Patricia (Peggy Schott) is one of those long sufferin’ artist types, but her problems are going to expand 666-fold as she acquires a cursed chain (which has been around since those days of covered wagons and rampant dysentery) which ends up resulting in a serious case of the deaths for anyone unlucky enough to come in possession of those loathsome links! Can Pat get her shit together and end the curse?
Special effects wizard turned director Eric Pham and screenwriter Matthew Daley, aren’t exactly re-inventing the wicked wheel with Flay; this is your typical ancient curse causes mayhem in the modern day yarn at it’s heart… but goddamn do they manage to keep things fresh!
To wit: the way the curse spreads here is rather inventive, as the links of the chain (which were given that ol’ wild whammy by an imprisoned Native American shaman) give anyone that touches them a permanent bad day, and since our heroine has utilized them in her art, every piece sold leads to more mayhem.
Also top-shelf are the creatures that inhabit this putrid-picture… they are kind of a Slender Man riff; but they are incredibly well executed (no surprise given Pham’s background in the horror biz), and some slick cinematography (courtesy of Gary Tacheell). Also as a plus to Phantasm phans, that series’ A. Michael Baldwin puts in a cameo appearance here.
Completing the package is a killer score courtesy of Akihiko Matsumoto (who also provided the tunes for Takashi Yamazaki’s 2002 time-travel flick Returner as well as the Resident Evil: Outbreak series of video games).
All said and done; Flay is a fine fright flick indeed, with a unique take on familiar material and some rather kick-ass creature feature action!
