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.
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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.