''12 Hour Shift'' is a 2020 American
black comedy
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
written and directed by
Brea Grant
Brea Colleen Grant is an American actress, writer, and director. She played the character of Daphne Millbrook in the NBC television series ''Heroes''.
Early life
Brea Grant was born and raised in Marshall, Texas. She earned bachelor's and maste ...
and starring
Angela Bettis
Angela Marie Bettis (born January 9, 1973) is an American actress, film producer, and director. Following her breakthrough role as Janet Webber in the drama film ''Girl, Interrupted'' (1999), she earned acclaim for her portrayals of Carrietta Wh ...
,
Kit Williamson
Kit Williamson (born November 13, 1985) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for creating, writing, directing, and starring in the dark comedy web series ''EastSiders''. For his work on the series, he has been nominated for several Ind ...
, and
David Arquette
David Arquette (born September 8, 1971) is an American actor and former professional wrestler. He is best known for his role as Dewey Riley in the slasher film franchise ''Scream'', for which he won a Teen Choice Award and two Blockbuster Enter ...
. Bettis plays Mandy, a drug-addicted nurse involved in a
black market
A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the se ...
organ-trading scheme in 1999.
Arquette was one of the film's producers, alongside his wife Christina Arquette, and Jordan Wayne Long,
Tara Perry
''The Fresh Beat Band'' (originally known as ''The JumpArounds'') is an American live action musical children's television series created by Scott Kraft and Nadine van der Velde for Nickelodeon. The show stars the "Fresh Beats" (Kiki, Shout, M ...
, and
Matt Glass.
The film also features music composed by Glass.
''12 Hour Shift'' was scheduled to have its world premiere at the
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...
in April 2020 prior to the festival being postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. Distribution rights were acquired by
Magnet Releasing
Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor. It is a subsidiary of Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's 2929 Entertainment.
Magnolia was formed in 2001 by Bill Banowsky and Eamonn Bowles, and specializes in both foreign and independent films. Mag ...
in June 2020, and it premiered at the
Fantasia International Film Festival
Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...
in September 2020. The film earned positive reviews from critics, who praised the cast—especially Bettis and Farnsworth—and humor.
Plot
In
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
in 1999, Mandy is an overworked nurse with a drug addiction. In addition to stealing patient medications, she finances her drug habit by harvesting dead patients' organs. Desk nurse Karen is Mandy's partner, and Mandy has recently brought on her cousin Regina to transport the organs to
trafficker
Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.
There are various ...
Nicholas.
One night, at the start of her 12-hour shift, Mandy hands over a harvested
kidney
The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blood ...
in a
cooler
A cooler, portable ice chest, ice box, cool box, chilly bin (in New Zealand), or esky (Australia) is an insulated box used to keep food or drink cool.
Ice cubes are most commonly placed in it to help the contents inside stay cool. Ice packs ar ...
to Regina behind the hospital. Regina accidentally leaves the cooler with the kidney, instead carrying a cooler with a soda can to Nicholas. Nicholas demands Regina get the kidney or he will take hers. Regina cannot find the kidney at the hospital. Mandy refuses to help her, so Regina dresses like a nurse and kills one of Mandy's patients by pouring bleach down his throat. Regina expects that Mandy will be able to extract the dead patient's kidney, but Mandy angrily explains that he was on
dialysis Dialysis may refer to:
*Dialysis (chemistry), a process of separating molecules in solution
**Electrodialysis, used to transport salt ions from one solution to another through an ion-exchange membrane under the influence of an applied electric pote ...
, so his kidneys are unusable.
Police arrive to investigate the murdered patient. Regina attacks more people and threatens to expose the organ trafficking operation unless Mandy helps her. Mandy agrees and tells Regina to wait outside. Regina sees one of Nicholas's henchman, and in a panic kills a passing skateboarder to take his kidney, but ends up taking his bladder instead. Meanwhile, inside the hospital Mandy kills a patient with an overdose and manages to harvest his kidney. She leaves the kidney in another cooler by the vending machine, but it has disappeared by the time Regina gets to it.
Nicholas's henchman Mikey, who has entered the hospital and terrorized staff and patients, prepares to drag Regina away, but she desperately suggests that they kidnap a comatose patient so that Nicholas can take all his organs. The comatose patient is Mandy's abusive, drug-addicted half-brother. Mandy intervenes, and together she and Regina manage to overcome Mikey. The police investigation incorrectly determines that Mikey had been committing the murders around the hospital. Regina leaves. Hospital guest Mr. Kent suddenly announces that he has been finding the coolers containing kidneys all night; the exhausted Mandy leaves to take a nap in her truck. The film ends with Mandy re-entering the hospital to begin her next shift, followed shortly thereafter by Nicholas.
Cast
Release
''12 Hour Shift'' was scheduled to have its world premiere at the
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...
in April 2020,
but the festival was postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
In June 2020, it was reported that the film's worldwide distribution rights were acquired by
Magnet Releasing
Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor. It is a subsidiary of Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's 2929 Entertainment.
Magnolia was formed in 2001 by Bill Banowsky and Eamonn Bowles, and specializes in both foreign and independent films. Mag ...
.
Reception
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads: "Sharp, twisted, and darkly funny, ''12 Hour Shift'' is an uncommonly clever heist caper with a refreshing female-focused twist." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a
weighted average score of 65 out of 100 based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Hoai-Tran Bui of ''
/Film
''/Film'', also spelled ''Slashfilm'', is a blog that covers movie news, reviews, interviews, and trailers. It was founded by Peter Sciretta in August 2005.
Podcasts
Six podcasts have run on the site. ''The /Filmcast'', hosted by David Chen, De ...
'' praised Bettis's performance, and wrote that the film "has a sick sense of humor that makes its washed-out setting the perfect blank canvas for writer and director Grant to paint her gleefully bloody caper." Meagan Navarro of
Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music. ...
also lauded Bettis's performance but criticized the film's
characterization
Characterization or characterisation is the representation of persons (or other beings or creatures) in narrative and dramatic works. The term character development is sometimes used as a synonym. This representation may include direct methods ...
overall, concluding: "''12 Hour Shift'' is far too ambitious for its own good, playing out like a blood-drenched yet unfocused comedy of frustrating errors."
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:12 Hour Shift
2020s English-language films
American black comedy films
American comedy thriller films
American heist films
Films set in hospitals
Films set in 1999
Films set in Arkansas
Films about organ trafficking
Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2020 films
2020 black comedy films
2020 horror thriller films
2020 comedy horror films
2020s American films