Dark Distortion
It was candles and cake for Sammy’s birthday, but the happiness wasn’t to last, the darkness in his body already poisoning his mind, the tumour inoperable and changing his behaviour, the boy eventually attempting to murder his parents Jeremy and Victoria, but that did not stop them from loving him even beyond his death.
The house occupied by models, influencers who are vetted for entry on the basis of their online following, Manny runs a tight ship with a clear business plan which, unbeknownst to Promise (currently missing in action), Dimitri, cameraman Elias and newcomer Nina, taking Layna’s soon-to-be-vacated room, he is in deep debt to Red who takes the reigns and forces them to move to open prostitution to settle the score.
Written and directed by Joseph Herrera who also stars as Elias, his debut feature, Dark Distortion is a haunted object horror of black magic, bad decisions and superficial people posing for the camera to their last breath, Jeremy (Joe Walker) having drawn Sammy’s damaged persona into a camcorder through invocation, the act of “spirit binding,” now procuring women and allowing his son to murder them through telekinesis.
The ultimate goal of the ghoulish post-mortem father-son bonding exercise never explained, similarly the scheme by which the ladies bushwhack and rob their tricks would seem to be flawed, their chosen targets selected for “one on one special audiences” based on engagement across multiple platforms, but criminal activity usually requiring a degree of anonymity which means the perpetrator cannot be traced back via their “Just Fans” accounts.
Dark Distortion lacking the style or menace of Ringu and with vapid characters played by an ensemble apparently cast for how they look undressed rather than conspicuous acting talent, the flatshare of Zoolander presented without a hint of leavening irony, Nina (Jada Jay) becoming credulous without having any convincing reason to believe, the whole undeniably, the whole undeniably though most likely unconsciously paralleling 1983 slasher thriller BoardingHouse.
The history of cursed objects of the modern age reviewed in The Night Wire, with the intellectual and emotional range of Real Haunted Housewives Making the Rent there is nothing of significance or invention on offer here, muddling forward without any self-awareness which might have shifted it towards tragedy rather than just tragic, Dark Distortion a reflection of vanity in a flat surface which by its nature harbours no depth.
Dark Distortion will be available on digital download from Tuesday 3rd March
