Editorials
[It Came From the ’80s] The Ozploitation Horror of ‘Razorback’
With horror industry heavy hitters already in place from the 1970s, the 1980s built upon that with the rise of brilliant minds in makeup and effects artists, as well as advances in technology. Artists like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Tom Savini, Stan Winston, and countless other artists that delivered groundbreaking, mind-blowing practical effects that ushered in the pre-CGI Golden Age of Cinema. Which meant a glorious glut of creatures in horror. More than just a technical marvel, the creatures on display in ‘80s horror meant tangible texture that still holds up decades later. Grotesque slimy skin to brutal transformation sequences, there wasn’t anything the artists couldn’t create. It Came From the ‘80s is a series that will pay homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.
If Jaws taught is anything, it’s that even nature can inspire the most terrifying of creature features. Otherwise referred to as “Jaws on Trotters,” this Ozploitation gem merges a gritty outback story in the vein of Mad Max with the Jaws horror blueprint, but with a giant razorback boar. Based on Peter Brennan’s novel of the same name, Razorback opens with one ballsy scene that features Jake Cullen tucking his two-year-old grandson in for bed, when a giant boar smashes through his house and carries the child away into the night. Suspected of murdering the child, Jake is accused and acquitted, shattering his reputation and sending him on a quest for vengeance against the beast.
In an adjacent story, an American wildlife reporter comes to the outback for a story on a shady pet food factory that hunts and uses kangaroo meat in its processing. The reporter gets into trouble with the thugs who run it, and her subsequent disappearance leads her husband Carl to travel down under to find out what happened to her. Carl and Jake’s paths eventually collide, thanks to the monstrous warpath of the Razorback.
That there’s a Mad Max vibe to the film isn’t surprising, considering director of photography Dean Semler was brought on based on his work in Mad Max 2. Director Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, Resident Evil: Extinction) was hired for his first feature film based on his work in music videos, namely for Duran Duran, and his use of fast cuts and tracking shots that wound up becoming his trademark was vital to what made Razorback intense.
Effects artist Bob McCarron (Dead Alive, Dark City, The Matrix) designed six different boards for the film, each with specific purposes. A huge chunk of the film’s budget went to constructing a massive animatronic razorback, but like Bruce in Jaws, it never quite looked realistic enough for Mulcahy to want to film it. So, just like Bruce, this $250,000 animatronic contraption that took up a large portion of the budget was only seen in the film for a few short minutes. Mulcahy had to get creative with his shots and sequences to keep the razorback frightening.
That the animatronic beast wasn’t quite realistic looking, forcing more creativity, meant a similar less-is-more terror to Razorback’s monster. The isolated, eerie dreamlike setting with the unexpected moments of mammoth pig ramming into his prey made for excellent scares. That you never really got a good look, save for his ferocious, tusked maw, made the beast almost supernatural. Razorback proved why good direction can be just as important as special effects in creature features.
Given a small limited release theatrically in November 1984, Razorback didn’t fare that well. A cast of unknowns wasn’t exactly a draw, and its plot too closely resembled Jaws. The irony is that Mulcahy originally wanted to cast Jeff Bridges for the role of Carl, but producer Hal McElroy felt Bridges lacked international appeal. Even still, Razorback hasn’t had a decent home video release stateside and is ripe for the Scream Factory or Arrow Video Blu-ray treatment. I’d be willing to bet that there are a lot of stories waiting to be told about production, and the uncooperative animatronic beast.
Even with its close Jaws resemblance, the Ozploitation flair, Mulcahy’s direction, and the bold kills by the beast make this film a fun watch. Razorback killed indiscriminately and without mercy. Characters you expect to survive don’t, and hell, Razorback opened with a bold death of a small child. Razorback may not be the most obvious creature feature, but it does prove that man versus nature horror films tend to be effective for a reason.
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.
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