By JEFF SZPIRGLAS
Starring Faye Tamasa, Robert Brettenaugh and Burt Thakur
Written and Directed by Jake MacPherson
MVD/Dark Arts
Remember that time we all had to go into lockdown for a year? Writer-director Jake MacPherson sure does, and in his trippy feature debut, TERROR FIRMA (not to be confused with TROMA’s 199 horror-comedy Terror Firmer), he shifts the cause from a global pandemic to interstellar pods that send the LAPD circling above the city, trapping the populace indoors.
Faye Tamasa anchors the film as Lola, a wandering artist looking for a place to shelter. She winds up with her estranged adopted brother (Burt Thakur) and his weirdo roommate, Cage (Robert Brettenaugh). Thankfully, the shelter-in-place order comes with packages of delivered food, including a packet of strange seeds, which Lola plants in the backyard. When the seeds disappear into a hole filled with psychedelic juices (that the trio inexplicably ingest), events morph into a mind-warping journey that echoes Richard Stanley’s 2019 adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space.”
Brettenaugh gives a menacing performance as the unbalanced roommate, Cage, who spends the first half of the film lusting after Lola before succumbing to even more murderous inner demons. Early on, the challenge for the audience is finding something redeeming about Cage so that we buy that this guy actually ended up as somebody’s roommate. While Brettenaugh exudes charisma, his unhinged portrayal starts out over the top and is perhaps just a little too broad to be convincing.
MacPherson’s pandemic-rooted tale works well in the confined setting. When the seeds create holes deep enough for characters to crawl through, MacPherson employs effectively tangible images of dirt and sickly sap that enhance the story’s themes. Unfortunately, TERROR FIRMA remains ambiguous about its threats – both cosmic and domestic. How did the alien seeds get here? Why would they be packaged along with food? Wouldn’t the authorities circling the city also be susceptible to the threat? The rules of the film’s world aren’t fully fleshed out, and while this helps to establish the film’s disorienting atmosphere, it also means these nagging questions go unanswered.
While TERROR FIRMA strains for some kind of resolution, its best assets, aside from Tamasa’s spirited performance, are its more tactile elements. MacPherson’s background as a director of photography is clearly evident. He finds unusual ways to lens confined spaces, shooting the alien plants through the tint of sunglasses and employing dizzying angles to add a sense of unease to the subterranean tunnels the characters crawl through. This is enhanced by the sound design and a trippy score by Heavy Arms that feels like the sonic equivalent of taking one too many bong hits… in all the best ways.
At a time when larger budgets are going to legacy pictures and existing franchises, it’s nice to see that micro-budgeted seedlings like TERROR FIRMA are still inching their way out of the earth and onto our screens. It will be interesting to see what sprouts from MacPherson’s mind next.
