‘The Only Ones’ is a Fun Twist on a Slasher Premise: A Review

If you enjoyed Bodies Bodies Bodies, you should check out The Only Ones.

Magic Symbol: Thorn Rune
The Only Ones was released digitally on August 5th, 2025.

Table of Contents

What is The Only Ones About?

The Only Ones (2024)
The Only Ones utilizes slasher tropes to tell a story that isn’t quite a slasher (but does include a lot of killing).

The Only Ones is a near-slasher about a group of friends who succumb to fear and paranoia when a death occurs.

Nicky and his friends travel to his late uncle’s house isolated deep in the woods. There is no cell phone reception, so if they need help, they’re going to have to drive to find it. They end up needing help on their first night there when a confrontation involving drugs, a gun, and a couple of campers ends in murder. With their only means of travel intentionally ruined, and with the exact nature of the death unknown to them, the friends are quick to turn on each other when they believe their lives are in danger. More death follows.

The Only Ones was written and directed by Jordan Miller. The movie stars Tatiana Nya Ford, Paul Cottman, Emily Classen, Cayla Berejikian, Zach Ruchkin, and Jeb Aufiero. Also featured are Matt Burns, Christopher Inlow, and Nancy Anne Ridder.

The Only Ones Review

The Only Ones (2024)
The opening of the movie makes you think you’re about to watch a slasher movie, but this is revealed to just be a story being told by one of the characters.

When I started watching The Only Ones, I was expecting a slasher movie. The trailer gives that impression, and the official description from the film’s production company, Future Phantoscope, lists “slasher” as one of the descriptors (along with horror and dark comedy). The first few minutes of the movie even gives viewers a slasher setup complete with a spooky backstory, a masked killer, and a few quick and bloody kills. So as I started the movie, I settled back for some low-budget slasher fun. That’s not what I got though. Not really. But you know what? I’m not mad about it. The slasher setup is a smart way to draw people in, only to give them something a little different yet still within a similar framework. The Only Ones might not be a pure slasher movie, but it is kind of awesome.

DISCLAIMER: If you’re at all interested in watching The Only Ones, you might not want to read what I’m about to write. I won’t give away any specific, character-centric story spoilers, but part of the fun of the movie is expecting a traditional slasher and getting something different. I am going to talk about a few of those differences.

The Only Ones (2024)
Early moments feel they’re winking at the audience almost too hard. Like this scene at a gas station which would almost certainly include a warning of danger from the locals, but here it goes to absurd lengths to explain that’s not going to happen here.

The Only Ones is what I’d call a “near slasher.” It’s not a slasher in a way similar to how Bodies Bodies Bodies isn’t a slasher (despite being described as such by certain outlets). The Only Ones does show us a series of deaths, but they’re not perpetrated by one person (or a few people acting as one entity) stalking and slashing a group of potential victims. There is no central villain in The Only Ones. Everyone is a potential victim, and everyone is a potential killer. You could argue that some of the characters are more prone to deadly violence than others, but the fact remains that this isn’t a movie about predator and prey. It’s about fear and paranoia driving people to murder.

The Only Ones (2024)
When the killing starts, the characters don’t all know who the killer is. But The Only Ones is not a whodunit mystery. The audience always knows who is committing acts of violence, which is what the dramatic irony of the story is built upon.

The main group of friends are characterized well, with each having a distinct personality so that none of them fade into the background. A few of them you’ll probably like right away, and a few will certainly get on your nerves. It’s a classic slasher-victim setup done extremely well, better than many low-budget slashers. A few of the backstories might feel a little too melodramatic, but it works within the context of the story and with how the conflicts arise.

The Only Ones (2024)
The death scenes are all well done. Practical gore is used nearly all the time (I remember maybe one or two brief moments where CGI look like it is used to exaggerate blood effects), and it all looks good for the budget.

The characters are so good, in fact, that I didn’t even notice that the killing doesn’t actually begin until almost exactly halfway through the movie (the opening sequence doesn’t count because it’s just a story being told by one of the characters). Spending so much time upfront on character development in a slasher movie can often feel like a drag because, in many less-well-written films, it ultimately doesn’t matter much. But here, since it isn’t a slasher movie, and because the deaths are all character-driven, the time spent getting to know everyone is essential. It’s also completely engrossing. I enjoyed my time getting to know these people, and that helped boost the emotions when they start dying.

The Only Ones (2024)
Characters can occasionally get weirdly aggressive, but that only feels odd in a couple of scenes.

There are a few times when characters make strange decisions, but they’re not completely bizarre. A few decisions might feel a little contrived in the moment, but overall they’re not that big of a deal. I do think one of the final sequences feels like it leans too hard into horror tropes. It feels out of place since the movie establishes early on that it’s very clearly eschewing tropes in favor of a more realistic approach. But again, it’s not a deal-breaker. The final moments of the movie are great, so what I’m referring to is just a minor stumble right before that.

Rating and Recommendation

The Only Ones (2024)
The Only Ones was a nice surprise.

Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (good)

The Only Ones is smartly written and well executed. I recommend this for any fan of slasher movies (just don’t expect a traditional slasher). As I mentioned earlier, it’s a lot like Bodies Bodies Bodies, just without the murder-mystery aspect. We know who is doing each murder, because we see it as it happens. The Only Ones is a good movie about fear and paranoia.

You can rent The Only Ones now on VOD platforms including Amazon Prime Video.

Further Reading

Meet The Author

Chris has a degree in film studies at Temple University’s campus in Tokyo, Japan. He is a renowned expert on horror cinema.