Eli always mocked Casper, until toonight. His wife McKayla just left him, taking their daughter Reagan with her, after discovering Eli made his money dealing drugs. His slacker customer Pilot (real name Paul) also hatches a plan to rip-off Eli’s money and drugs after noticing the suburban neighborhood dealer’s distracted state of mind. Awkwardly, Eli returns home while Pilot and his nice-than-he-deserves girlfriend Margot are still in the house. He is in a bad mood, because he had a deal in the park interrupted by a crazy homeless man, who was actually a mad, biting zombie.
Of course, Eli was bitten, so as he starts experiencing symptoms, he reaches out to the only expert he knows, even though he always dismissed Casper. As it happens, Casper is on a date with Julie, so who’s the real geek after all? Nevertheless, he promises to hurry back to help Eli with the inevitable. In the meantime, the dealer agrees to barricade himself inside his home, unaware of the intruders’ presence.
That sounds like a reasonable fresh and clever twist on the now familiar zombie movie. Unfortunately, Wagner takes far too much time setting it up. Frankly, the first act is a long slow slog. All the depressing flashbacks establishing Margot’s tragic backstory kill the quirky vibe and slams the brakes on the tempo.
Like many horror movies, Turning Point asserts geeks deserve respect—and nobody is really arguing with that. It also reasonably suggests home invasions are a bad idea for all involved. Frustratingly, that is about the gist of the film. It is a shame, because DJ Qualls’ portrayal of Casper might just be the most appealing screen performance of his career. He also earns just about all of the film’s laughs.
It is just frustrating that Turning Point isn’t more fun, even though a lot of effort went into it. The frequent tonal shifts certainly did not help. Just not sufficiently successful to recommend, Turning Point is now available on VOD platforms.