The Midnight Horror: 'Pledges' (2018)

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I can't quite put my finger on why I found myself plopping down a dollar for Pledges on DVD. Maybe it was the hilariously bad cover art or the promise of cheerleaders that, spoiler alert, never actually show up in the film. Seriously, there are zero cheerleaders in this supposed horror flick. It's more of a horror-infused slapstick comedy, if you can even call it that, stretched thin on a shoestring budget.

Written by Zack Weiner, directed by Daniel Robbins, and produced by Mark Rapaport and Keaton Heinrichs, this film features a cast of unknowns that I couldn't bother to look up.

Here’s the premise: Six hapless college pledges find themselves bound, blindfolded, and stripped down to their underwear, abandoned in the woods as part of a ridiculous “HELL WEEK” initiation. Splitting into two teams—boys versus girls—they’re hurled into a gauntlet of extreme hazing rituals orchestrated by unseen hosts, who watch their every bumbling move through some pretty high-tech, camera-equipped glasses.

But here’s the kicker: what begins as a cringe-inducing comedy soon spirals into chaos when a mysterious force lurking in the shadows of the forest decides to pick off the participants one by one. What exactly this entity is—a ghost, an alien, or maybe just a really angry tree—is as unclear as the movie's plot, and I must admit, at times, it felt like they were aiming for the campiness of a raunchy sex comedy.

Now, don’t get me wrong—Pledges is undeniably stupid. Yet somehow, in the muddled mess of awful acting and clichéd dialogue, it has this bizarre charm. The cast seems to revel in their roles, clearly aware they're in a B-movie nightmare, and their willingness to embrace the absurdity had me chuckling more than a few times.

Overall, while Pledges is a delightful romp through the realms of the ridiculous, it is, in all sincerity, really, really dumb. Would I recommend it? Perhaps. If you have a taste for silly horror comedies that don’t take themselves too seriously, you might just find a guilty pleasure here. But if you’re aching for a spine-chilling, gory horror fest, well, prepare yourself for a colossal disappointment. ╌★★✰✰✰

〜B.J. Burgess