Screamwalkers

It’s the late ’80s, and you’re walking into a video store looking for a horror movie to watch with your buddies. For once, you’re not with your parents, and you can choose what you want. All of a sudden, you come across the tape of Screamwalkers, written and directed by Sean King, and you grab it and take it home.

There’s no doubt that this is the atmosphere King is going for with this film, initially with its cover, referencing the Z-series horror films of the ’80s. At first glance, it’s clear what we’re in for: a classic slasher flick, with a killer raging in a small town and a group of friends including CJ (Elizabeth Davoli), Eddie (Andy Rowell), Max (Jason Seidl) and Olivia (Celia Spero) joining forces to find out who’s behind the mask.

“…a classic slasher flick, with a killer raging in a small town …”

In imbuing his film with a retro style, King finds an ingenious artistic direction to counter his film’s lack of budget. By giving his image a look straight out of a camcorder, Screamwalkers is dirty, dark and ugly, exactly what you’d expect from a Z-movie horror film of these years. What’s more, this allows the filmmaker to subvert the handicap of a lack of budget and turn it towards an amateur style like The Blair Witch Project, rather than falling into the high-definition image showing every possible flaw that betrayed the first Terrifier.

Screamwalkers‘s sound design is also one of the most interesting to discuss. On the one hand, the film could have done without several rather amateurish and easily correctable technical errors, such as a missing audio track in a dialogue or microphone equalization problems during conversations. Paradoxically, however, the sound mix also represents the film’s strength in its murder sequences, particularly during a sequence halfway through the film between CJ and our killer, Catface. Sean King builds his tension through simple objects such as a kettle, overlaying key shots that pay homage to the great horror scenes before him, such as Psycho or Scream. And while this type of approach can be criticized for lacking personality, King still manages to add his own touch to the scene.