Test Screening – Movie Review
Director: Clark Baker
Writer: Clark Baker, Stephen Susco (Screenplay)
Cast
- Drew Scheid (Halloween)
- Amy Hargreaves (Blue Ruin)
- Rain Spencer (Good Girl Jane)
- Johnny Berchtold (Dog Gone)
- Jeanine Jackson (Red Dragon)
- Chloë Kerwin
Plot: Follows four teens who find out that a test screening is coming to their little cinema, but the film is actually a mind-control experiment that has terrifying effects.
Runtime: 1 Hour 32 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Test Screening starts when we meet four teenagers, Reels (Scheid), Mia (Spencer), Simon (Berchtold) and Penny (Kerwin). They have been raised in different households, with different beliefs, but became friends over their years at high school. Reels works at the local cinema and is getting tired of the cinema not receiving the biggest releases of the 1980s. The owner faces closure until a special screening brings the town together.
Most of the town attends the screening, however, Penny’s stricter religious family don’t allow her to. In the next few days, the locals start acting strange and Penny must work with Reels to figure out what happened to her friends and townspeople.
Verdict on Test Screening
Test Screening is a horror mystery following a small town that receives the opportunity for a special early screening. Four teens are excited about the opportunity, but one doesn’t get to see the movie. In the aftermath, the town starts acting strange and she must solve the problem before everything is unleashed.
This movie takes us to small-town America in the 1980s, where everyone lives different lives with different beliefs. It brings forward taboos for the era and the struggling times in the movie theater industry. Where this movie stands out, is the unusual developments in the aftermath of the showing. These keep you guessing and leave you shocked by different events that happen. There is one movie you will feel a comparison to, but that is for you to find out by watching. The strong performances bring the characters together well and the effects team deserve a shoutout too.
Final Thoughts –Test Screening is strange, unusual and shocking.
