Princess of the Murder

Set in the unassuming town of Keyport, New Jersey, a Halloween evening takes a chilling turn when the locals accidentally awaken an evil presence. If you are a fan of films like Hocus Pocus and Hubie Halloween, and don’t mind your films roughing it on a budget, then grab your candy swag bag and tag along.

In Princess of the Murder, Jacqueline Sophia London plays Jackie, a local searching for her pet crow Cris, who has gone missing. Along the way, we witness Jackie undergo a number of cruelties from members of the town, such as being egged by two bullies in a car and an older gentleman shouting at her from his doorstep. At the same time, two friends, Lucy and Max (Luciana Kurzius and Max Ferreiras, respectively) are making their way to a slumber party for the evening. The trio collide in a graveyard and set events in motion that will get the blood spilling.

A very low-budget feature, with some great indie filmmaking techniques, colourful characters, and a good injection of comedy (look out for a hilarious slow-motion knife throw). Princess of the Murder has a can-do charm that really kicks in by the mid-point of the film, once the evil is released and the slashing starts. The first thirty minutes could have done with a slashing of its own, feeling incredibly baggy with too many innocuous scenes and a jumble of characters being introduced haphazardly.

Whilst the horror antics are absurd and vamped up for dramatic effect, they have a whimsical charm to them that will appeal to viewers with an affection for B-movie horror-comedies and the like. There is also a lovely moment of respect paid to Edgar Allen Poe. Some of the music choices are pretty good, especially when the evil presence gets released in the graveyard, and there is a jump-scare track that gets used more than once, which is pretty fun.

The performances are what you would expect for a small indie film of novices, and there is an ensemble energy that you can tell the cast is enjoying themselves wholeheartedly. Sadly, this doesn’t translate into a strong cast that the viewer will necessarily believe or engage with, unless you are family and friends watching the movie.

As with a lot of indie horror-comedies, the horror works better than the comedy. The former lends itself nicely to indie budgets, where the lack of high-production values can often enhance the creepy atmosphere rather than hindering it. Whereas good comedy is hard to come by, and the laughs here are memorable (eggs hitting faces, slow-mo knives), but far too sparse. A streamlined short film eschewing the ensemble of characters and focusing more intently on the three main ones could perhaps have been a better route to take here.