Celebrating the heyday of the VHS tape, debut director/co-writer Clark Baker brings his unique body horror vision to FrightFest. The goopy, practically Lovecraftian strangeness will recall memorable genre flicks such as Society, Color Out of Space, and Videodrome, tactfully paying tribute to what came before. Best of all, the filmmakers are not content to repeat the past, but channel its inspirations for a bold new flavor of horror rarely seen in present day. Where better to set a thowback horror picture than the year 1982, in Oregon? Utilizing the benefit of familiarity and a killer hook, Test Screening will burrow into your mind and never leave.
Movies theaters were “dying” in the 80s too apparently—at a local cinema, John Carpenter’s The Thing has already been unceremoniously put to bed after apparently selling just eight tickets. For movie nerd Reels (Drew Scheid, 2018’s Halloween, Fear Street: 1978), cinema is everything. When some strange types come into town offering up free tickets to a mysterious movie “test screening,” they urge Reels to tell all of his friends so they can have a sold out crown. Reels hopes the surprise flick will be then-unreleased Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Jedi, and his pals share similar sentiments. The truth seems much uglier. Anyone who has viewed the movie begins exhibiting strange behavior, appearing to be in a kind of trance.
Each of the teens in Reels’ friend group have distinct stories and personalities. Simon (Johnny Berchtold, The Passenger, A Hard Problem) works at Melty Mike’s Pizza to pay the bills, trying to support his distanced father and dying mother. Mia (Rain Spencer, Good Girl Jane, The Summer I Turned Pretty) supports her bestie, Penny (Chloe Kerwin), with driving lessons; Penny does anything she can to get out from under the thumb of her hyper religious mother and pastor father. She may even have lesbian tendencies lurking beneath the religious repression. These archetypes seem rather obvious at first glance, by design, but the respective actors add layers to these characters. When the weird shit begins to go down, Disturbing Behavior comes to mind, as friends become nearly unrecognizable versions of themselves. Only Penny, who skipped out on the screening at the request of her parents, may have the best chance at overcoming the oddity. Reels consults a chat room (remember those?) for advice on how to defeat the mind controlling freaks at Test Screening‘s center.
It take over an hour into the runtime for Reels to discover his town lies at the epicenter of some twisted experiment. The audience already knows strange things are afoot, but the premise gives away a pretty significant aspect of the plot. However, with this out of the way, Clark Baker wears his genre influences as a badge of honor—in particular, the freaky, body-melding evilness of 1989’s Society appears to be a major influence. To reveal too much would rob some of the surprises, but expect well-executed practical effects, memorable performances, and a bleak final act that hits the gas in a major way. Co-writer Stephen Susco, screenwriter of 2004’s excellent The Grudge and wildly underrated Unfriended: Dark Web, offers up plenty of surprises. Doubling down on body horror, fleshing out a roster of friends, and building out a surprisingly charming little small town results in an effective, potent love letter to old school horror.
As a film critic who attends innumerable press screenings and having seen my own share of test screenings back in the day, the mere concept of a movie that will essentially kill you after you watch it is unnerving enough to leave a lasting impression. What will be the last movie I ever watch? That is a question that I think about maybe a little too often, prioritizing titles hopeful that I will love rather than willing to take a chance on the more random ones. Test Screening does not answer any deep philosophical questions, nor is it interested in meta commentary. The time period setting casually mentions Dungeons & Dragons, the AIDS epidemic, and the concept of being “under attack” by our television screens without actively engaging with any of those ideas. Instead, freaky monsters and Lovecraftian intrigue implore viewers to be more mindful of what they blindly consume. Without taking the proper precautions, perhaps they will come to test your town next…
Test Screening premiered at 2024’s Pigeon Shrine FrightFest.
