Back in 1999, there was this phenomenon surrounding the release of The Blair Witch Project, a first-person-shot found-footage film. It was the first of its kind, and audiences couldn’t tell if it was truly real or not. In 2002 came The Ring; the premise was that if you watched this VHS tape, you would die in a week. Writer/director and star Mikomi takes those concepts and delivers audiences Waterfall Colors. A Greek dancer moves to Canada, rents a house, and comes across a haunted Tamil music video left behind by the previous couple, who had moved to India.
We’re introduced to Misi, a vlogger and a new transplant to Canada. Misi informs his audience that he will be doing a sort of dance diary as he learns Tamil dancing from his friend. We learn he’s used to living in small studios, and now having a house all to himself has been an adjustment. The house is full of eerie noises that he’s unfamiliar with. When his mother comes to visit, she tells him the sounds are not normal.
As Misi gets settled, he begins to record video diaries of himself dancing, just like we’ve seen on TikTok. One night, he comes across a DVD that was left by the previous couple who had lived there and were dancers as well. It’s a fascinating dance to the song “Waterfall Colors.” The only issue with the DVD is that it has a lot of distortion during playback. Misi really likes the dance and wants to learn it to perform, so he tries to reach out to the couple. Unfortunately, after returning to India, the couple died in a car accident when they veered off into a waterfall. Misi finds a USB stick that gives him more insight into the song itself. As Misi takes a deeper dive into the background of the song and dance, it unlocks something more nefarious about the house and his own transformation.
Misi (Mikomi) watches the haunted Tamil music video glow on a TV screen in Waterfall Colors.
“As Misi takes a deeper dive into the background of the song and dance, it unlocks something more nefarious about the house and his own transformation.”
When The Blair Witch Project first came out in theaters, there was a disclaimer that viewers might experience motion sickness due to the camera work. For certain scenes, the same applies here. Misi is trying to document strange occurrences in the house, so there is that jittery handheld camera work. Mikomi, as a director, truly does it all for the film. Once the credits roll, we see that the film was not only directed by Mikomi but also written by him, with him starring, handling the sound, etc., which is quite a feat!
What viewers should really appreciate is the song in the film; it’s so catchy! It could easily be played on Top 40 radio. Mikomi creates a really cool origin behind the song, from initially being a folk song of sorts to its evolution into the version that is played throughout the film. I look at it like a bit of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” originally done in the ’80s, then remixed by Nikki French for the dance clubs back in the mid-’90s. It was something I was not expecting to be part of the film. Just wait ’til you hear that version.
Finally, the film may get a bit repetitive at times when it comes to the strange noises in the house. However, that’s made up for in the third act, and it’s worth waiting for. I was surprised, to say the least.
"…It could easily be played on Top 40 radio."
