Replicator (2024) by Mark Andrew Hamer

Director: Mark Andrew Hamer

Year: 2024

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Body-Horror

Plot:

Trying to get her life together, a struggling attorney finds the sudden change in behavior of the townsfolk around her to be the cause of an invading substance that affects the victim in unnatural ways, which causes her and several others to find the cause before it affects them.

Review:

Overall, this was a fairly solid feature. One of the better elements with this one is the solid first half which doesn’t have much in the way of action but does bring about some intriguing ideas for later on. As we get an idea of the kind of life she leads with the struggling attorney role involving the failed case and her conflicting affair with the sheriff complicating her professional relationship while the strained and somewhat antagonistic relationship with her dad living with her creates a striking impression of what’s going on. The idea of the change coming about after getting this kind of setup makes for a fine mystery with everything taking place in a manner that goes against their previously established norms and brings about a great turn into the second half investigating this mystery.

This mystery becomes quite fun as the revelations come about not just with some impressive action but also the reveals of what’s going on. The clues left behind at the crime scenes of each of the strange deaths and how they fit together, from the strange goo, the claims about low-frequency sound waves, and the audio connections made when investigating the incidents themselves, make for a decent mystery looking to bring about the full reveal of the creature at the forefront of the changes taking place in the town. The paranoia about the whole incident and not knowing what’s going on until we get the full backstory of the creature's possession and eventual rebirth allows for some impressive practical effects to accomplish this. It all comes together nicely for a lot to like here.

There aren’t too many issues here even though they’re quite detrimental. The main drawback to this one is the confusing ending that doesn’t make much sense contextually based on everything that’s happened so far. The idea of choosing humanity at that point is somewhat confusing based on the experiences shown so far which makes the idea of subjugating everything feel natural yet the lack of impact it has due to the weak characterizations makes it feel less threatening. That is the other major factor as it tends to rush through things beyond simply setting everything up so it glosses over a lot of big elements that are needed to make it make sense. What the creature is all about, how the process works, and why it’s expending this energy to create the replication in the first place so it’s all confusing and doesn’t make much sense. These are the factors that bring it down.

Overview: ***.5/5

A generally enjoyable indie body-horror creature feature effort, there’s a lot to like overall while being let down somewhat by some big issues that bring it down somewhat. The main selling point here will be fans of this type of indie fare or appreciate the style attempted with this one while most others might want to heed caution.