Macabre…ish Horror Review: Riot Girls
Riot Girls, 2019/1 h 22m
Potter’s Bluff has been annihilated by a mysterious illness. A strange condition called gut rot, which presents as a blackened abdomen, inflicted the infected, only adults and in a matter of weeks, they were all gone. There is no cure.
The town, now only populated by children, soon split in two, the poor East Side kids stick together and the rich West Side Kids, keep to their own area, now known as Titan territory. Named after their high school mascot and led by Jeremy (Munro Chambers), varsity captain and the oldest kid in town along with his right hand man, Todd (Darren Eisner). You know them by their Titan lettermen jackets and their central location is West Side High School. They are training other west side kids in self defense, to be elevated to Titan.
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Scratch (Paloma Kwiatkowski) and Nat (Madison Iseman), Eastsiders, are out scavenging and Scratch can’t resist a gun, in the now mummified, hand of the former home owner, still in bed with their partner. Nat is horrified as the arm snaps off in the gun retrieval.
Jack (Alexandre Bourgeois), another Eastsider and Nat’s brother, lies in wait, to handicap and rob a van that’s passing by belonging to the Titans. But first, he accidentally hits another kid, outsider, Sony (AJ Friese), who, after Jack rescues him from the Titans, returns to the compound with him.
Back at the East Side compound where everyone lives, Jack regroups and brainstorms, he wants to know why were there two guys in the van when it should have been only one. Both of whom, he killed.
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At West Side High, Jeremy demands that someone do something about their missing van and for the leak in their group to be plugged. Devon (Evan Marsh) has to deal with their resident troublemakers and drug dealers, Madge (Stefani Kimber), led by Caine (Jenny Raven), who’s been selling marijuana without authorization.
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Later, Jack goes back to the van, against Sunshine’s (Robyn Alomar) better judgement, to find out what else was in it. And he couldn’t have chosen a worse time because the Titans are also looking for the van and they find it. With him in it. But just before they arrive, he discover’s what the van is carrying.
With guns pointed at Jack, the Titans take him back to Jeremy at West Side High. Luce (Jordana Blake), who hid out in Jack’s truck, alerts the others and Nat, Scratch, and grudgingly, Sony are going to bring Jack back. Sony admits to being a former Westsider, so Scratch and Nat admit they need him to navigate the west side.
Meanwhile, it looks like Jeremy is aging out of his ability to survive the virus, he’s hiding evidence of rot gut. While confronting Jack, Jeremy blames Sean (Chris Mark) for the leak and has him killed.
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Scratch has a connection for a car, a ten year old named Bacon (Joseph Curto), who lives on his own and has a collection of vehicles. After twisting the kid’s nipple, they get the best he’s got, an SS 350 1967 Chevy Camaro. Scratch, Nat and Sony pile in and head toward Titan territory.
Meanwhile, at the school, Jack is looking for a way to escape.
At a checkpoint, the trio are stopped by Titan Guards who tell them they can go on through buy they take Nat. Scratch ends their days with the gun retrieved from the mummies. Then they continue on until the car dies and they ditch it for bikes they got off of the Titan guards.
They arrive at Sony’s house and have to regroup with Madge and Caine. They make a plan to locate Jack and while they wait, they hit the bong and talk.
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Back at the school, Jeremy confronts Devon, his cousin, about Jack’s escape and the only thing keeping him alive is the fact that he’s family. Devon then gets the report of the three dead Titan guards and their missing bikes ridden by outsiders.
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Meanwhile, there is a rift between Scratch and Nat. Nat is upset that Scratch has been killing their attackers and called her a thoughtless psycho. Scratch is devastated and Sony tries to smooth it over, just in time for the Titans to pull up. Sony, Nat and Scratch sneak out and head toward Sony’s parent’s house.
Caine and Madge go outside to confront Devon who has a knife to Fish’s (Nicolas Aqui) throat. Soon, two out of three of them are dead and some of the Titan’s look confused as they force Caine into their vehicle.
Back at the school, Devon finds he’s on the outs. Even after killing a little kid and a girl, it’s not enough to get back into the inner circle, he gets the news from Todd, who seems thrilled about it but Devon’s devastated.
Inside, Jeremy confronts Caine, who could not care less. She’s thrown in the school ‘brig’ with Jack.
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Back at Sony’s parent’s house, he tries to kiss Nat, after Nat tries to make up with Scratch. After putting all that aside, they load up to rescue Jack and Caine. They break into the school, just in time for the strange pep rally/public execution that will soon be taking place in the gym. The Westsiders are not yet full on board with this cruelty. When it’s all said and done, the Titans will have new leadership.
This indie film was directed by Jovanka Vuckovic and it is fun. It has that post apocalyptic teen coming of age film feel plus some super graphic and violent deaths. There are some very good child actors in this film, it’s paced pretty well and has a solid ending. Well