You really want to get in on the ground floor with this one.
Doom Moon is a ten minute short from Room 82, a creative collective working out of Portsmouth, England. It’s also the pilot for what promises to be an utterly batshit crazy new web series.
What do we have here? In a nutshell, it’s a thriller. Kara Karealot (Heather Peter) is plagued by intense nightmares and a deranged stalker. Her therapist, Dr Narcoleptikson (Bruce Dominguez), is useless; as are the city police.
There are puppets. Kara was a star of The Mr Flufty Show. The eponymous Mr Flufty is also in dire straits. He’s being followed too, and the deaths of several other muppets signal a rising tide of darkness which will engulf Doom Moon City.
I really hope this synopsis captures the WTF factor of Doom Moon.
I have a real soft spot for films like this. Ones which turn horror conventions on their head. Doom Moon also benefits from the fact that it is deliberately and unashamedly campy.
Everyone overacts. Kara is a neurotic, flailing damsel. Narcoleptikson is, well, a narcoleptic who finds the absolute worst times to close his eyes. The lead detective on the case is a drunken curmudgeon with a disdain for evidence.
Going into it, I was expecting something pretty bloody. There’s liberal use of VHS filters throughout, which is used to great effect during the POV opening segment. A brooding air of threat is generated and then…puppets.
The use of retro music, combined with those visuals, creates a nice found-footage aesthetic. But not found footage in a Blair Witch or creepypasta sense. It’s more like going through a box of old VHS tapes in your parent’s attic. Pulling out Albert Pyun and Frank Stallone cassettes and finding this forgotten, “z-grade” gem buried at the bottom.
As a pilot, it’s obviously just a taste of what is to come. So far the signs are very, very encouraging. Please give this a watch, because this project needs to build momentum. Room 82 are sitting on a cult classic here.
You can find Room 82 here:
