Title: Lasso
Rating: NR
Director: Evan Cecil
Starring: Sean Patrick Flanery, Lindsey Morgan, Andrew Jacobs
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins
What It Is: Simon and Kit (Jacobs and Morgan) are two young adults who help lead an Active Senior Tour Group. They take the seniors to a rodeo, an awkward and off-putting event that turns for the worse when one of the horses are injured and shot in front of the audience. The group makes an attempt to leave when a mysterious and deadly man begins to murder and take hostage the participants for a crowd of bloodthirsty cowboys. Simon, Kit, the seniors, and others find themselves running for their lives in order to escape being abused and tortured like animals for the deadly rodeo.

What We Think: Here’s a straightforward rodeo-themed slasher. Good things: the camerawork is swift and fluid and some of the dialogue exchanges between characters and the characters themselves in the first act are believable and even enjoyable. Some of the gore, namely the practical effects, are entertainingly gushy and twisted, yet still restrained enough to not bum us out. The gross-out aim is sold by the actors’ solid performances. Quite of few of the setups and traps lend us some “oh, damn” moments. And, lastly, Chrysta Bell makes a cameo.

On the other hand, the look of the film is a bit bland (namely in the first act), lacking an initial attention-grabbing style. The pacing is unnecessarily slow through some scenes and bogs down the intensity and acting. The quite a few of the digital special effects (namely all those little CG blood spurts) are distractingly unconvincing.

Our Grade: C-, Taking heed from the environmentally conscious likes of The Most Dangerous Game or Texas Chainsaw Massacre in which a protagonist(s) is subjugated to human cruelty much in the way animals are, Lasso bogs itself down by taking itself a tad too seriously, though is a good enough feat as far as its acting and practical effects can take it. I hungered for more character and humor to stand out from our library of slashers for us to better enjoy the rodeo concept.