Replicator

This was the last film that I got the chance to see at Nightmares Film Festival. This was made in Ohio, where I live so that adds a dimension for me. It was filmed in Ashland, which isn't far either. I heard all weekend about how the effects in this were wild and the poster looked great as well. This was also the World premiere.

Synopsis: when the most nefarious citizens of a small town suddenly make 180-degree turns to righteousness, a young public defender embarks on a journey that reveals otherworldly forces may be responsible.

We start this by seeing a man on a table. Something attacks him, cutting off his arm. Whatever did it, was able to seal the wound at once and little blood was shed. It then shifts over to a courtroom. Darby Vincent (Brey Noelle) is the public defender from the synopsis. This is the grand jury hearing where a husband attacked his wife, but they don't have the evidence to go to trial. Sheriff Ty Williams (Brain Spangler) didn't do his job properly so it is dismissed. Darby then goes to scold him, but they're also having an affair.

Things take an odd turn when she comes home to find her dad, Ron (Jim Azelvandre), who is staying with her having sex with Gina (Kayla Royko). We see quickly that her father is a scumbag who is dying of cancer. Darby goes out to a local bar that her best friend runs, Neila (KateLynn E. Newberry). She tells her what she saw and they share a drink.

Something then happens to Ron. He goes to the same bar, gets drunk and thinks he hears something inside a door. He goes inside and screams. The next morning, he is making breakfast for Darby. He seems to have turned over a new leaf overnight. That is until he dies in the bathroom later that day. He was shaving and black, tar-like substance came out of his neck. Sheriff Williams and the medical examiner, Darius Dillards (LeJon Woods), don't know what to make of this. This is also just the beginning of the nightmare when they find a strange new organ inside of Ron.

That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I'll start is that this film is wearing its inspirations on its sleeves. I'll give it credit there. There are vibes of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Thing and other films in a similar vein where we have characters who change overnight. I even got a bit of Crimes of the Future with these new organs being developed as well.

Now I'm going to tread lightly from there as I don't want to spoil things. What I'll say is that I do love this concept. It is terrifying since we don't know who you can trust. It is great when you get a character like Ron where we see how scummy he is and then he's changed over to wanting to be better. We also see Dr. Jonathan (Beau Roberts) on the table and then we see him talking to Darby. We know there is something up there. My problem though, there are other characters who are acting normal throughout and we learn that they are taken over. The argument could be made that the new them isn't too different from the old. I think we needed this tightened up a bit to work better for the story.

What I will say is great are the practical effects here. Seeing what we did at the end was great. What happens with Ron and different things in the morgue with Darius look amazing. Credit there for sure. Now there is CGI here as there were things that couldn't do without them. Those don't look as good, but with the budget they have, I get it as well. I will say that the cinematography and the framing do help to hide seams. They do interesting things with sound design as well, that was something I appreciated. This is still done well overall despite my minor issues.

All that is left then is acting. I thought Noelle was solid as our lead. Newberry is her best friend. We show good emotions with different things she reveals as well in support of each other. I do have minor issues with the writing with her character though. Spangler is solid as this sheriff who might be more corrupt than we realize. Azelvandre is great as the scumbag father. He made me laugh and then his change is drastic in the best way. Woods worked in his role. He adds levity that fits without ruining the tone. Other than that, Royko, Hahn, Robets and the rest of the cast were fine for what was needed.

In conclusion, this is a solid, low budget sci-fi horror film. We are getting a variation on the story we've seen before with body snatching and changing personalities. I do think the writing there could be tightened to make more sense. The acting is solid to help bring the characters to life. The practical effects that we got were great. Credit to the framing and cinematography there. The CGI didn't hold up as well, but it doesn't ruin this. I do know this is coming to a new streaming service before the end of the year, I believe it is Cranked Up Films or something along those lines. If interested, keep an eye out for that.

My Rating: 6 out of 10.

I was initially lured into watching the 2024 horror movie "Replicator" from the movie's rather interesting cover. It looked rather Lovecraftian, and I am a sucker for that. Plus, the fact that it was a horror movie that I had neither heard about or watched before, certainly helped to make me want to watch it. Sure, since I had no idea what I was in for, then I harbored no expectations to director Mark Andrew Hamer, so in a sense he had every opportunity to entertain and impress me, I suppose.

Writers Mark Andrew Hamer and Russ Lindway put together a fair enough script. I mean, it wasn't particularly outstanding, but it made for a sort of adequate enough viewing experience. Though it is hardly a movie that warrants more than a single viewing.

I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, aside from actor LeJon Woods, though I will say that the acting performances were indeed fair.

While the movie's cover certainly had a particularly Lovecraftian feel to it, if you think back to Brian Yuzna's "From Beyond", for example, I have to say that the movie was only laced with some light Lovecraftian elements. A shame really.

