"Departing Seniors" (2023) [Nightmares Film Festival]

by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden

In our “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment, it’s the serial killer horror Departing Seniors, by Clare Cooney, courtesy of the Nightmares Film Festival.

Synopsis

Following an act of bullying, witty high school senior Javier develops psychic abilities which he must use to stop a mysterious serial killer targeting his classmates.

The Good

Joseph: Gay Mexican high school photographer student Javier (Ignacio Diaz-Silverio) is the victim of bullying on the part of Ginny (Maisie Merlock), who is in competition with him for valedictorian, and jocks Trevor (Cameron Scott Roberts) and Brad (Sasha Kuznetsov). One such incident leaves Javier with psychic abilities that only partially reveal the forthcoming deaths of some of his senior classmates. His best friend Bianca (Ireon Roach), an African-American girl with a deep knowledge of horror movies, tries to help him solve the mystery of just who is knocking off their titular classmates. Diaz-Silverio and Roach make for an entertaining buddy duo.

Mike: I love slasher movies (as I may have mentioned once or thrice), so any new slasher already has a bit of a head start in my book. Departing Seniors starts off strong and should pull in any fans of the sub-genre within the opening minutes. While things do slow down a bit (I mean, we’ve got to introduce characters and establish a plot afterall), Cooney does a good job of pacing, keeping things moving at just the right pace with a keen eye for knowing just when a scene is on the verge of overstaying its welcome.

Diaz-Silverio and Roach (as Javier and Bianca), are great in their roles. While Bianca does seem a bit flip at times, we never really learn much about her so it could just be her way of coping. Regardless, she and Javier play very believable friends and deliver their lines comfortably and with the perfect amount of the appropriate emotion as called for by the scene.

The Bad

Joseph: Although Roach does a fine job in her role as Bianca, I feel she was given some dialogue that made her character somewhat annoying at times. This being a slasher movie, red herrings abound, but they are a bit overdone occasionally to the point of them being obviously trying to lead viewers down the wrong path. One candidate for the killer, for example, doesn’t physically match what we have seen of the masked mystery person. Although the Javier and Bianca characters are fleshed out quite nicely, the jock and mean girl characters don’t stretch much beyond the usual high school horror stereotypes.

Mike: While the story and plot are interesting, Departing Seniors suffers from a distracting plot element that plays a major role throughout the entire film, but is inexplicably forgotten after it serves its purpose. Although a bit extreme, the easiest comparison I can make is if, say, Luke Skywalker uses some mystical power throughout the original trilogy, and we see him trying to figure it out, but he’s never told what it is that he’s tapping into and then, before you know it, a bunch of Ewoks are shouting “Yub Nub!” and this — we’ll call it a “force” — is never mentioned again.

There’s also some turns that the plot takes that don’t make a lot of sense other than the fact they need to be made to guide the story towards its conclusion. Toss in a bit of cringey dialogue and there are more than a couple of spots that might frustrate a fair number of viewers.

The Verdict

Joseph: Departing Seniors gets its pacing and running time right, and works well as this generation’s progeny of Scream, with a dash of the supernatural thrown in for good measure. Perhaps a tablespoonful would have served it better. Overall, it is a solid outing that warrants a watch from stalk-’n-slash aficionados.

Mike: Clare Cooney and Jose Nateras have crafted an interesting, entertaining, yet sadly flawed, story that explores some serious themes with a few messages all dressed up with a slasher bow. The lead characters are great and come across as a very realistic duo, spouting off some funny quips that might be followed by a poignant admission or realization.

While Departing Seniors shows a lot of promise, I felt that it suffered too much from an ending that ignored a plot element that was introduced as pretty important. This didn’t ruin the movie for me — I’d still give it a thumbs up and a recommendation to slasher fans — but it did mar my overall opinion of the film and having seen it once, I probably won’t seek it out for any repeat viewings.

Departing Seniors, from Choppe Productions and Divisionist Films, is playing as part of the Nightmares Film Festival which is running from October 26th - 29th. For more information please visit https://nightmaresfest.com/.

Departing Seniors