PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn’t exist. PopHorror fully supports the WGA and SAG-AFTRA and their efforts.
I’ve been waiting for a chance to see Justin M. Seaman and Zane Hershberger’s Cryptids since it was announced like 5 years ago. I kept seeing it pop up in festivals and such but I was never able to get my hands on it. And now, thanks to GenreBlast 2023, I was finally able to watch it.
Synopsis:
An anthology film about a paranormal radio show accepts calls from individuals who have encountered creatures from the unknown.
Cryptids is a creature feature horror anthology with segments directed by Justin M. Seaman (The Barn 2016 – our review), Brett DeJager (13 Slays Till X-Mas 2020 – our review), Zane Hershberger (Force to Fear 2020 – our review), Max Groah (10/31 Part 2 2019 – our review), John William Holt (10/31 2017 – our review), Robert Kuhn (The Barn 2016), and Billy Pon (Circus of the Dead 2014 – our review). Kuhn also created a lot of the Special FX for the shorts.
The wraparound segment in Cryptids is directed by Billy Pon. As the town gets ready for the local Mothman Festival, radio talk show host Harlan Dean dedicates his radio show to Cryptids and invites listeners to call in to him with their extraordinary stories. Each call becomes a new story in the anthology. This is a fun idea that plays well into the anthology’s mythology. Casting Joe Bob Briggs (Monstervision TV series) as the radio host is genius. Who doesn’t want the world’s best drive-in movie critic introducing their stories on air?
Each tale that follows offers a different flavor, tone, and story, as all good anthologies do. I am impressed with the shotgun FX in Justin Seaman’s “The Beast of Bladenboro” and the prank is darkly funny. That one guy’s blue wig could have been left on the costume room floor, but I digress. I also love the Robert Kuhn’s frogman from John William Holt’s “The Loveland Frogman.” That creature’s nictitating membrane is a work of art.
Turning the chupacabras into cartel murder weapons in Pon’s “Chupacabra Death Machines” is something I’ve never seen before but would like to see again, especially with the creatures themselves being created by Weight of Guilt’s (2022 – our review) Joseph Daniel Rodriguez.
Like many indie films, the acting can be hot or miss in Cryptids. The main character in Holt’s short is nothing short of hilarious, but I think Joe Bob Briggs would have been better off commenting off the cuff rather than trying to straight up memorize lines.
I was pleasantly surprised by original stories here, especially the motivation behind the creature in Robert Kuhn’s “Bigfoot” and the reason Halloween was so special in Brett DeJager’s “Hopkinsville Goblins.” And although I’m a bit sad that I didn’t get more melonheadedness in Zane Hershberger’s “Melonheads,” I love that he took this lesser known urban legend and ran with it.
I also want to mention the music for the shorts which was composed by Rocky Gray (10/31 franchise) and Matt “Lapses” Cannon. As per usual, the scores set the mood and heightened the tension in the stories right across the board.
Final Thoughts
The creature feature anthology, Cryptids, is a ton of fun. The tone stays relatively light and is equal parts funny and creepy, making it a perfect choice for Halloween-time viewing. Check it out, especially if you’re a cryptozoology fan.