The effects in the movie were good, and that certainly helped to add to the overall enjoyment of the movie.

My rating of director Mark Andrew Hamer's 2024 movie "Replicator" lands on a four out of ten stars.

Just bad! Do not waste your time watching this movie. It's a piece of something hard even to explain... pieces of a kindergarten puzzle all over the place... could be considered a good trash B movie but there is something wrong in the beginning where it is not right. Just watched today because I ended up missing my tv controller button and "voila" lol... here I go .. I did forward many times and still didn't have any happy/funny/sad/curious. Please don't take me wrong. You always have control over your time and attention. Go ahead! Watch and try to make a review here with the minimum requirements content ....it is very difficult and almost impossible. This film is so bad that it is very hard to say anything else... You will see a bunch people that it is just there to get paid. But once again... Im just writing a long review because I don't have any option.

Trying to get her life together, a struggling attorney finds the sudden change in behavior of the townsfolk around her to be the cause of an invading substance that affects the victim in unnatural ways, which causes her and several others to find the cause before it affects them.

Overall, this was a fairly solid feature. One of the better elements with this one is the solid first half which doesn't have much in the way of action but does bring about some intriguing ideas for later on. As we get an idea of the kind of life she leads with the struggling attorney role involving the failed case and her conflicting affair with the sheriff complicating her professional relationship while the strained and somewhat antagonistic relationship with her dad living with her creates a striking impression of what's going on. The idea of the change coming about after getting this kind of setup makes for a fine mystery with everything taking place in a manner that goes against their previously established norms and brings about a great turn into the second half investigating this mystery. This mystery becomes quite fun as the revelations come about not just with some impressive action but also the reveals of what's going on. The clues left behind at the crime scenes of each of the strange deaths and how they fit together, from the strange goo, the claims about low-frequency sound waves, and the audio connections made when investigating the incidents themselves, make for a decent mystery looking to bring about the full reveal of the creature at the forefront of the changes taking place in the town. The paranoia about the whole incident and not knowing what's going on until we get the full backstory of the creature's possession and eventual rebirth allows for some impressive practical effects to accomplish this. It all comes together nicely for a lot to like here as there aren't too many issues here even though they're quite detrimental. The main drawback to this one is the confusing ending that doesn't make much sense contextually based on everything that's happened so far. The idea of choosing humanity at that point is somewhat confusing based on the experiences shown so far which makes the idea of subjugating everything feel natural yet the lack of impact it has due to the weak characterizations makes it feel less threatening. That is the other major factor as it tends to rush through things beyond simply setting everything up so it glosses over a lot of big elements that are needed to make it make sense. What the creature is all about, how the process works, and why it's expending this energy to create the replication in the first place so it's all confusing and doesn't make much sense. These are the factors that bring it down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and Nudity.

Where do I begin with a film like this? Let's start with the Pros:

• There is solid cinematography on display here, far better quality than this film deserves.

• That's about it.

Now for the Cons:

• First off, this film has some of the worst writing I've seen this side of a Neil Breen film. Characters say what they're thinking with almost no subtext whatsoever. Weird attempts at humor pop up out of nowhere and make the scenes feel like a series of loosely connected SNL skits. Subplots are brought up and then either dropped immediately, or ham-fistedly woven back into the script at the last second. It honestly seemed as though the writer/director had a handful of different films he wanted to make and rather than choose the best out of the bunch, he just decided to throw them all together into one stupid gumbo of a movie.

• Secondly, the acting is mostly community theater level bad. KateLynn Newberry gives probably the best performance of the lot, but the bar is so low here, that's not saying much. The lead and the sheriff are both quite wooden and their subplot mostly amounts to nothing.

• The creature effects are pretty forgettable. You can really tell there was a limited budget here. Everyone else seems to rave about the practical effects, but there was really nothing special about them. And aside from a limb getting amputated in the first five minutes, there's very little in the way of bloodshed, considering this is supposed to be a horror/thriller film.

• Jumping back to the Neil Breen comparison, this film -- like Breen's -- has a lot it wants to say about justice and morality, but it doesn't know how or when to say it. In fact, like many bad movie before it, 'Replicator' seems to preach the same tired sermon of "bad people are bad" and "elected officials are corrupt, but they really shouldn't be." It's cheap, uninspired, childish writing and there's really no excuse for it.

Bottom line: This is a terrible, awkwardly paced and utterly forgettable film with high school level writing, zero heart, bad acting, awkward staging, budget effects, and a central idea that just doesn't work. With the exception of some good looking cinematography, this film flounders in every possible way.

While some films are so bad, they're good, this film is so bad that it's just bad.

Save your money and watch a Breen film instead. At least it'll be entertaining.