Nightmare Radio, Where Horror Stories Never End
From the producers of The 100 Candles Game (2020) and The Red Book Ritual (2022), Nightmare Radio: The Night Stalker (2023) is a collection of award-winning shorts, woven into a horrific new anthology that will command your attention from start to finish. Candy (Paula Brasca) is the edgy host of Nightmare Radio, the midnight call-in show “where the horror stories never end”. She spins underground tunes and takes calls from listeners who want to share their true life encounters with terror, like a dystopian goth version of the famous overnight radio host George Noory (Coast to Coast AM). When one depraved person continuously calls in with escalating personal threats, Candy realizes she is in trouble. Director Carlos Giotia’s The Night Stalker main story is the thread that binds the other shorts together in one of the best indie anthologies to hit the screen in years.
From the first call in to the show, Candy’s tormentor Jack (Agustin Oclese) injects the story with Jack the Ripper vibes. His voice has a hint of an accent (he is Argentinian), and he speaks with a singsong growl that screams “predator”. He stalks Candy over the phone, taunting her, hinting at a shared past. By the time she realizes who he is and what she did to him, it’s too late. Director Carlos Goitia playfully uses the dark basement radio station setting and alternating camera angles to help Jack stalk Candy, trap her, and deliver an ultimatum while her underground tracks continue to air to listeners unaware of her situation.
The opening segment, Playtime (dir. Ryan J. Thompson) is a fantastic haunted house story that immediately plunges the viewer into a highly intense adrenaline rush as they try to keep up with the visual hits to their nervous system. It’s like Poltergeist on speed, expertly building suspense before unleashing hell on a woman alone in a house gone mad. As Candy’s first story, it sets the bar high for the rest of the shorts, and the majority of them hit the mark. Each of the seven segment directors has a distinct style, showcasing different strengths. (Carlos Goitia, Ryan J. Thompson, Lorcan Finnegan, Nathan Crooker, Adam O’Brien, Mia’Kate Russell, David M. Nightmare)
Technically, Nightmare Radio: The Night Stalker rates high. From the clever use of a character with heterochromia to tell a story of isolation and transformation (Foxes, dir. Lorcan Finnegan) to the moral lesson learned when horror befalls a woman who stereotypes a man and reads a situation wrong (Liz Drives, dir. Mia’Kate Russell), the writing in all of these shorts is undeniably good. The visual effects and CGI in Insane (dir. Adam O’Brien) are particularly noteworthy, delivering a terrifying abandoned asylum story that may have taken pieces from previously told tales, but puts them together with expertly executed effects that will stay with the viewer long after the movie is over.
Nightmare Radio: The Night Stalker, produced by Carlos Goitia with Michael Kraetzer and Nicolas Onetti (Black Mandala), is one of only a few anthologies that has attempted to bind this many shorts into a coherent feature-length film and successfully delivered a winner. Each story was written, directed, and produced by a different team, and released through the festival circuits in different parts of the world over the past decade. There was a risk that they may not mesh well enough to be appreciated as a single viewing experience, but everyone involved should be proud of this one.
Nightmare Radio: The Night Stalker will be available digitally from Reel 2 Reel Films on April 24th, 2023.
More Film Reviews
“You become what you believe” seems to be an enthusiastic phrase until you watch Josh Stifter’s black comedy horror Greywood’s Plot. Born out of a low-budget production and undying devotion… When I watch a horror movie from the 80’s, I inevitably have the thought of “how the hell did this movie get made?” Don’t get me wrong, there are some… Content Warning: This film contains depictions of ne***philia. Bad Candy takes place in the town of New Salem during Halloween, where two radio DJ’s invite callers to share local myths…. An Anthology That Explores the Personal Horrors of Five Aspiring Writers Scare Us (2022) is an anthology of five horror stories that range from great ideas that could have been… By all rights Crabs! seems like it ought to be the sort of film that is a complete joke. Nominally it is about a horde of murderous mutated horseshoe crabs… Inspired by a music video, and the estrangement from her own family, J Arcane teamed up with Paul Erskine to direct The Razing, a 2022 film that documents a questionable…
Greywood’s Plot (2020) Film Review – A Low Budget Exercise of Creativity
Phantom Of The Mall: Eric’s Revenge (1989) Film Review – Remastered Slasher For FrightFest
Bad Candy (2021) Film Review- A Frightfest Halloween Anthology
Scare Us (2022) Film Review – An Existential Anthology With a Great Bookstore
Crabs! (2021) Film Review – A Love Letter to Classic Monster Movies
The Razing (2022) Film Review
Kate’s love of all things dark began as a child and deepened when she realized what being an adult meant. She was born with a pencil in her hand and loves nothing more than writing horrific stories to tantalize her inner demons. Kate lives in Hamilton, Ontario Canada with her husband and her boys, stirring up trouble wherever she can.