The host of a popular paranormal podcast is sent hidden messages within anonymous recordings, unleashing a demonic presence that is impossible to escape in this nerve-shredding nightmare that haunts long after the last echo fades.
I expected more out of this one, especially since it managed to get a whole-ass ad episode in Radio Rental, my favorite horror podcast. It was probably the theming that netted it the spot— a horror podcast horror movie. Whoddathunk!
The entire thing takes place in one location, with two on-screen characters. The other main character is present by voice alone. It’s an interesting way to make the movie feel claustrophobic.
That said, it feels like an extended creepypasta. The movie is basically a video that passes the horror along, sort of like the tapes in the Ring. It implies that listening to the audio/ingesting the media handed out by the victims/even getting a ceramic dead baby (?!) will spread the “virus” that is the demon Abyzou… who specifically targets pregnant women, so it won’t affect most of the population anyway, and it’s really inefficient for some baby-killing demon to travel this way. She would do better as an STD.
Chuck in some spooky kid’s songs and backwards speaking, you get something that would be RIPE for creepypasta. I woulda ate this shit UP if it were a single web page with a collection of audio files and pictures.
The movie itself is all about atmosphere. There’s extended sequences that hold the camera slightly off of Evy, implying we should be looking over her shoulder all the time. There’s a dying woman present at all times, lingering in the background, haunting the main character. The headphones being put on silences all the background noise and frame it as being all around the viewer as well as the main character.
Overall, I feel like it was a mediocre movie with a fantastic concept but lacking a bit in… well, pay-off. The atmosphere spooked me more than the ending, which didn’t really feel… mm. Scary.
