On the night before the world is about to end, Aubrey (Jesse McQueen) and Tom (Kenneth Northfield) gather the members of their wedding party in the abandoned hotel where the original ceremony took place. They’ve all drifted apart for reasons that will become clearer as the film wears on, but all seem to be willing to come together one last time in an attempt to sow nostalgia and mend old wounds.
The exact nature of the apocalypse is left vague, except for certain details like a gas shortage and the darkening of the internet and social media. One of the shortfalls of the film is that no one in the wedding party seems to be all that worried about it – one couple even leaving their children behind in one of the more curious reactions – and remain preoccupied with the sort of dramatics that wouldn’t, or shouldn’t, matter if humanity was about to be toast. In some ways, the apocalypse hanging over everyone’s heads is the least interesting aspect of The Last Anniversary which, while interesting, might take some getting used to as I can’t think of another movie that uses this particular plot element in quite this way.
What is relevant, however, is the driving reason for the gathering, which is not what it seems. At the end of the ceremony ten years ago, maid of honour Brenda (Jenna Vittoria) disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Each member of the wedding party is both aware of, and involved with, Brenda’s vanishing but just how their roles fit together is slyly back-pocketed until the film’s climax. Brenda appears to each member in a way that could be read as either hallucinatory or real, in scenes that are the most overtly and identifiably “horror” as The Last Anniversary offers. But as the night progresses, the characters reveal a layer of personal viciousness that befit even the most horrific of horror movies. For a while you’ll probably wonder, like I did, why these people are even friends or in relationships with one another.
Ry Barrett’s Binky, ex-cop and Tom’s brother, is a standout performance. He shows probably the biggest range of all the characters as he desperately tries to hold the group together while navigating the tension and tragedy. McQueen and Northfield’s Aubrey and Tom anchor the film well, and Michael Masurkevitch’s smarmy River, hard-nosed Gail (Manon Ens-Lapointe), Honor Spencer’s wild and drug-fuelled Devon, and feuding couple Rick (Kevin A. Courtney) and Lisa (Jessica Vano) all provide their unique flavour of strife to the proceedings.
The Butlers’ film, a supernatural story set in a sprawling, remote hotel with a snowy backdrop, has a lot of DNA in common with The Shining but with an obviously larger cast. The apocalypse aspect gives The Last Anniversary a bit of a Melancholia vibe as well, even if it’s more back-burnered. I think what works best here, especially for the story being told, is that the characters all feel familiar and relatable. The dialogue is painful to endure precisely because it comes across as authentic, creating some truly uncomfortable scenes even before the film wears towards its disquieting climax. The Butlers choose a slower, deliberate pace for much of The Last Anniversary while letting the characters speak – literally – for themselves. Some might lament the relative scant few scares in the early part of the film, but the pacing works in developing your attachment to each of the members of the party.
The hotel itself almost seems to expand as the story wears on, while also feeling isolated and confining at the same time. Unlike The Shining, the hotel feels like one that any of us could – or would – encounter on a road trip and that’s to the film’s credit. The design of the rooms and their amenities feel generic in a way that’s relatably scary, like you might expect Brenda’s haunting visage in the hotel room, bar, or pool in which you find yourself next.
With The Last Anniversary, Jason and Brett Butler have used a minimalist approach and a unique perspective on the apocalypse to craft a twisted, unpredictable horror that brings out the tension in its well-drawn characters and setting.