12 Hour Shift

Last updated

12 Hour Shift
12 Hour Shift (2020) poster.jpg
Promotional release poster
Directed by Brea Grant
Written byBrea Grant
Produced byChristina McLarty Arquette
David Arquette
Jordan Wayne Long
Tara Perry
Matt Glass
Starring Angela Bettis
Chloe Farnworth
Nikea Gamby-Turner
Kit Williamson
David Arquette
CinematographyMatt Glass
Edited byAmy McGrath
Music byMatt Glass
Production
company
HCT Media [1]
Distributed by Magnet Releasing
Release date
Running time
86 minutes [3]
CountryUnited States
Language English
Box office$6,820 [4] [5]

12 Hour Shift is a 2020 American black comedy horror film written and directed by Brea Grant and starring Angela Bettis, Kit Williamson, and David Arquette. Bettis plays Mandy, a drug-addicted nurse involved in a black market organ-trading scheme in 1999. [6] Arquette was one of the film's producers, alongside his wife Christina Arquette, and Jordan Wayne Long, Tara Perry, and Matt Glass. [7] [8] The film also features music composed by Glass. [8]

Contents

12 Hour Shift was scheduled to have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2020 prior to the festival being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Distribution rights were acquired by Magnet Releasing in June 2020, and it premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival in September 2020. The film earned positive reviews from critics, who praised the cast—especially Bettis and Farnsworth—and humor.

Plot

In Arkansas in 1999, Mandy is an overworked nurse with a drug addiction. In addition to stealing patient medications, she finances her drug habit by harvesting dead patients' organs. Desk nurse Karen is Mandy's partner, and Mandy has recently brought on her cousin Regina to transport the organs to trafficker Nicholas.

One night, at the start of her 12-hour shift, Mandy hands over a harvested kidney in a cooler to Regina behind the hospital. Regina accidentally leaves the cooler with the kidney, instead carrying a cooler with a soda can to Nicholas. Nicholas demands Regina get the kidney or he will take hers. Regina cannot find the kidney at the hospital. Mandy refuses to help her, so Regina dresses like a nurse and kills one of Mandy's patients by pouring bleach down his throat. Regina expects that Mandy will be able to extract the dead patient's kidney, but Mandy angrily explains that he was on dialysis, so his kidneys are unusable.

Police arrive to investigate the murdered patient. Regina attacks more people and threatens to expose the organ trafficking operation unless Mandy helps her. Mandy agrees and tells Regina to wait outside. Regina sees one of Nicholas's henchman, and in a panic kills a passing skateboarder to take his kidney, but ends up taking his bladder instead. Meanwhile, inside the hospital Mandy kills a patient with an overdose and manages to harvest his kidney. She leaves the kidney in another cooler by the vending machine, but it has disappeared by the time Regina gets to it.

Nicholas's henchman Mikey, who has entered the hospital and terrorized staff and patients, prepares to drag Regina away, but she desperately suggests that they kidnap a comatose patient so that Nicholas can take all his organs. The comatose patient is Mandy's abusive, drug-addicted half-brother. Mandy intervenes, and together she and Regina manage to overcome Mikey. The police investigation incorrectly determines that Mikey had been committing the murders around the hospital. Regina leaves. Hospital guest Mr. Kent suddenly announces that he has been finding the coolers containing kidneys all night; the exhausted Mandy leaves to take a nap in her truck. The film ends with Mandy re-entering the hospital to begin her next shift, followed shortly thereafter by Nicholas.

Cast

Release

12 Hour Shift was scheduled to have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2020, [9] but the festival was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [6] In June 2020, it was reported that the film's worldwide distribution rights were acquired by Magnet Releasing. [9]

Reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 77% based on 75 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Sharp, twisted, and darkly funny, 12 Hour Shift is an uncommonly clever heist caper with a refreshing female-focused twist." [10] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100 based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [11]

Hoai-Tran Bui of /Film praised Bettis's performance, and wrote that the film "has a sick sense of humor that makes its washed-out setting the perfect blank canvas for writer and director Grant to paint her gleefully bloody caper." [12] Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting also lauded Bettis's performance but criticized the film's characterization overall, concluding: "12 Hour Shift is far too ambitious for its own good, playing out like a blood-drenched yet unfocused comedy of frustrating errors." [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosanna Arquette</span> American actress (born 1959)

Rosanna Lisa Arquette is an American actress. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her performance in the TV film The Executioner's Song (1982) and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the film Desperately Seeking Susan (1985). Her other film roles include After Hours, The Big Blue (1988), Pulp Fiction (1994), and Crash (1996). She also directed the documentary Searching for Debra Winger (2002) and starred in the ABC sitcom What About Brian? from 2006 to 2007.

