13 Tracks to Frighten Agatha Black (Blu-ray Review)
DIRECTED BY: Bradley Steele Harding
STARRING: Alli Hart, Elena Sanchez, Jared Bankens
RATED: UR/Region: O/1:78/1080P/NUMBER OF DISCS 1 (BD-r)
AVAILABLE FROM Uncork’d Entertainment
13 Tracks to Frighten Agatha Black is one of those movies that feels like it was discovered inside an old trunk in an abandoned theater, next to a dusty Ouija board and a stack of forgotten vinyl records. Directed by Bradley Steele Harding and starring Bridie Marie Corbett, this 2022 indie horror oddity isn’t interested in jump scares, found footage gimmicks, or whatever demon is currently terrorizing streaming audiences this week. Instead, it aims for something much stranger.
Whether it succeeds probably depends on how much weirdness you’re willing to tolerate.
The story follows Agatha Black, a young woman who receives a mysterious record album containing thirteen unsettling tracks, each seemingly dragging her deeper into a nightmare. It’s a premise that sounds like it was brainstormed by somebody who watched Creepshow, listened to too many haunted record urban legends, and thought, “You know what? Let’s make the entire movie feel like a fever dream.”
Mission accomplished.
The film has a deliberately surreal atmosphere that often feels like you’re watching somebody else’s bad dream. Scenes drift in and out with dream logic, strange imagery appears without explanation, and the movie frequently seems more interested in mood than coherent storytelling. There are moments where you’ll find yourself wondering what exactly is happening. There are also moments where you’ll stop wondering because you’ve accepted that the movie probably doesn’t know either.
Thankfully, the film’s bizarre aesthetic is also one of its biggest strengths. Harding creates a genuinely eerie atmosphere with limited resources, and the movie often feels like a horror comic book that somehow escaped into the real world. The visuals are creative, the soundtrack does a lot of heavy lifting, and the whole production has the kind of handmade charm that’s becoming increasingly rare.
Bridie Marie Corbett does a solid job carrying the film, especially considering she’s often asked to react to things that would leave most actors flipping through the script looking for additional context. She keeps the audience invested even when the narrative starts wandering through some very strange territory.
The biggest issue is pacing. At times, 13 Tracks to Frighten Agatha Black feels less like a movie and more like thirteen separate music videos held together by sheer determination. Some segments are genuinely creepy, others are merely odd, and a few feel like they were included because nobody wanted to cut their favorite weird scene.
The film also occasionally falls into the classic indie horror trap of mistaking confusion for mystery. There’s a fine line between leaving questions unanswered and leaving the audience staring at the screen like they accidentally skipped a chapter. 13 Tracks occasionally moonwalks across that line.
Still, I’d rather watch an ambitious weird mess than another cookie-cutter horror movie assembled by algorithm. At least this one has personality. Lots of personality. In fact, it has so much personality that it occasionally forgets to have a plot.
But honestly, that’s part of the appeal.
13 Tracks to Frighten Agatha Black won’t work for everyone. Some viewers will find it hypnotic and atmospheric. Others will spend ninety minutes trying to figure out what they just watched. Most will probably do both. It’s strange, uneven, occasionally frustrating, but never boring. In today’s horror landscape, that’s worth something.
Besides, any movie that commits this hard to being weird deserves at least a little respect. Even if it occasionally feels like it was transmitted from another dimension through a haunted record player.
