New Hope, Oregon, 1982, a group of four teenage friends – Reels, Penny, Mia and Simon - try to stave off the boredom of summer by hanging out, having fun and generally trying to forget about the realities of their lives and the difficult relationships with their parents. The small town they live in is going through an economic downturn and they have been cut off from the outside world due to maintenance work on the only bridge in and out of New Hope.
There is a brief flash of solace as one of the group, Reels (Drew Scheid) who works in the movie theatre, is told that a test screening of a new movie will be taking place. The four friends arrange to attend but Penny (Chloë Kerwin) is forbidden to go by her father, who is also the town’s preacher. Although she is more upset about not being able to spend time with Mia (Rain Spencer), who is the subject of her affection.
After the screening, people in the town become different - they start to pair up and appear in a trance-like state. A collective hypnosis spreads throughout the community and it shows no signs of slowing down. As more and more people succumb to the phenomena, it’s clear that the effects of the test screening not only impact the mind, but they transform the body as well. Those not already victim to metamorphic hypnosis band together to try and understand and escape before the town is overcome.
Test Screening proudly leans into its 1980s backdrop, and even though this could be seen as an easy marketing tactic to cash-in on the success of Stranger Things, it does anything but that. It harnesses the era to build upon the genre classics of the time. Test Screening may be nostalgic, but it’s certainly not sentimental. One major – and very beneficial – enhancement compared to the likes of Stranger Things, The Lost Boys and others is how the group of friends are portrayed. Each gang in 80’s adventure/horror movies shares a determined rage-against-the-machine attitude but there is a loss of innocence surrounding the quartet from Test Screening, even before disastrous events take place. Each has had to deal with absent, abusive, puritanical or terminally sick parental figures. The gangs in other 1980s movies seemed to have the love, support and stability of their families behind them. For the foursome in Test Screening, families can be just another monster to overcome.
The landscape of the 1980s isn’t just seen in front of the camera, as practical make-up special effects were used to create the monsters, to superb effect. A prime example of this is when Reels and Penny are trying to hide from Johnny’s ‘father’ in the basement. It is the stuff of nightmares. For obvious reasons, comparisons will be made to The Thing, and John Carpenter’s classic is referenced several times during the story. However, it’s Test Screening’s nihilism and overwhelming bleakness that makes it a worthy comparison. The story unfolds in such a way that the group always seem to be one step behind and everything seems futile, and this is before the test screening takes place. Even after the town changes, any escape seems temporary and any chance of victory appears to be hopeless. The constant notion of all hope being lost is infused throughout.
There is a brief explanation offered to why the people of New Hope have been chosen and what the purpose of the test is, but it seems irrelevant to a certain point. The sheer spectacle of the effects and the terror of trying to escape are what makes your nerves live on a knife-edge.
Test Screening expertly mixes the fantastical with the everyday. In recent years, not many horror films have managed to create so many well-rounded and real characters and place them in such a surreal landscape. The result is a movie dripping with dread and fear. This is body horror at its best.
Movie Score: 4/5
James is a life-long horror fan since coming across Halloween on late-night TV, when he was 9 years-old. He was too scared to watch it all the way through, so when things got too scary he changed the channel. When he worked up the courage he would switch back to Halloween. This happened several times. He has previously written for GoreZone magazine in the UK and the Evolution of Horror.
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