Movies
Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (V)
“The third act is made up of a 30 minute shootout and it has one of the funniest death scenes I’ve ever seen in a film, a William Shatner-esque performance by Carradine, vampire bat stop-motion effects, a great score by Richard Stone and a few moments of inspired cinematography by Levie Isaacks…”
Lost Film Classic.
How many times have you seen those words, or something like them, undeservedly used in a film’s advertising? The word “classic” is very opinion based to begin with but I feel its tossed around way too often these days in an effort to evoke a false sense of nostalgia for films that a lot of us have never seen (or heard of) before. I just saw a list on The Observer that named SAVE THE LAST DANCE a lost classic. Apparently, its a forgotten film in the U.K., even though its had two different DVD releases from what I can tell, and considered somewhat of a gem. I don’t see how anyone could put that on the same list as TWO-LANE BLACKTOP and expect someone to take them seriously but, hey, every film has it’s fans.
That brings me to SUNDOWN: THE VAMPIRE IN RETREAT, a film that is being touted as a lost film classic from Anthony Hickox, the man who brought us the cheesy-fun WAXWORK and the cheesy-but-less-fun HELLRAISER III. While I would consider it lost, since Vestron went belly-up on the cusp of its theatrical run and it ended up with a limited VHS release (copies used to go for $100+ on eBay!), curiosity would be a more appropriate word to describe it than classic.
The town of Purgatory used to thrive off the copper market until the industry bottomed out, leaving it just another isolated and forgotten mine outpost when Count Mardulak (David Carradine) showed up. Seeing Purgatory’s potential in being a haven for vampires, Mardulak resuscitates the desert town with powerful sunblock and a synthetic-blood manufacturing plant built by Shane (Maxwell Caulfield), an undead engineer. Mardulak’s simple way of eternal life for his townsfolk was almost completely realized, except that the blood factory could never work to its full potential. In an effort to not resort to their old ways, the town calls upon David Henderson (Jim Metzler), the designer of the plant, to resolve their issues. Unfortunately for the Henderson family, they couldn’t have arrived at a worse time. It seems that Mardulak’s right hand man, Ethan (John Ireland), doesn’t exactly appreciate his new way of life and along with Shane and a few handfuls of wood-capped bullets, they’re planning a mutiny against the Count. To make things even more complicated, Robert Van Helsing (Bruce Campbell) shows up to dole out his own brand of justice against the children of the night.
SUNDOWN reminds me of Richard Kelly’s SOUTHLAND TALES in that its watchable and bizarrely amusing throughout but a little too ambitious for its own good. There are just far too many unnecessary subplots, ideas and characters and because of that, the film is about 20 minutes too long. For example, Dana Ashbrook, of TWIN PEAKS fame, shows up as a traveler and, along with his girlfriend, is trapped in a jail cell for almost the entire movie. They don’t add anything important or significant and are basically left to take up background space. Same goes for Campbell, Carradine and M. Emmet Walsh, who are far more interesting than anyone in the Harrison family, yet they weren’t on screen nearly enough. That’s really the big cardinal sin of SUNDOWN: the main characters just aren’t interesting and the ones that are, aren’t in the forefront of the story. The only subplot of the movie that I didn’t mind was the marital infidelity of David’s wife, Sarah (Brittany Morgan), who had an affair with Shane some years ago. It’s not that it was particularly useful but whenever David brought up something about the plant, Shane always made a snide comment about his affair with Sarah, resulting in a hearty belly laugh from me every time. Overall, SUNDOWN has a great premise but I think there’s a far more interesting story that could’ve been told with these characters.
Aside from those gripes, the third act is made up of a 30 minute shootout and it has one of the funniest death scenes I’ve ever seen in a film, a William Shatner-esque performance by Carradine, vampire bat stop-motion effects, a great score by Richard Stone and a few moments of inspired cinematography by Levie Isaacks. That’s more than enough for me to recommend SUNDOWN: THE VAMPIRE IN RETREAT to those who are looking for something a little offbeat and humorous in the genre.
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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