12-Hour Shift

 Mandy (Lucky McKee regular Angela Bettis) works as a nurse at one of those minimal-security movie hospitals where the staff can just grind meds and snort them in side rooms, people just wander wherever they want as long as they're wearing  scrubs, and any sort of post-mortem investigation is non-existent. The perfect place to run an organ-smuggling operation, then.

 It's a simple setup: With full complicity from the head nurse (Nikea Gamby-Turner), Mandy either waits for someone to die or Kevorkians terminally ill patients (her favorite method seems to be to use bleach - and if you wonder how that never raised any red flags, remember: movie hospital). She then pops by the mortuary to retrieve the organs once the coroner is done with the bodies. Finally Regina (Chloe Farnworth), a cousin by marriage, picks the grisly package up and delivers it to the mob in her pink barbie sportscar.

 The problem: Regina is a complete idiot and forgets the organs on her way out after a pickup. Aggravating this: Regina is a fucking psycho, so when she goes back to the hospital and doesn't find the package, she decides she can just kill someone else and take their kidneys.
 You'd think that'd be enough for a 'one crazy night at the hospital' story, but you'd be wrong. A dangerous convict is brought in (David Arquette, sporting a co-producer credit) and escapes thanks to Mandy's meddling; Her brother is wheeled in, OD'd. A couple of police officers get involved once bodies are discovered (Only a couple, because the movie is set in '99, and most of the police force is doing preparations for Y2K). And to top it off, the mob sends a hitman to collect on the kidney Regina didn't deliver. Hers, if none other is available.

 Writer/director Brea Grant (who's done her share of acting in indie horror movies), works off a shoestring budget and keeps things lively and fun... if not always smooth; By the end, after multiple crescendos, things do get a little too forced. Regina's appetite for murder is a too cartoony from the get-go, and some of the stuff with the mob enforcer is a little too much. But the tone is great, with some pretty funny stuff emerging effortlessly from character work and bizarre situations rather than jokes. 

 Besides the direction, the film has two great strengths: Angela Bettis, whose insouciant behaviour is really fun to watch (a less imaginative, or more marketing-driven title for this could be Bad Nurse), and has the chops to infuse her character with some humanity by the end. It's rare to see her get a role this juicy, and she does wonders with it.

 The other vital asset is composer Matt Glass (who also shares a producer credit). The soundtrack he's come up with is outstanding: a lovely, propulsive as hell mixture of drums, strings and opera singing that weaves between different styles depending on the scene, lending a huge amount of energy and not a little personality to the film.

 It's a bloody movie, but not a particularly gory one; The body count is fairly low and the carnage is explicit but not over the top... and that's OK. It gets by on pulpy energy and general craziness just fine.