The thing about That’s a Wrap that hit me like a pair of fists from the off was the neon. It’s a weakness of mine, and until I spied the text at the bottom of the screen and my curious mind went a-wandering down the research path I had no idea it’s now a subgenre. Well, sort of. If you drew a spider graph of all the genres and their offshoots you’d go off the edge of the page in seconds. Neon noir apparently has been around since films went technicolour. It’s very prevalent these days, and tends to mean a severe contrast of deep shadow against richly bright, opalescent colours. Chuck in the dramatic, theatrical style and electric soundtracks these films have, and there you are. I’ve found my niche; it’s art in motion. In this case it happens to be the name of the distribution company as well, which is rather apt.

Directed by Marcel Walz and written by Joe Knetter and Robert L. Lucas, That’s a Wrap‘s cinematography is the kaleidoscopic work of Marcus Friedlander, but it’s not the only thing worth giving it a look for.

Self-important filmmaker Mason Maestro (Robert Donovan) has just completed his magnum opus ‘That’s a Wrap’, of which he’s immensely (possibly overly) proud, though not as proud as he is of himself; the man is a dyed-in-the-wool narcissist. Premiere night arrives, along with the cast, Harper (Sarah French), Amber (Gigi Gustin), Jamie (Adam Bucci), Lana (Sarah Polednak), Richter (Robert L. Lucas), Troy (Brandon Patricio), Carter (Ben Kaplan), Molly (Eva Marlowe), and Stoney (Steve J. Owens), and as the film ends the audience members duly proceed to inflate Mason’s ego further with dutiful appreciation.

The subsequent wrap party is less dramatic; the cast flouncing about, showing off 2D personalities and egos almost as inflated as Mason’s. What they don’t know is an unknown nutter is dressed as the slasher character ‘Mistress’ from the film, and is set to get stabby with every one of them, which quite frankly they’re not undeserving of. They’re shallow and fairly unlikeable, which is definitely at least partly the point; there’s an element of tongue-in-cheek here for sure; a spark of black humour. It’s fun to watch and not a cringey eye-roller. The dialogue shows some intelligent thought’s been put in, and the whole thing manages to hit a decent balance; it’s well-paced and holds the attention. Even if the plot does follow the standard ‘who dies next?’ formula, the murder scenes make up for it, being gruesomely inventive (and suitably gory for someone dressed as a slasher film killer who’s totally in character). I won’t spoil these for you; let’s just say this murderer has plenty of imagination.

As I say, That’s a Wrap is fairly predictable, but the snippy dialogue, superb visuals, and general air of not taking itself too seriously make it what it is; a gorgeously bloody, colour-saturated visual feast with some darkly sneaky giggles.