’s editing locks the beats down perfectly.

The bow that ties the whole thing together is Matt Glass’ score. Most of the film is set to a drum kit and solo opera voices. That’s it. This establishes the unpredictability of the world and smooths out some of the less anticipated shifts in the film. As the tension grows, there might be a few more voices or a whining synth, but the core is drums and operatic vocals. The music is full of energy and hollow at the same time. It’s just…unnerving.  

12 Hour Shift is singular in its vision for modern horror. The scenes shift by connections between characters. Karen will talk to Mandy. Mandy will go check on a patient. We’ll follow Mandy until she talks to another nurse, who then connects us to the next plot thread. Once the relationships and power structure are established between the hospital and the crime ring, the film will jump between concurrent moments in the lives of connected characters. You can’t quite anticipate where the story will go next, though it does make sense by the time you get there.

12 Hour Shift is streaming on Shudder.