Replicator (2024) (Blu-ray Review)
DIRECTED BY: Mark Andrew Hamer
STARRING: KateLynn E. Newberry, Brey Noelle, Brian Spangler
RATED: UR/Region: O/2:35/1080P/NUMBER OF DISCS 1 (BDr)
AVAILABLE FROM Good Deed Entertainment
Replicator is one of those movies where you read the premise and immediately think, “Okay, this could either be really cool or I’m about to spend 90 minutes watching people make terrible decisions.”
Directed by Mark Andrew Hamer, the 2024 horror film follows a young public defender investigating the sudden moral transformation of a small town’s criminals. People who were apparently perfectly happy being pieces of shit suddenly start becoming model citizens, which sounds like a wonderful development until you realize that in a horror movie, nobody suddenly becomes a better person for wholesome reasons.
Something supernatural is going on, and naturally our protagonist decides the appropriate response is to investigate it rather than move somewhere with fewer murderous weirdos.
Because apparently being a public defender isn’t stressful enough.
I actually liked the concept quite a bit. There’s something fun about a town full of criminals suddenly developing a conscience and everyone having to figure out why. It’s a neat setup for a supernatural horror story because you immediately start wondering what the hell is going on behind the scenes. Are these people actually changing? Are they being manipulated? Is somebody—or something—pulling the strings?
And, more importantly, what’s the catch?
Because there’s always a catch.
Replicator also isn’t shy about getting bloody. When the movie decides it’s time to stop investigating and start spilling some red stuff, it delivers enough gore to remind you that yes, you are in fact watching a horror movie and not an episode of Law & Order: Everybody Suddenly Became Nice.
The bloodier moments are definitely where the movie earns some extra points. The supernatural elements work best when they’re allowed to get nasty, and there’s enough weirdness going on to keep the whole thing from feeling like a standard mystery with a couple of horror scenes stapled onto it.
The movie is also a product of Ohio, which gives me another reason to appreciate it. There’s something I enjoy about regional indie horror. You don’t necessarily need some giant Hollywood production pretending that every American town is actually Vancouver. Give me a movie made in Ohio where the locals are fighting supernatural bullshit and I’ll take that any day.
Of course, Replicator has its rough edges. This is clearly an indie production, and there are moments when the budget makes itself known. Some of the pacing could be tighter, and there are times when the story feels like it’s taking the scenic route to get to where it wants to go.
But that’s part of the bargain with movies like this.
You’re not showing up expecting a $50 million production with flawless effects and a cast of twenty recognizable faces. You’re showing up because the premise sounds bizarre, the movie looks like it has some blood in its veins, and you want to see what kind of crazy shit the filmmakers came up with.
And Replicator gives you enough of that to make the trip worthwhile.
I especially appreciate that it doesn’t simply settle for another generic “evil supernatural thing terrorizes small town” story. The idea of criminals becoming good people is weird enough to give the movie its own identity, and the mystery surrounding that transformation provides a decent hook.
Plus, anytime a movie can make me wonder whether the town’s criminals becoming better people is actually more terrifying than them being criminals, you’ve got my attention.
Replicator isn’t perfect, but it’s a bloody, strange little indie horror movie with a good central idea and enough supernatural nastiness to keep things moving. It’s got that scrappy quality where you can see the limitations, but you can also see the filmmakers trying to make something different.
And honestly, I’d rather watch an ambitious indie movie with some rough edges than another polished horror movie that feels like it was assembled by a committee whose only instruction was “Please don’t make anyone too uncomfortable.”
At least Replicator has the decency to get weird and bloody.
So if you’re looking for a horror movie where the bad guys suddenly become good, the good guys start asking uncomfortable questions, and Ohio once again proves that apparently anything can happen there, this one is worth checking out.
Just remember: if all the criminals in your town suddenly become nice overnight…
Don’t celebrate.
Start digging.
Extras
- Audio Commentary
- Featurette
