Takeout review
Tubi’s latest original has some fun before overstaying its welcome.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Takeout
Directed by Jem Garrard
Written by Jem Garrard
Starring N’kone Mametja, Deoudone Pretorius, Daniel Janks, Darron Meyer, Damien Wantenaar, Gia Capouya and Robyn Scott
Takeout Review
It’s been a while since we checked in with a Tubi Original. Our last journey into the world of original genre films on the ad-supported streamer was back in June with the release of Please Don’t Feed the Children. You have to go all the way back to February’s Tarot Curse to find the last one before that. It would be fair to describe Tubi Originals as having an up and down quality. They’ve had some pretty bad movies. No Filter, Prey for the Bride and Festival of the Living Dead come to mind immediately. It’s also been home to the streaming debuts of some quality works like Where the Devil Roams and Lowlifes. Mostly though…you’re going to find stuff that sits firmly in the middle of those movies. Stuff like Guess Who, Clickbait: Unfollowed and their latest release, Takeout.
Takeout isn’t the first Tubi Original from writer/director Jem Garrard. In fact, it’s their fourth time in a row producing an original film for the service. While I missed out on reviewing Slay back in 2024…notices were strong for the movie. I can only assume that Slay tops Takeout a bit…but there are enough wins within the latter to look forward to a continued relationship in the years that follow.
Takeout is a single location thriller involving the small staff of a late night diner and the local serial killer they believe just walked into it. It doesn’t waste any time establishing the core concept…but it does introduce new characters into it and repeatedly flip the story on its head. Our main character is Nova (N’kone Mametja). She comes from a troubled home and ends up having to watch her kid sister while working the night shift. That last development doesn’t come up until after Nova discovers a dead body inside the trunk of a customer’s car.
With a giant financial reward for helping to catch the killer the media has dubbed The Dollkeeper…Nova and her two workmates try to pin down their share of the bounty before alerting the local police. As you can imagine…that turns out to be a mistake. In their defense, the two local cops who frequent the diner will probably screw them out of the money if they don’t try to work that deal out separately. Nova is joined by shift manager Harper (Deoudone Pretorius) and grill worker Benny (Darron Meyer). The trio finds out about the body very early in the movie. Takeout wastes no time getting to the meat of its story.
It doesn’t waste much time before twisting it into something new either. As more and more customers enter the establishment…the trio’s plan becomes harder to pull off. When they eventually get the upper hand on the situation, the situation appears to change. Or, at least, it becomes more difficult to figure out. They may manage to keep the suspect in place…but do they even have the right man?
Each time Takeout changes course it only does so for a little while. Inevitably it turns into something else. Bodies begin to pile up both accidentally and on purpose. Not all of them come from the person you expect. There’s a little bit of comedy mixed into the bloody hijinks…but Takeout plays most of it straight. This is a single location story that takes place over one night. Between the customers, employees and police…a lot of faces pass through the diner. Most of them aren’t going to make it out.
There’s something fun about the whole ordeal. Takeout doesn’t linger too long on one idea…until the climax. For the first 70 minutes or so it flows at a strong pace keeping its likable characters front and center…and the answer to the central question just out of their reach. Once all is revealed, however, Takeout gets itself a bit stuck. There’s a higher body count to accompany the lack of new story twists that fueled the film to that point…but it’s too easy to figure out how things will wrap up once that final turn happens. Still, Takeout keeps the fun moving more than long enough to crank out a watchable, often enjoyable, original for Tubi.
Scare Value
As a single location thriller Takeout makes enough moves to keep it engaging for most of its runtime. It gets stuck inside its climax a little too long but there’s enough fun to make it worthwhile. Takeout keeps its characters guessing by changing directions on more than one occasion. When it stops twisting the story…it starts to run out of steam. Luckily, the story starts upping the body count to keep things heading towards the expected finale. Not bad for a Tubi Original. Not bad for any release designation for that matter.
2.5/5
Takeout Link
Streaming on Tubi
