It begins in 2013 as a New Year’s Eve countdown takes us through the years of a small group of friends until we reach 2019. We meet a queen who is in Turks and Caicos for new years, but gets killed by a masked killer. We are now introduced to all characters of the friend circle: photographer Cam and his bestie Hannah (the girl of the gang), doctor Joel and his new fiancé Logan. Rounding out the group is Zachary, the glam goddess who knows she as pretty as she a diva. Most of the folks I the group have kinds slept with one another. Cam and Joel have the most complicated history. Every year the tradition is to go to Joel's opulent home in the desert and celebrate new years eve playing the midnight kiss game. The rules are simple - It has to be one guy who’s a stranger, It has to be consensual and After you get your kiss, you can decide to let the guy go or keep them for the night. Soon Zachary is killed in a closet and the friends think he has left already and they all go to party. They are having good time but the masked killer is still lurking around. Cam find a new guy at the party and is having a good time but clearly there is unspoken sexual tension between Cam and Joel. After party ends, the group comes back o the house and they find Zachary's body. Panic sets and the masked killer is now in the house running to kill all of them. When the truth is revealed, we get to know how this is all related to their game of midnight kiss" and how they may have unintentionally wronged someone.
As often happens when old friends get together, some personality conflicts arise, hidden resentments simmer to the surface, and there are some interesting discussions about modern gay culture in general. And since this is a gay slash film , you also expect almost everyone to have slept with everyone else. The interactions between the friends is very basic and what you expect with the premise, so as an audience what you are mostly interested in who the killer and why. Somehow I suspected who the killer could be, even though the narrative tries its best to not give away too much and wasn't surprised by the reveal but was intrigued by the reason of why. Most of the film relies on the chemistry of the actors, most of whom you have seen before, and the group dynamics, which works. But besides that we all know what the template of a killer/slashr film is, so at one point you feel like watching a movie on auto pilot without much emotions. The film thankfully doesn't have too much gore but it makes it up for more than enough eye candy. These guys take a lot of showers, so there is a lot of ass shots and the sequence at the nightclub basically turns into an orgy. But besides any of these things, there really is nothing memorable about this film. It is just about average and you will likely forget the film once it ends. From the makers perspective, it is a non-apologetic gay horror film; a genre that is starting to get popular within queer community. (4/10)
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