We live in an age where virtually anything can be broadcast to the world with the click of a button. Social media influencers have turned the strange, the shocking, and the downright disturbing into commodities, with audiences hungry for the next sensation. But what happens when the pursuit of online attention uncovers something that should have remained buried? This is not another “found footage” film or one about an online entity that manifests when you try to “unfriend.” In Echoes of Dread, writer and director Philip J. Cook fuses this modern obsession with what is now called old-school creature horror.
Samantha (Michelle Principi) and Reuben (Austin Greene) are a couple whose online channel specializes in the macabre. Wonderfully played throughout, the couple fill their on-screen relationship with witty quips, sharp, well-paced dialogue, and genuine warmth that plays a part toward the end. Their fascination with the unexplained leads them toward a mysterious piece of Russian archival footage connected to the Tunguska Event of 1908, a devastating explosion in Siberia that remains a subject of scientific fascination. What initially appears to be an extraordinary historical discovery soon reveals something far darker. The footage contains images of monstrous entities, battle scenes, and carnage from prison camps, and viewing it comes with consequences neither influencer could have anticipated. Before long, their search for unusual content becomes a struggle to stop an ancient evil from spreading through the very medium they hoped would make them famous. Shades of the Ringu films, yes, but this work pulls in social outlets that are present today besides videotape.
The official poster for Echoes of Dread shows a headlamp-wearing heroine beside screaming faces in a stone wall.
“Their fascination with the unexplained leads them toward a mysterious piece of Russian archival footage connected to the Tunguska Event of 1908…”
What makes the concept especially effective is its connection to our contemporary media environment. Samantha and Reuben are not malicious individuals like those in Kurtis David Harder’s wonderful film Influencer and its sequel, Influencers. They are content creators pursuing an audience, driven by curiosity and the possibility of discovering something extraordinary. Their mistake is assuming that everything they encounter can be turned into entertainment. They frown at the suggestion of the name for the evil presence, wanting something with more punch.
Echoes of Dread is first and foremost a horror film, and Cook clearly understands the appeal of creature effects and imaginative monstrosities. The film embraces a decidedly retro aesthetic, recalling the creature-driven productions of the 1970s and 1980s, like Charles Band’s Puppet Master series, when filmmakers often compensated for limited resources with ingenuity, atmosphere, and a willingness to let their imaginations run wild. The creatures possess a variety of nightmarish characteristics, ranging from otherworldly horrors to more demonic ones reminiscent of the big beasties from the V/H/S series.
"…Their mistake is assuming that everything they encounter can be turned into entertainment. "
