I can't entirely fault the filmmakers for trying to make something of this sort, or horror streamer Shudder for picking it up for distribution. The concept of some 70s/80s-ish diva's TV special gone wrong sounded like it had potential.
The appropriately dated-looking lighting and color effects gave it a certain authenticity.
It starts feeling overlong rather quickly, however. Dialog drags. Scenes drag. Each subsequent scene is not appreciably different from any that preceded it, other than wonky audio and color intruding more and more, and the star's scenes ending progressively more poorly.
The impression given was increasingly more of a one-woman theater performance crossed with experimental video or a video installation, rather than a vintage TV special. In the end it just frustratingly fizzles out, as though they had no idea where to take their concept. They could have, just as easily, had it end in analog broadcast static or a test pattern and that would have provided as much resolution: none.
An interesting attempt at something, but will be grossly unsatisfying to horror viewers as a whole, and perhaps even to more discerning ones who don't mind or even appreciate the campy, arty or experimental.
The appropriately dated-looking lighting and color effects gave it a certain authenticity.
It starts feeling overlong rather quickly, however. Dialog drags. Scenes drag. Each subsequent scene is not appreciably different from any that preceded it, other than wonky audio and color intruding more and more, and the star's scenes ending progressively more poorly.
The impression given was increasingly more of a one-woman theater performance crossed with experimental video or a video installation, rather than a vintage TV special. In the end it just frustratingly fizzles out, as though they had no idea where to take their concept. They could have, just as easily, had it end in analog broadcast static or a test pattern and that would have provided as much resolution: none.
An interesting attempt at something, but will be grossly unsatisfying to horror viewers as a whole, and perhaps even to more discerning ones who don't mind or even appreciate the campy, arty or experimental.