South Mill District (2018) A Gore Filled Practical FX Indie Horror Triumph-Fitz of Horror

Written by Bryan Fitzgerald (Fitz of Horror) February 18, 2018

South Mill District, from Joe Meredith was completely unknown to me until a friend tagged me in a post on Facebook with a trailer and a link to the Joe Meredith Art website to buy the movie for only $10, I couldn’t pass that good of a deal up and I’m so glad I didn’t.

Synopsis-Ten years have passed since the alien war, and now the line between human and alien is blurred. The film follows two vagrants who were once subjects of a dangerous experiment involving the assimilation of alien and human DNA. Their bodies were hollowed out by over-sized spiders, bio-engineered by EonCorp, a corporation with evil intentions. The spiders used their bodies as dwelling places until the assimilation process was complete, and their bodies regenerated. Now they wander around the South Mill District, waiting for the spider’s mutagenic virus to do what it was meant to do.

Everything about this release was intriguing to me from the time I watched the trailer to when the DVD arrived at my doorstep. It has an heir of mystery with the simple but effective cover and disc art, the minimalist back cover with no movie information just pictures of the creatures we would see in the movie and an insert that reminded me of something out of Nekromantik.

I was also surprised at the fact that this was a short film (running time is approx. 25 minutes). Despite the short running time Meredith manages to pack more story and intrigue into it than most feature length films.

The film opens with some great shots and very ominous music instantly establishing the overall tone. We are immediately greeted with some top notch gooey practical FX (some very reminiscent of those from Return of the Living Dead) from the very talented indie horror veteran James Bell. There are also several scenes of stop motion animation of the parasitic alien spiders doing their dirty deeds that works extremely well with this story and budget.

The overall feeling impending doom and apocalyptic tone of the film along with its constant eerie background music and use of colors make you feel as though you really are in a different world. This feeling reminded me of Eraserhead and Begotten where you feel almost locked in this demented alternate universe of strange and scary beings. Adding to this feeling is the fact that the main characters never speak, the only talking in the film is Drennan’s (Joe Meredith) narrative internal monologue and Dr. Bottin (Toby Johansen) who explains via random TV signal what this alien encounter and strain is all about.

All the while the main characters Drennan and Luci (Cidney Meredith) are going through what appear to be the final stages of their transformations in very different ways and when the end credits started to roll, all I wanted to do was watch it again.

Certain movies hit certain people in different ways and from the moment I watched the trailer online, held the DVD in my hand and then watched it, I felt like it was all a very unique and very enjoyable experience that doesn’t happen very often.

Buy a copy of South Mill District <<<<<<<<HERE. They are only $10 while they last!

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