Horror Movie Review: The 6th Friend (2016)

I really wanted to like The 6th Friend. It’s glossy, well shot, well-acted and got some decent gore but it’s just so boring. The ultimate flaw with any horror.

Far too much time is spent with the main cast talking…and talking…then talking…and talking some more. It’s so infuriating because most of the time I want my horror to give its characters time to breathe and develop but here, it’s just too much. It’s made all the worse as a lot of time characters aren’t really saying anything of substance.

If that wasn’t bad enough it’s also very predictable and asks you to suspend your sense of disbelief way too much. This begins with six college friends having a private graduation party. Except they all look like they’re in their late twenties and older. It’s laughable.

Anyway, the girls end up taking acid and tripping out. One of them goes into the bedroom with a drug dealer and the next thing we see is lead, Joey (Jamie Bernadette) sitting outside covered in blood.

It’s not immediately clear just what happened but as the film goes on, we learn through flashbacks and conversations that they killed the drug dealer. It seems as though he was raping their friend so they busted in and stabbed him to death. They weren’t convicted but some have been haunted by that night. While others have used it to their advantage to score TV time, books and more.

Now this highlights a big issue for me. How is it that they served no time in prison? As the movie progresses, we see that this wasn’t a gut reaction from the group and that they stabbed the man over 100 times. Yes, he appeared to be raping their friend although this is never made clear as the it was part of their acid trip.

The frenzy they went into while on acid is insane and would have surely seen some sort of punishment for the six women. That’s not the case though and five years later, they reunite to spend a weekend at a remote cabin in the woods. The aim is to rekindle lost friendships but time hasn’t healed wounds and it doesn’t go very well.

Joey is having a really hard time and any mention of the incident causes her to flare up. The girls fight, in particular Joey and Melissa (Chantelle Albers). As Joey is going to leave that the rest of the group reveal that they’ve been seeing the man they killed.

What does this mean? Well, they’ll find out as their weekend retreat turns into a fight for survival. Is it someone pretending to be the man they killed or has he returned from the grave to get his revenge?

Yes, The 6th Friend is a slasher with a paranormal twist…sort of. The movie tries hard to make you think it might be ghostly goings-on. However, it’s pretty clear that’s not the case after a few instances of the killer attacking.

So just who is it? Well, that’s easy to work out by just paying cursory attention to certain lines of dialogue and how characters act. So easy is it to work out, that the big reveal at the end just becomes a shoulder shrugging moment. A shame as the character in question really gets to have some fun being a crazed villain.

The acting is good and the characters mostly likeable. They have chemistry and little nuances that make them stand out in their own way. They’d be a group worth routing for if they would just shut up for a minute. Even when we get to the finale it still turns into a lengthy back and forth rather then action. Maddening.