Movies
DVD Review: Low Budget Indie ‘Colin’
It can be pretty rough in spots, but I fully endorse the “outside the box” approach that Marc Price took with Colin, which depicts a standard zombie outbreak but tells it all the through the eyes of one of the zombies. It’s one of those “how has no one thought of this before” concepts that perhaps could have benefited from a bigger budget and/or a tighter script, but after a zillion interchangeable zombie movies, I’ll take an imperfect original over a polished bore. Check after the break for the full review!One interesting aspect is that there is almost no real dialogue in the film until the final moments; I think we’re at the 25 minute mark before someone says something of note, and that is fairly brief. It makes sense – zombies don’t usually talk after all, and probably don’t understand what anyone is saying, so since we’re in Colin’s “world”, any dialogue would probably have to be filtered or played backwards or something to keep the perspective. And since the movie is basically Colin stumbling around the city, it takes on a sort of hypnotic feel. It’s Gerry with zombies!
Alastair Kirton as Colin is also terrific, making a compelling character without speaking a word (and, you know, being a goddamn zombie). It’s not until the end of the film that we really understand where he’s coming from and how he got involved with the zombie invasion in the first place, so it’s kind of melancholy when everything comes full circle. How many zombie movies make you say “aww…” at the end? Zombie Honeymoon is probably the only other one I can think of off the top of my head.
It’s a shame that his performance is often obscured by the god awful shaki-cam, which is like Paul Greengrass to the nth power. On a roller coaster. While drunk. As I’ve said before, effective shaki-cam DOES require a skilled cameraman, and Mr. Price is not one of them. Making matters worse, the standard-def camera that they used was not suited for this sort of nonsense (nor was the film compressed properly – even the end credits are blurry, like a quarter resolution blown up to full screen), so you just have entire action scenes that are little more than a series of incomprehensible images and image artifacting. I get that they want things to be chaotic, but even a zombie can probably make out what he’s looking at and not see digital blocks all over the place.
It also could have used an editor that wasn’t also the guy who wrote and directed it. 97 minutes for a movie about a zombie wandering around is a bit much, and nearly every scene could be easily pared down, resulting in a film that’s more in the 75-80 minute range. Or, maybe cut down on the isolated attack scenes – we rarely have any idea who is being attacked, which is fine until they make little suspense moments out of it. Who cares if someone you don’t know gets bitten? Our HERO is a zombie! I like that he’s just sort of a random observer in most of the film’s events, but that makes scenes without him (he often disappears in these scenes, at least, I THINK he does – again, it’s hard to tell what I’m looking at in a lot of the more chaotic moments) feel like they’ve been tossed in from another movie entirely.
One benefit to the movie’s borderline silent approach is that if you can’t endure the shaki-cam for two viewings, you can enjoy the commentary on your first viewing if you like. It’s a great track, with Price admitting some of his mistakes, pointing out several references (including one that was meant to be another George, not Romero), and explaining how they got away with certain sequences. They also spend a laudable amount of time thanking all of the friends and family who let them beg borrow and steal to get the movie done. Some deleted scenes are mentioned more than once, but the commentary is the only extra on the disc (and it’s broken – when you select the commentary from the menu it just stops the disc; I had to just play the movie normally and then switch the audio track). However there is a 2-disc edition available, so I would assume that (and more) is on the 2nd disc – it’s a bummer they didn’t send that one to me! I notice a lot of DVD sites don’t even bother reviewing the extras anymore – I do it even for movies I bought/rented on my own! I’d certainly do it for something I was sent to review.
It’s good to know that after all this time and so many movies, folks are still finding unique ways to tell their own zombie stories. The film’s got a lot of technical issues (not all of which can be chalked up to their alleged 75 dollar budget), but it’s interesting and ambitious, which is more than I can say for most. Someone give Price a tripod and a bigger check and let him do it again!
Movie score 7/10
A/V score: 5/10
Extras: 8/10 (based on commentary; 2nd disc of bonus features not made available to us)
Read BC’s longer review at Horror Movie A Day!
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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