Pride Weekend marks the third film of Harry L. Michaels Jr., who wrote and directed the film. The story follows five friends who take a road trip to Los Angeles to celebrate Pride Weekend. Sweetie (Kit DeZolt), Zach (Owen Withham), Jake (Jonathan Ingram), Nova (Ben Butler), and Lance (Emmitt Beecham) are excited for their big trip and plan to live it up with lots of random hook-ups. However, L.A. isn’t exclusively home to people who are open-minded allies, despite how it is often portrayed. Unfortunately, the group encounters a few shop owners and townies who are bigoted.
Still, Sweeite, Zach, Jake, Nova, and Lance have a fun night partying, dancing, doing drugs, and having sex with strangers. However, their second night out and about becomes frightening when a stalker in a light-up mask (think The Purge; Richard Baughman) starts following and tormenting them. Why are these five being targeted, and who is the culprit?
A group of masked attackers stalks the main characters during Pride Weekend.
“…their second night out and about becomes frightening when a stalker in a light-up mask starts following and tormenting them.”
Pride Weekend vacillates between being a broad comedy and a horror film. The first 20 minutes, give or take, are just the friends being silly amongst each other and having a good time. The first inclination of something terrifying feels jarring, as well it should. Unfortunately, it takes a good while for the creeps to come back around. Centering the characters’ fears around a misplaced wallet really doesn’t help much. But the backstory of the stalker is compelling, even when the directing fails to maintain the necessary atmosphere for a horror flick.
The acting is amateurish but relaxed. No one rushes through their lines, but neither do they seem to be truly inhabiting their part. However, the core members share an easygoing chemistry that sells their bond rather well.
Pride Weekend is decent all the way around. Decent acting, decent plot, decent characters, etc. There’s fun to be had here for the right audience, so long as they know exactly what to expect.
"…there's fun to be had..."
