Spin the Wheel

The world is coming to an end and a group of people are playing Russian roulette inside a dive bar.

Outrageous acts of violence are taking place around the world, killing people and destroying everything. Office worker Eve (Wulf) leaves her workplace and casually walks to a bar, while around her chaos is spreading. She arrives at the bar, where there are a few other people. Shortly after, an unusual man (Chase) arrives and announces that he is the Devil himself and invites all the people in the bar to play Russian roulette with him for a chance to save the world.

This feature begins as an apocalyptic drama and turns towards supernatural horror. The story begins quite impressively, introducing the disaster that is taking over the world, with a city on fire and Eve walking past people rioting, assaulting and vandalising. The film loses its grip while it introduces the characters and it is when Chase's characters informs everyone that he is Satan that things become exciting again.

Although the center of the movie is the Devil playing Russian roulette with a bunch of people trapped in a bar while the world is falling apart, the majority of the screenplay involves confrontations between characters and individuals expressing themselves and dealing with their inner struggles. The people in the bar are strangers between them and they include a banker, a lorry driver and a porn star and Satan and his deadly game are pushed into the background as his victims interact between them, arguing and trying to comfort each other. Duffy's character Earl in particular, gets a lot of attention and kind of becomes an antagonist as he reveals himself to be a wicked person. Naturally, since Russian roulette is heavily involved, there is a great deal of people nervously pointing a revolver to their head and pulling the trigger and there is also murder, dark humour, a lot of alcohol consumption (it is a bar after all) and quite a bit of drama as characters attempt to come to terms with their lives and survive their current situation.

Generally, the characters are interesting, with Wulf being the main lead, a quiet and reserved woman with a tragic past. Huereka Aragon is emotional as a person who is struggling with their sexual identity and Kumar stands out as a guy with a bandana and a cool beard. However, the one who stands out the most is the one who claims to be the Devil and Chase portrays him as a cool guy who enjoys playing cat-and-mouse.

The cinematography by Heacock and Martin Truscott creates a kind of downbeat atmosphere and the creative editing by Heacock and Chase makes good use of wipe and dissolve techniques and includes a well-constructed montage. The soundtrack contains dramatic and sinister music and a rich collection of songs.

This feature has quite an intriguing plot that addresses humanity's biggest errors such as war and it explores themes such as loss, regrets, sexual identity and redemption. Sometimes the pace is a bit slow, however the well-written dialogue, interesting characters, suspense and nail-biting moments make this a viewing worth experiencing.