Make a Wish

Susan invites all of her ex-lovers on her annual Birthday Camping trip. The six women are instantly at each other's throats. After they realize that Michelle never showed up, they start disappearing one by one. Everyone's a suspect, including the crazed bow-wielding redneck who keeps crashing the party and a jealous boyfriend of one of the women.

"Make a Wish" is directed by a lesbian and intended for a lesbian audience, and I think it might be one of the first horror films to fit this category. There are lots of humorous queer "inside jokes" and it is refreshing to see a cast of mostly queer lead characters in a horror flick. Unfortunately, many of the characters are one-dimensional clichés. We have the "aggressive vegan," the weird wiccan, the slut, and the "dyke-turned-straight-girl." While the movie is inherently progressive, and much more queer than most horror movies with lesbian characters, its portrayal of lesbians is very limited.

The movie is surprisingly well-made for having such a low-budget. It was shot on hand-held digital video, but whoever shot it has a great eye and a steady hand. The acting is mostly mediocre (save for the lead actress, who does a wicked job). While most of the kills aren't shown and there is little gore (according to the director, they only had a couple hundred bucks for make-up budget, which is impressive because there are some really inventive effects here!), the deaths are pretty nasty. It isn't a scary movie by any means, but I admit that I was surprised to find out who the killer was.

"Make a Wish," the first lesbian slasher, isn't a great movie. However, it is a good time and better than most recent Z-graders. I'm not sure many typical horror fans would like it, but I'll recommended it to folks who like both "The L Word" and "April Fools Day." My Rating: 5.5/10