Man, Julia Bailey Johnson’s short horror film “Kalley’s Last Review” is gruesome. I mean it’s not just gruesome, but it’s also a sharp edged commentary on influencer culture and review channels on youtube. It’s kind of like watching someone just gradually descend in to madness, and while you really want to stop them, you can only just sit and watch them slide further.
Kalley longs to be a social media influencer with her skincare videos. With her first ever sponsorship, she’s excited to test a brand new product on her face and share the results with her beloved followers. When things begin to take a turn for the worse, it becomes a bit hard to stomach just how far Kalley will go to remain in the public eye.
Julia Bailey Johnson does a great job on what is obviously a small budgeted short film; a lot of “Kalley’s Last Review” watches like a lot of body horror movies, where Kalley may or may not be the victim of something inherently sinister. What begins as a review series for a skin car product gradually turns in to someone who is doing incredible damage to their face. As the movie progresses her face becomes so much more grotesque with rotting skin and scabs. Before long, we’re watching something that is just absolutely FUBAR.
There’s not a lot of reasoning for what is occurring here, but director Bailey Johnson elicits a pay off in the finale that makes everything so abundantly clear. Not just that, but it’ll leave audiences debating on what we’d actually seen. I don’t want to give it away, but when the final scene reveals itself, you’ll be questioning everything. That said, star Julia Bailey Johnson does a wonderful job and the make up from Alexondra Excene Shields is grotesque sometimes bordering on nauseating. I mean that as a compliment. “Kalley’s Last Review” is a bang up short with some great commentary on web culture, and I hope we can see more from the director soon.