If you like your movies lean and mean, you’ll have a grand time with Nick Kozakis’ Kick On. The director teams up with writer Phillip Klimek to tell a tight, practical, and pissed-off tale of drugs, money, and betrayal. A group of twenty-somethings get kicked out of a club early on in the night and go searching for their next fix. In fairness, they do find the drugs. How many of them make it out of the drug den alive is a different question entirely, though.Â
Kick On centers on Markella Kavenagh’s Eden, who’s secretly trying to figure out how she’ll pay for her sister’s medical treatment. Kavenagh’s a long way from Middle-earth and her recent harfoot adventures as Nori Brandifoot in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, but it’s all for the better. She slips into Eden with ease, showcasing a gritty comfort with her role in this practical splatterfest.Â
The den Eden and her friends find themselves in is operated by Ray (Nikolai Nikolaeff), the son of a well-known mobster and keeper of an exceptionally itchy trigger finger. Ray’s paranoia is central to the conflict here, but there are some sticky fingers in Eden’s group that will ultimately vindicate some of the drug dealer’s mistrust.Â
It’s not long before bullets start flying, limbs are decimated, and knives start rending flesh. You’ll hear plenty of Green Room comparisons, but it’s important to note up front that while those accolades are accurate when it comes to the gore, you shouldn’t expect too much depth from Klimek’s screenplay.
That’s not an insult! Sometimes you just want to watch a bunch of bad and/or stupid people experience a no-good, very bad night. That’s exactly what you’ll get from Kick On. Though, there is a niceness to the idea that every decision Eden makes is backed up by a desperation to protect her family and friends (even if many of those decisions are actively ill-advised).Â
Cinematographer Shyam Ediriweera has a lot of fun with the chaos that unfolds in Ray’s apartment, often opting for extreme close-ups of the makeup department’s (made up of hair and makeup artists Amelia Loucas, Liz Mason, and Megan Tiltman as well as prosthetics designer Larry Van Duynhoven) mastery as blood paints every corner of the abode.
Duynhoven deserves a special acknowledgment not just for the technicality of his prosthetics, but the creativity as well. A shotgun doesn’t really do that to a foot, but who cares? It’s fun to look at and drives home how deliciously mean Kick On is.
While emotional weight isn’t really the point of Kick On, the supporting cast’s rapport does help some shine through. Ras-Samuel has a standout performance as Drew, but a turncoat in Ray’s camp delivers a pivotal performance (you’ll have to pull up the IMDb after you watch for that one, as I don’t want to spoil anyone’s ride). Whether it’s sibling dynamics or close friends, you do ultimately feel the loss as torsos explode and lungs are impaled.
That loss is essential to Kick On’s delight, of course. You can’t have a satisfying final boss battle without an intimate understanding of the pain that boss caused. The question is: is Ray the real problem, or is it daddy dearest? Fedi (Jacek Koman) — Ray’s father — doesn’t show up until the third act, but Koman makes very good use of his time on screen. A stereotypical mobster/overly emotional mobster child dynamic plays out between Ray and Fedi, but we’re not looking for Shakespeare here. We’re looking for guts!Â
And guts we receive! Kick On joins the pantheon of delightfully mean Austrian horror flicks, featuring noteworthy performances from all of its cast, but particularly that of Kavenagh, Nikolaeff, and Ras-Samuel. A tight script and capable direction take the film a long way, but the makeup and prosthetics team of Kick On are the real stars here!Â
