REVIEW: SHIFT

• Director: Max Neace
• Writer: Max Neace
• Stars: Connor McGill, Allison McAtee, Sean O’Bryan, Elijah Mahar, Rosanne Limeres, Angela Alise

REVIEW

Shift is a take on Hitchcock’s Rear Window only we aren’t being voyeurs through apartment windows in New York in the 1950s, but we are being voyeurs through security cameras at a storage facility in Chicago, in the 1990s. Oh, and there’s also sentient chair named Grace Kelly but more on that later.

Shift begins with Tom (McGill) being shown the ropes at a storage facility (where he is to be the new overnight security guard) by Hal (O’Bryan). Basically, it involves a bit of cleaning and a lot looking at cameras. Hal is a little a bit… off, but Tom can’t (and doesn’t really care enough to) figure out why. Tom just wants to do his job and be left alone. However, Tom is never alone on the night shift. He listens to the late-night radio show host (Alise) that takes calls from the audience and of course Grace Kelly, the sentient chair who squeaks and creaks some occasional lines – shown in subtitles.

As Tom spends more time at the job, he starts becoming almost obsessed with the storage locker of Mr and Mrs Jones or more aptly the men that Mrs Scarlett Jones (McAtee) brings to the locker. Tom’s voyeur paranoia peaks when he sees Scarlett and mystery man enter the locker, but he swears that only Scarlett comes back out. As he investigates and becomes more involved in Scarlett’s activities, things begin to unravel right in front of his eyes, and he might just be in danger.

McGill does a good job of playing Tom, as a loser who unfortunately kicks open a hornets nest he wasn’t prepared for. Sean O’Bryan is fantastic as the slimy Hal and McAtee hits all the required notes for the film’s femme fatale.

The film makes no secret about its influences, but it still manages to be its own film. Neace adding his own style to the film both in direction and in the writing. The Grace Kelly chair is an idea that could have sunk the film, but Neace makes it work, mostly because the writing for Grace Kelly is weirdly charming. Shift is a fun and quirky thriller.

Shift is available to watch now.

Ryan Morrissey-Smith

Where to watch SHIFT