The Waves of Madness (2024)

Agent Legrasse (director, writer, editor and so on Jason Trost), a special ops style operative for a mysterious organization involved in paranormal research and defence is sent to a cruise ship that has sent out a somewhat peculiar distress call, intimating cult activity and things of the squamous type.

The ship is in fact infested by things eldritch and unpleasant that attempt to stretch their slimy tentacles right into Legrasse’s mind. Fortunately, a mysterious woman named Francis (Tallay Wickham), who has for some reason been locked up in a cell – all cruise ships have those, right? – turns out to be a helpful ally. She’s great with a knife and with exposition and may very well not be completely real – what more can any agent ask for?

This Australian – say the movie databases and half of the accents – or US – say the ending credits and the other half of the accents – very indie production will probably give its viewer the more joy the more they enjoy the its obvious influences. If pulpy black and white, side-scrolling videogames, survival horror video games of about the PS1 and PS2 eras, the pulpiest mode of Lovecraft’s Mythos, perhaps a smidgen of Delta Green or a Hellboy-less BPRD and home made special effects are your thing, you’ll probably find a lot to delight you here. In fact, the film isn’t just influenced by side-scrollers but actually shot as a green screen version of one, even including the loading screens, I mean elevator rides. Which is quite an aesthetic choice to make, and one Trost really, really doubles down on with admirable stubbornness.

I’ve never been much into sidescrollers on the gaming side, but otherwise, everything the film’s auteur Jason Trost is very clearly into, I’ve had or have room in my life for as well, so there was little chance of me resisting Waves’ cheap, homemade and enthusiastic charms, even if I would have been able to ignore the project’s ambitious indie creds. If this is what Trost makes in his living room with a handful of friends, he’d probably take over the world if you gave him a budget.

And yes, sure and obviously, the acting isn’t always great, the effects are sometimes more charming than exactly good, and the script drags a little in the middle even with a seventy minute runtime, but there’s so much genuine enthusiasm, love, and raw ability on screen, these flaws feel beside the point for The Waves of Madness.