‘Last American Horror Show’ Review

Stars: Arch Hall Jr., Darrell Lewis, Lynn Lowry, Robert Allen Mukes, Felissa Rose, Jim Van Bebber, Tino Zamora | Written and Directed by Michael S Rodriguez

Every so often I like to delve into Amazon Prime and try to find the hidden gems within. Now given how laborious it is to browse these huge online repositories I find myself going down a rabbit hole of searching for a movie I like then clicking through the recommendations, ultimately plunging deeper into the darker, more obscure recesses of Prime Video.

And that’s how I found Michael S Rodriguez’s Last American Horror Show. Originally released in 2018 this surprisingly passed me by. I say surprisingly as a) it stars Felissa Rose AND Lynn Lowry, and anything starring either of those actresses usually it promoted like crazy online; and 2) its anthology movie, billed as a trifecta of 80s throwback terror… so whats not to like?!?!

Actually quite a lot it seems…

For a start, Last American Horror Show is plagued by production issues, the most obvious fo which is the audio. Now, to be fair, you cannot expect low-budget indie horror films to compete with mainstream fare but then you SHOULD expect a low-budget indie horror to compete with other low-budget indie horror. And Last American Horror Show even fails there when it comes to the audio problems – poorly recorded dialogue, sound dropouts and audio levels all over the place mean that mean that the audience is, unfortunately, taken out of the on-screen action at every turn.

Not that many will be troubled by not being able to concentrate on what’s happening. Because what’s happening is so disjointed that following things is already trouble enough! Given that this is an anthology the stories are short – but there’s short and there’s being so short that there’s no time for character development, which means no empathy for the characters involved and so no sympathy when things go wrong for them.

Of the stories within Last American Horror Show it’s only the Lynn Lowry segment that’s worth the audiences time, though that’s not saying much. Thankfully Lowry, professional that she is, carries this ridiculous fish monster tale and manages to even bring the twist in the story together – and that’s all while she acting batshit insane as the crazy Grandma who talks to her dead husband and doesn’t really like her own family!

Much like Lowry, Sleepaway Camp star Felissa Rose is wasted in the cheap wraparound tale about a woman on a date, watching three horror movies (the segments in this anthology) with her prospective boyfriend. That the twist in this wraparound is as predictable as clockwork doesn’t diminish the story as much as the terrible actor Rose has to work alongside.

All in all Last American Horror Show is a crushing disappointment. To be as cliched and stereotypical as this film is, this “last American horror movie” should be just that, the last horror movie of writer/director Michael S Rodriguez. Though it’s not… There’s actually a sequel in the works!

Last American Horror Show is available on Amazon Prime Video, in the US, now.