Set at a very Carpenter-esque Halloween season, He Never Left, directed by James Morris, focuses on a man who is at the epicentre of a large-scale manhunt who enlists the aid of his begrudging girlfriend to hide out in a local motel. After a night in which he hears a struggle and screaming coming from the room next door, the fugitive encounters hell at the hand of a local legend called the ‘Pale Face’ killer.
Colin Cunningham plays Gabriel, a man who, after attempting to get his life together and get on the straight and narrow, accidentally kills someone and must find a location to lay low until one of his buddies can help him out. Carly (Jessica Staples) is his weary girlfriend who has reached her limit with her boyfriend’s bullsh*t, yet still somehow manages to get pulled into it by Gabriel. The motel in which they have chosen to hide out in is located in a town that is haunted by an infamous masked ‘Pale Face’ serial killer. As Gabriel devolves into desperation and an increasingly erratic mental state, he becomes an aural witness to what he suspects is a murder occurring in the adjoining room. Gabriel must then plan his escape route lest he become next on the murderer’s to-kill list.
Whilst the setup of a killer local lore with a wicked mask begins as extremely promising in He Never Left, it soon becomes apparent that ‘Pale Face’ is going to take a back seat to Gabriel’s conundrum, with very little screen time afforded to the ‘he’ of the film’s title. And despite Cunningham’s strength in his performance, the development of the film feels clumsy and begins to lose momentum, so when viewers are eventually treated to an appearance by the legendary killer, it's become somewhat difficult to drum up any sort of interest. Included in this situation is a side-plot following two law officers seeking out the fugitive, and despite displaying good chemistry, their narration feels just a bit redundant.
He Never Left promises a retro-style slasher with a memorable masked antagonist, however despite commendable performances, fails to stick the landing.
2 Screams out of 5
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