A teenager seeks the help of her estranged father after a death cult sieges a bowling alley in Last Night at Terrace Lanes. Going on what she believes to be a date with Tess (Mia Rae Roberts), Kennedy (Francesca Capaldi) is shocked not only by the unexpected arrival of Tess' boyfriend Pete (Lucas Sanchez) and his friend Cody (Elias Arnold) but also that Tess chose to go to the Terrace Lanes Bowling Alley, which is on its final night of operations before being torn down for condos. Kennedy is embarrassed to go to the alley since it's where her estranged father Bruce (Ken Arnold) works as the maintenance man. The night goes from bad to worse when a cult wearing white masks and blue hoodies descends upon the bowling alley and follows the directives of their leader Dove (Christopher Walker) to leave no survivors. Kennedy is forced to turn to her dad for help if she and Tess expect to leave Terrace Lanes alive.
Last Night at Terrace Lanes Synopsis
Last Night at Terrace Lanes is a siege horror-comedy directed by Jamie Nash, previously a writer and producer for Lovely Molly and V/H/S/2 for director Edúardo Sanchez (The Blair Witch Project), who is an Executive Producer on this film. The film stars Ken Arnold and Francesca Capaldi as the bowling alley maintenance man and his daughter Kennedy, the latter of whom is embarrassed to be around Bruce, who holds on to memories of them together in a bowling league. The two are unexpectedly reunited on the final night of operations of the Terrace Lanes Bowling Alley, with Bruce ending up embarrassing Kennedy in front of her friends.
The night soon turns sinister when a cult descends upon the bowling alley and kickstarts their sacrificial ritual. Knowing her way around the alley, Kennedy helps lead Tess into hiding and reluctantly radios Bruce for help. Father and daughter sneak their way through the bowling alley to try and save Tess and escape the cult.
My Thoughts on Last Night at Terrace Lanes
In its simplest description, Last Night at Terrace Lanes can be described as “The Purge meets Die Hard.” Indeed, Ken Arnold as Bruce comes across as a John McClane type, who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Since Bruce was locked in the office to cool off by his boss Cheryl (Towanda Underdue), after an outburst in front of Kennedy and her friend, he is completely oblivious about all the carnage until Bruce is called by his daughter for help.
While there was some promise in the premise of Last Night at Terrace Lane, the film is hurt by some horrendous acting, mostly by those playing supporting characters, only in the film to be killed off by the cult. In addition, apart from a clever cutaway, even the violence and gore of Last Night at Terrace Lanes feels lacking. There were many times throughout the film when the camera cut away before a kill, suggesting that there was not enough in the budget to pull off the effects.
Ultimately, Last Night at Terrace Lanes is a film that I would file under “so bad, it's good.” While there's much in the film that caused me to roll my eyes, I also appreciated the comic heroism of Ken Arnold and the crazed rantings of Christopher Walker's Cult Leader. At the very least, I'll say that the film's worth a VOD rental.