<i>Bringing Out the Dead</i> 1999 American film by Martin Scorsese

Bringing Out the Dead is a 1999 American supernatural horror drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader, based on the 1998 novel by Joe Connelly. It stars Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, and Tom Sizemore. The plot depicts 48 hours in the life of a depressed New York City paramedic (Cage).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Arquette</span> American actress (born 1968)

Patricia Arquette is an American actress. She made her feature film debut as Kristen Parker in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) and has since starred in several film and television productions. She has received several awards, including an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.

<i>The Cooler</i> 2003 film by Wayne Kramer

The Cooler is a 2003 American crime drama film directed by Wayne Kramer, from a screenplay by Frank Hannah and Kramer. The film stars William H. Macy, Maria Bello, Shawn Hatosy, Ron Livingston, Estella Warren, Paul Sorvino, and Alec Baldwin. It follows a casino "cooler" whose mere presence at the gambling tables usually results in a streak of bad luck for the other players.

<i>Coma</i> (1978 film) 1978 film by Michael Crichton

Coma is a 1978 American mystery thriller film based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Robin Cook. The film rights were acquired by director Michael Crichton, who also wrote the screenplay, and the movie was produced by Martin Erlichmann for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The cast includes Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, Elizabeth Ashley, Richard Widmark, and Rip Torn. Among the actors in smaller roles are Tom Selleck, Lois Chiles, and Ed Harris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angela Bettis</span> American actress

Angela Marie Bettis is an American actress, film producer, and director. Following her breakthrough role as Janet Webber in the drama film Girl, Interrupted (1999), she earned acclaim for her portrayals of Carrietta White in the television film Carrie (2002) and the titular character in the psychological horror film May (2002). For May, she won the Brussels International Festival Award for Best Actress, the Catalan International Film Festival Award for Best Actress and the Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Actress. She went on to play Belle Cleek in the horror film The Woman (2011) and Mandy in the black comedy film 12 Hour Shift (2020). For 12 Hour Shift, she earned a nomination for the Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress in a Horror Movie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paz de la Huerta</span> American actress (born 1984)

María de la Paz Elizabeth Sofía Adriana de la Huerta y Bruce, known professionally as Paz de la Huerta, is an American actress. She had roles in the films The Cider House Rules (1999) and A Walk to Remember (2002), and played Lucy Danziger in the HBO drama series Boardwalk Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Good Samaritan Hospital (Los Angeles)</span> Hospital in California, United States

PIH Health Good Samaritan Hospital is a hospital in Los Angeles, California. The hospital has 408 beds. In 2019 Good Samaritan joined the PIH Health network.

<i>My Sisters Keeper</i> (film) 2009 film by Nick Cassavetes

My Sister's Keeper is a 2009 American drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes and starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Sofia Vassilieva and Alec Baldwin. Based on Jodi Picoult's 2004 novel of the same name, on June 26, 2009, the film was released to cinemas in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brea Grant</span> American actress

Brea Grant is an American actress, writer, and director. She played the character of Daphne Millbrook in the NBC television series Heroes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Glass</span> American photographer

Matt Glass is an American composer and Emmy-winning filmmaker known for his work on 12 Hour Shift, The Party's Just Beginning and 2022's Ghosts of the Ozarks. He received his Masters of Fine Art degree from the Cranbrook Academy Of Art.

<i>The Good Doctor</i> (2011 film) 2011 American film

The Good Doctor is a 2011 American thriller film directed by Lance Daly, and starring Orlando Bloom as the eponymous "good doctor".

