Director Andrew Patterson, in his directorial debut, has crafted a film with some, interesting flourishes that make him stand-out as the man behind the camera guiding things. His choices in how this story is told are at times compelling. His camera lingers or stays locked on certain things in just the right amount and at the right times. He utilizes the long, continuous take effectively. Given the title and the subject matter, he utilizes the darkness, the absence of light, in interesting and indeed haunting ways. Even his specific use of black-and-white exclusively is clever here and there. What lets this film down is the very limited screenplay.
Writers James Montague and Craig W. Sanger, in their feature debut, plant the seeds of what could have been something really compelling. Yet, the whole thing just deflates at the end. Perhaps, it's more of a limited budget that prevented this film from having something really spectacular like the ending of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). I mention that Steven Spielberg classic for a reason. While this film opens as if it's going to be akin to an episode of The Twilight Zone with even a voice-over that sounds incredibly like Rod Serling, it veers off and becomes something that's smack dab in the territory of The X-Files. Yes, The X-Files territory was a bit vast but fans of that 90's series knows the specific territory I'm referencing, if I'm also comparing it to that 1977 Spielberg film.
Sierra McCormick (
A.N.T. Farm and
Curb Your Enthusiasm) stars as Fay Crocker, a teenage girl living in Cayuga, New Mexico, which is either this film's version of Roswell or a town probably near Roswell. Roswell, New Mexico, is obviously famous for an alleged UFO crash in 1947 and the surrounding legend that aliens from outer space arrived on that day. For Fay, it's probably only a few years since that incident. It's the 1950's and Fay works as a switchboard operator for telephone calls in and out of the town. If this were
The X-Files, she would be the Fox Mulder, or the believer.
One night, while the whole town is at a basketball game, she hears a strange noise over the radio that then repeats through various phone lines. She's a girl who's already into science-fiction. She does a lot of reading of science articles and science-fiction articles. She's a girl who's naturally curious and eager to explore. The whole film takes place in that one night and she sets out that night to discover the source of the strange noise, which only opens up a crazy conspiracy that's been hidden within the town for years.
Jake Horowitz (
Manifest and
A Midsummer's Night Dream) co-stars as Everett Sloan, a fellow teenager who is friends with Fay and who works as a DJ at the town's local radio station. He's hosting the radio station on that night when the strange noise appears over his airwaves. He doesn't hear it at first, but he gets a call from Fay almost immediately who asks for his help to figure out where it came from or who caused it. He decides to help her by broadcasting it. He's not easily taken by the fantastic or the possible conspiracies. If this were
The X-Files, he would be Dana Scully, or the skeptic.
The film then follows the two as they chase a couple of leads to determine the source of the sound. Those leads result in some great monologues and performances. There's one vocal performance from a man whom you never see, a black man in fact, that is really compelling. It's just unfortunate that the ending is a bit lame.
Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 30 mins.
Available on Amazon Prime.
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