What links a gory sci-fi horror film, a TV documentary about a mysterious filmmaker and a news report on a spate of horrific murder-suicides? Aside from the identically cheap aesthetic and curiously wooden line deliveries, they all happen to be on tonight’s telly schedule.
An account of one night’s television broadcast in small-town America, Michael Hurst’s Transmission plays like a feature-length horror version of Rick and Morty’s Interdimensional Cable. Where that one was linked by the show’s voice talent and distinctive animation, Transmission does so less intentionally. It shares a low-fi aesthetic across its channels, whether it be a black-and-white sitcom, doofus puppets, or the actual news.
As the world’s first channel-flipping horror film, Transmission has novelty going for it, with an interesting throughline in the work of filmmaker Frank Ross (Vernon Wells, giving an enjoyably bristly performance through ‘interview’ footage) and the conspiracy behind his disappearance. Bookending this film, an unseen channel-hopper dips in and out of Ross’s final work – also called Transmission, and the core movie-inside-this-movie. Sure, it’s essentially just Event Horizon crossed with In the Mouth of Madness, but it’s also this unique anthology’s strongest work.
The idea is perhaps undermined by spending too long on each segment between channel hops, but better this than some channels, which only dilute the mood and (in the case of the raunchy ’80s teen comedy) irritate. In case you didn’t get the idea, talking heads continue to espouse Ross’s signature style – interlinked stories coming together with a shock twist at the end. Geddit?
While Transmission’s ambition is occasionally outstripped by its budget, the idea is uniquely engaging and should keep viewers hooked to the end.
Transmission had its world premiere at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest on August 26th, 2023
