The Waves of Madness

Right, well I have to say, first and foremost, that a movie that is written by, directed by, and starring the one and same person makes so many alarm bells go off for me. Why? Well, because such movies usually tend to be questionable affair. But I still opted to watch "The Waves of Madness", from writer, director and star Jason Trost, on account of it being a Lovecraftian-themed movie that I had not seen before, nor actually heard about. And given my love of the Lovecraft Mythos, of course I had to check it out, maybe it was a gem waiting to be discovered.

So making a Lovecraftian movie in black and white and as a side-scrolling shooting game was a good idea? Personally I didn't really enjoy that concept all that much. Sure, it was original and not seen before, but it just didn't appeal much to me.

The acting performances in the movie were okay for what they were. Needless to say that I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list.

There were some really stupid things in the movie. For example one of the ladies that Legrasse encounters aboard the ship is wearing a t-shirt with a print of Cthulhu and the word "Lovecraft" on it. And the fact that the main character was named Legrasse, it just was so very unoriginal. Sure, I get it that it was from the original character that H. P. Lovecraft invented, but it was just lazy writing and felt forced and stupid.

The special effects in the movie were fair for a movie such as this. I mean, you're not in for anything grand or memorable, but the effects were better than what I've seen in many other movies.

I've seen far worse movies in the Lovecraftian Mythos, but "The Waves of Madness" was far from being a great movie. Points are indeed awarded to Jason Trost for the effort put into this project.

Watchable, but it was somewhat cheesy. And hardly a movie that warrants more than a single viewing.

My rating of "The Waves of Madness" lands on a generous three out of ten stars. Lets just say that the stars weren't exactly right here, pardon the pun.

This was the last film of day 2 for Nightmares Film Festival. There was buzz around this as it is marketed as the first, side-scroller horror film. Think like they do for video games. Plus, this new one from writer/director/star of the film, Jason Trost, who is a celebrity at the festival. I did get to see this for its World premiere as well.

Synopsis: a special agent is dispatched to investigate a distress call from a round-the-world-cruise, only to find the ship eerily abandoned and haunted by a malevolent force that twists sanity into terror.

We start this on the cruise ship before things go bad. A man walks along the deck as he orders his last drink for the night. He goes out to get fresh air and something weird happens with the stars. They glow brighter. An unknown entity then attacks the passengers.

This then shifts over to a boat where Agent Legrasse (Trost) is filled in on the mission. They have two plans here to figure out what happened. I believe he also needs to recover an item from the ship. It is on board that he meets Francis (Tallay Wickham), who looks oddly like someone from Legrasse's past. We also get what seem like flashbacks to him talking to a therapist, Dr. Birkin (Ryan Gibson). Not everything is as it seems though and what is on this ship is more terrifying beyond human belief.

Now that is where I'm going to leave my recap and introduction to the characters. There isn't much to the story than what I've given there. I didn't want to spoil things as this is visually something to see. This also runs 70 minutes and being that it is using elements from video games, there are intentional filler aspects like you'd get in that medium as well.

With that set up, I did have fun with this film. We had a good set up and then at the Q&A, that was something by design. If you are playing a video game like this, they go left to right. When Agent Legrasse gets on the ship, that is how it goes. For the set up though, we are going the opposite way. That is a good touch. I'll just then delve into filmmaking here. I'm not the biggest fan of green screen and that is how the filmmakers bring this to life. There is charm there since this doesn't have the biggest budget. This relies on CGI which does look better than what I've seen in other places. I still want to give credit for it. Something to also include, this was filmed in black and white. That does hide things and adds an interesting charm to it as well.

Since I'm not going to spoil it, I'll tread lightly here. What made this work for me is that this goes into a subgenre I'm a big fan of. I'll just say that this goes into the cosmic horror realms. Our filmmakers said they were influenced by things like Resident Evil and Silent Hill 2. There is also a cult here. Another element that I picked up on would be H. P. Lovecraft's stories, The Call of Cthulhu and maybe even Dagon.

I'll then go over to the acting. Since this is more about the visuals than the characters, I'm not going to harp. Trost has a good look to be our hero. I do like this is mostly told from his perspective so we only know what he does. He is a tortured hero, having lost the love of his life. He does see a woman who looks like her and I like Wickham as that co-star. Other than that, I thought Aina Dumlao, Nick Principe, Bru Muller and the rest of the cast were solid for what was needed. Also, credit to Gibson as the therapist who tried to help Legrasse.

There isn't more that I wanted to delve into so in conclusion, I'll say that this is a fun film. I give them credit for the novelty of turning a side scroller video game into a movie. That allows them to focus less on making too much story and more on the visuals. They were able to capture those with the help of green screen and CGI. The actors fit the roles that they needed. This isn't one to dissect, but more to catch the references and go along for the ride. If you're a fan of this director, then I think you'll enjoy this one as well. It isn't as fun as his FP films but made in a similar vein.

My Rating: 6 out of 10.

A side-scrolling Lovecraftian action/horror movie that doesn't look like anything you've seen before. I was dubious about this, the concept of a film using old computer game side scrolling scenes felt like a gimmick that would wear thin really quickly, I was even more concerned hen I started watching and the acting felt like a cross between over the top computer game cut screens and those noir films of the 30's.

It wasn't long though before I was immersed in the story and found the whole aesthetic of the movie really worked with the storyline.

All my preconceived ideas about this movie were wrong and I don't mind admitting that.

This movie had me intrigued from the moment I first heard about it because its premise is that it's "the first side-scrolling horror movie", and as far as I'm aware, that is a 100% true statement. The movie and story was good as it kept the pacing going with very little slow down along the way. The characters were limited to keep the action flowing in this and the focus on what was happening. Such a fun and interesting experiment! Really captures those PS1-era horror vibes to a superb degree - incredibly impressive from a technical perspective, and very well put-together in general. Lots of fun, lots of heart, and plenty of eldritch goodness. I'll happily watch a sequel if that ever gets made. Respect for trying something new in a cinema landscape of the same same.