PARTY HARD, DIE YOUNG

Finally, graduation! No more high school! In order to celebrate Julia, her classmates and thousands of fellow graduates are on their way to an island resort in Croatia. It’s supposed to be the party of their lives. The harmless fun, however, soon turns dead serious. When a friend is killed in a tragic accident, the party people’s euphoria is crushed. Moreover, Julia’s best friend Jessica has been missing and she is the only one who believes in a connection between the two incidents. Unfortunately soon after, her suspicion is confirmed when Jessica’s lifeless body is washed up on the shore. Now the trip is about sheer survival, as Julia realizes that she’s probably the next victim. Could it all be connected to a long buried incident from the clique’s past? We don’t often get to see films from Austria, so two years ago we were pleasantly surprised by Dominik Hartl’s whacky Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies, which was nominated for a Golden Raven and was awarded two prizes by our Fantaspoa friends. In Party Hard, Die Young, the young filmmaker renews the familiar genre tropes of the slasher genre (Scream, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street…) with a whiff of Spring Breakers and a dash of The Beach.