Movies
Nailbiter
“Nailbiter is a firm sign that Patrick Rea and his team have evolved. Usually no more harmful to the psyche than a horror film from the 1950’s, Rea steps it up a notch, sneaking some violent R material into his otherwise Lifetime/Hallmark-like television delivery.”
Dad survived the war and is coming home, much to the delight of his family. When mom and her three young daughters hit the road to meet him at the airport, a twister strikes, forcing them to flee into a stranger’s nearby cellar for shelter. It belongs to a sweet old grandmother making cookies. They might have been better off left to the storm.
Nailbiter is the 2nd full length feature to come from independent director Patrick Rea (The Empty Acre), the one man who has dominated the film festival arena more than any other for the past five years. Short after short under his Nebraska based film studio SenoReality, Rea has earned his notoriety by mastering brief PG horror tales with art and flare unlike most others – to the point where they have garnered more awards than I ever knew existed. While he is one of just a few horror filmmakers who trades in obscenity and extremities for storybook twists and wit, and the potential victims here are mostly supra-innocent pre-teen girls. You only think you know how Rea is going to deliver on Nailbiter. Prepare to be gruesomely surprised. Nobody here is off limits.
As per the set-up above, Janet (Erin McGrane) is trapped in a basement with her three daughters, Sally (Sally Spurgeon), Alice (Emily Boresow), and her eldest Jennifer (Meg Saricks), after a fallen tree pins the storm door shut. Or should I say, after it’s nailed tight by the homeowners upstairs. It’s a hard start (the first 30 minutes anyway), hampered a bit by Patrick’s micro-budget and some newbie/amateur acting – but Nailbiter is far from “thrown together”, and Rea and co-writer Kendall Sinn have become masterful storytellers whose mutant powers are the ability to overcome these things with fresh ideas within the realm of what they’re working with.
These ladies do have a cell phone, but the storm is messing with the signal. The police even arrive early and discover their location. This is all for naught though, and instead of playing the viewer for a fool with these natural factors, Rea and Sinn deal with them in a direct, acceptable manner that doesn’t insult your intelligence. But all of these things are really secondary to the real threat at hand. Nailbiter‘s fear factor is about the creatures that are now running loose in the yard. And the one that is still in the basement with them.
Yes, Nailbiter is actually a monster movie, and with a minuscule budget this might also induce fear of cheap CGI or FX – but I have to give this director credit. The only noticeable CGI worth criticizing is the twister, abut because it’s used sparingly, it’s OK. The creatures, however, are done brave with practical FX – with wide eyes and nail-like protrusions for teeth. Rea follows the mantra of “the less shown the better” – and it works, because when you DO see what is down there with them – it’s actually a bit shocking, what they managed to pull off (I’ll admit, I sat back in my seat) – and your imagination energetically takes over the rest.
Nailbiter is a firm sign that Patrick Rea and his team have evolved. Usually no more harmful to the psyche than a horror film from the 1950’s, Rea steps it up a notch, sneaking some violent R material into his otherwise Lifetime/Hallmark-like television delivery. While I would recommend Patrick Rea to anyone with young children looking to transition through a smooth and non-traumatic gateway into the genre, I made the mistake of showing it to my 10 year old daughter, who ended up scared to death. I, a hardened veteran on the other hand, enjoyed it for the cliché-shattering surprises and original story which I had no grip on predetermining. With its semi-cliffhanger ending, Rea has admitted that a sequel is in the works already – with perhaps more to follow. So while Nailbiter suffers ever so slightly from the curse of the budget strained independent film (factors like its beautiful cinematography make up for it) – trust that the story does pick up the pace once you find out who is upstairs, and in the basement with the ladies. There’s some decent potential here for a mini horror saga. Nailbiter is sharp and deadly all in all, and despite its unresolved portions and imperfections, you’re left on a good note with a different monster movie than your standard R-rated fare.
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
You must be logged in to post a comment.