TERROR FIRMA (2023)
Label: Dark Arts Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 81 Minutes 48 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1).
Director: Jake Macpherson.
Cast: Max Carpenter, Faye Tamasa, Robert Brettenaugh, Burt Thakur
In the indie cosmic-horror outing Terror Firma (2023) struggling artist Lola (Faye Tamasa, All Souls) has nowhere else to go during an mysterious lockdown situation in the the Los Angeles area, Marshall Law has been declared and resident's are told not to leave their homes. She ends up at the East L.A. home of her estranged, adopted brother Louis (Burt Thakur), who happily lets her crash at his place, even though they have not seen each other in over a year. It's a joyful reunion during a strange time, and after some initial awkwardness things seem fine, except... Louis's roommate named Cage (Robert Brettenaugh, Acts of Revenge) is a real weirdo with an unhealthy interest in Lola as soon as he sets his eyes on her. Later things between he and Louis take a dark turn when he's caught peeping on her in the shower.
With L.A. now entrenched in a mandatory lockdown of unknown original we get a small amount of world building with circling a police helicopter announcing lockdown procedures, and emergency supplies are being air dropped into neighborhoods. Among one of the supply drops Lola finds a strange packet of unlabeled seeds arrives, which she plants in a small garden in the yard. The next day discovering a hole in the ground where the seed was planted, and bubbling up inside is a strange black liquid. I guess because they're in lockdown and obviously have too much time on their hands, both Louise and Cage note that it smells like different foods to each of them, so why not, they taste it! Much to their surprise the taste is intoxicating, like the scent it taste likes different things to each of them, and the it seems to send them into a state of joy and ecstasy.
What follows is a bizarre and hypnotic slice of weirdness that will take all three of them down a psychedelia, reality bending other-dimensional nightmare. The guys start swilling the of-unknown-origin juice in increasingly larger quantities, and when Lou ill-advisedly decides to inject it straight into his vein he is transported into a different dimension. Meanwhile, Cage who has also been ingesting mass quantities of the stuff and is growing increasingly violent, and more prone to exploring the darker side of his personality, which is unfortunate for Lola. One night under the influence of the juice he decides he's gonna fuck that hole in the ground in the garden, and the next day a weird looking flower blossoms from the hole, and somehow Louise is able to communicate from the other dimension through the flower's network of roots. I told you this was a weird one!
Now alone with the increasingly threatening Cage Lola turns to a her former boyfriend Teddy (TV's Into the Wild Frontier) for protection from Cage, leading to a ramping up of the violence. The level of cosmic horror the filmmakers muster up for this low-budget flick is quite wonderful, the execution is not always top-notch, but the creative resourcefulness of it all bleeds through at all times. I loved how weird and wooly it gets.
The low-budget flick is shot pretty much on a single-location and what looks to be a makeshift soundstage with a minimal cast who are all pretty solid, especially Faye Tamasa. The film's atmosphere is also bolstered by the retro-synth score from Heavy Arms, who I am unfamiliar with, but their music adds a lot to this indie production. The film was made during the pandemic lockdown, and it definitely feels like a product of that experience with that familiar sense of isolation, loneliness and despair that we all sort of communally went through at that time, and it's cool that these filmmakers came together during that time, pooled their resources and talent, and made such a mind-bending and engaging micro-budget horror flick.
Audio/Video: Terror Firma (20232) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Dark Arts Entertainment, which is a new label operated by Brian Yuzna (director of Society) and John Penney (writer of The Kindred), and this is their initial offering. The digital shot film is presented in 1080p HD framed in 2.39:1 widescreen with uncompressed English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with optional English subtitles.
Extras include a Director's Commentary; the 95-min Extended Director's Cut of the film in HD; a 10-min Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery; and the Theatrical Trailer. The single-disc release arrives in standard Blu-ray keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork.
Special Features:
- Director's Commentary
- 'Terror Firma' Extended Director's Cut (95:05) HD
- Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery (9:50)
- Theatrical Trailer (1:30)
I thought Terror Firma (2023) was a pretty terrific first release from Dark Arts Entertainment; if this is the sort of creative, low-budget indie productions their gonna be championing I am eager to see what the next couple of release have in store for us. The film itself is a bizarre slice of cosmic horror with some truly oddball moments, the filmmakers do a lot with what was certainly very little, and came out on the other end with something rather special.
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