<i>Unrest</i> (2017 film) 2017 American documentary film by Jennifer Brea

Unrest is a 2017 documentary film produced and directed by Jennifer Brea. The film tells the story of how Jennifer and her new husband faced an illness that struck Jennifer just before they married. Initially dismissed by doctors, she starts filming herself to document her illness and connects with others who are home- or bedbound with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME).

Jennifer Brea is an American documentary filmmaker and activist. Her debut feature, Unrest, premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and received the US Documentary Special Jury Award For Editing. Brea also co-created a virtual reality film which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

<i>Ratched</i> (TV series) 2020 American drama streaming television series

Ratched is an American psychological thriller television series created by Evan Romansky, developed by Ryan Murphy and starring Sarah Paulson in the title role of Nurse Mildred Ratched. A prequel to Miloš Forman's 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, it depicts the life of Mildred Ratched prior to the events portrayed in the film, albeit in a different state. Ratched received a two-season series order. The first season premiered on Netflix on September 18, 2020. In August 2022, Paulson said she was unsure if the second season was still happening. In February 2024, Ratched was cancelled after one season, with Paulson also confirming the fate of the series.

<i>Blow the Man Down</i> (film) 2019 American drama mystery film

Blow the Man Down is a 2019 American black comedy thriller film, written and directed by Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy. It stars Morgan Saylor, Sophie Lowe, Annette O'Toole, Marceline Hugot, Gayle Rankin, Will Brittain, Skipp Sudduth, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, June Squibb, and Margo Martindale.

<i>Happily</i> (film) 2021 American film

Happily is a 2021 American comedy thriller film written and directed by BenDavid Grabinski, in his directorial debut. It stars Joel McHale, Kerry Bishé, Stephen Root, Natalie Morales, Paul Scheer and Natalie Zea.

<i>False Positive</i> (film) 2021 film

False Positive is a 2021 American psychological horror film directed by John Lee from a screenplay he co-write with Ilana Glazer. The film stars Glazer, Justin Theroux, and Pierce Brosnan.

Jordan Wayne Long is a filmmaker, performance artist, and co-creator of the production company HCT.Media.

High Desert is an American comedy television series created and written by Nancy Fichman, Katie Ford and Jennifer Hoppe-House that premiered on Apple TV+ on May 17, 2023. In July 2023, the series was cancelled after one season.

References

  1. ↑ White, Peter (April 30, 2020). "Reopening Hollywood: David & Christina Arquette Lay Out Bold Plan To Open Production In Arkansas & Brave COVID-19 Shutdown". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  2. ↑ "12 Hour Shift". Fantasia International Film Festival. Archived from the original on November 6, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
  3. ↑ "12 Hour Shift | 2020 Tribeca Film Festival". Tribeca Film Festival. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  4. ↑ "12 Hour Shift (2020)". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  5. ↑ "12 Hour Shift (2020)". The Numbers . Retrieved October 31, 2020.
  6. 1 2 Kramer, Gary M. (May 6, 2020). "In comedy-thriller "12 Hour Shift," blood and chaos reigns as a murderer terrorizes a hospital". Salon . Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  7. ↑ Rife, Katie (April 22, 2020). "David Arquette clocks in for a 12 Hour Shift in this exclusive clip from Brea Grant's new movie". The A.V. Club . Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  8. 1 2 Collis, Clark (April 15, 2020). "12 Hour Shift trailer teases Brea Grant's bloody black-comedy". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  9. 1 2 Miska, Brad (June 19, 2020). "Magnet Releasing Acquires Brea Grant's '12 Hour Shift' Starring Angela Bettis! [Cannes]". Bloody Disgusting . Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  10. ↑ "12 Hour Shift (2020)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango . Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  11. ↑ "12 Hour Shift Reviews". Metacritic . Retrieved October 1, 2020.
  12. ↑ Bui, Hoai-Tran (May 28, 2020). "'12 Hour Shift' Review: A Botched Black Market Deal Turns Into a Bloody Hospital Thriller [Tribeca]". /Film . Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  13. ↑ Navarro, Meagan (April 21, 2020). "[Review] '12 Hour Shift' Escalates Organ Heist into Violent Yet Unfocused Comedy of Errors". Bloody Disgusting . Retrieved June 20, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.