Round the Decay

I saw this movie recently, and enjoyed it even more than I thought it would! It was also nice to see many familiar names from the New England filmmaking community in the credits! The characters were engaging, the dialogue artful and funny, and the cinematography was lovely as well! Actors were also quite talented. The only issue was that I did not understand a few backstory and plot points, but that is pretty minor. I also liked the subplots that show the dynamics between the characters! I also felt that the dialogue showed us the characters' personalities in subtle ways. Great job, everybody!

Heading out with her friends, a woman arrives in a small town to begin their get-together with each other but are soon confronted by a malevolent creature that has connections to a special curse placed on the town by the founders decades ago and must try to stop it from claiming them.

This was a fairly solid if somewhat underwhelming effort. Among the better elements present with this one is the generally likable setup that manages to bring about some intriguing elements. The general setup of the creature representing a town-wide curse on the specific bloodline and returning to wreak havoc in the area offers up a solid enough starting point as this one brings about the concept of a devastating creature with a solid backstory. The connection to the town and the means of resurrecting it features some chilling aspects about the lengths the town will go to keep it satiated as it soon grows into a seeming conspiracy involving the elders luring the group together to be killed off by the creature and the means they'll go to save everyone else which all give this one a rather intriguing setup. As a result, the scenes of the creature on the loose rampaging through the town are generally quite fun. The inherently unconventional nature of its appearance, looking like a grotesque, deformed humanoid with exaggerated features and inhuman proportions offers a lot to like with several solid stalking scenes featured here. From the first major scene stalking the friends around the woods to the local arcade where it continues the assault to the scenes in the creature's cave lair where everything comes together and gets revealed, there are some immensely fun scenes here of the creature coming about to viciously slaughter others as the rapid ferocity and carnage on display are quite fun. That even includes the highlight massacre at the hockey rink where the town has gathered which is equally filled with action and carnage, making for a solid effort overall. There are some problems with this one holding it back. The main issue here is the generally rushed nature of the storyline making this one seemingly jump into everything without much context. Dropping us into the couples going on the trip who are already at the site in the woods and setting up camp, laughing and joking with each other, and heading off into the other group who are staying at the cabin nearby with their issues and rivalries which get spelled out here with very little context of what's going on. In some cases, the backstory about the town and its history with the creature is given by someone who we don't know their name yet so it comes off immensely awkward trying to figure out what's going on. As well as some generally obvious cheesy low-budget moments, these bring it down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, graphic Violence, Brief Nudity, and a sex scene.

This was a film that I got the chance to see thanks to Alex from Simply Legendary Publicity. He helped me get a copy of the screener from Dreamscape Productions. Now I knew this was an independent horror film from 2025, that made it enough for me to check this out to help fill out my end of year list. Other than that, I came in knowing as little as possible.

Synopsis: a young woman returns to the site of her broken engagement, Newport's Valley, a sleepy tourist town with an all-consuming secret.

We start this off with a big tent outside of a cave. There is a Native American woman that is fleeing through the woods. She is captured and brought before Whelan Newport (Roger Clark) and his wife, Mary (McKenna Parsons). We see that there is a curse in this area and Whelan is doing a ritual. It requires a sacrifice.

It then shifts to the present day. This area has now become a quaint tourist town. Gregory Newport (Jamie Dufault) is descended from Whelan. He's married to Theresa (Melody Kay). There is a meeting set up as Bart Blakewell (Cary Hite) has taken over the local inn. He is attacked by the other townspeople as he's new. The past owners have struggled, coming in with similar agendas and they're tired of hearing it. Being that this is the offseason, it is a struggle. He forgot to call off Rosalyn Jackson (Sienna Hubert-Ross). This annoys her that she came in as the other worker, Felicity Tinsley (Kate Kiddo), is already there.

Now something to include here is that our main character is Kenzie Rhodes (Victoria Mirrer). She's been to this town in the past. She came here with her fiancé, Zack Katarn (Topher Hansson). Something happened and it has changed her life. She's now come back for what seems like closure. While at the bar of the inn, she meets Munroe (Damian Maffei). He tells her that she should leave while she still can, being ominous.

I'll also include here that we have a group of hikers. There is Aida Kazarian (Alexis Safoyan) with her friend Tara Monti (Angela Ann Palermo). She's interested in Trevor Darrisaw (Sassan Saffari). He's there with his friend, James Ford (Jay Voishnis). His nickname is Muffin. Aida has a thing for him, but another girl from work came along who is showing attention. Things happen on the mountain. There are secrets here in the caves and the town is doing what they can to cover them up. There is this entity known as the Wrexsoul (Rachel Pizzolato) that needs to be fed.

That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is with something I appreciated. We have this entity here called the Wrexsoul. I did a google search to see if this is something that is folklore and nothing came up, except for the video game series Final Fantasy. The little bit that I read there seemed like that was an evil entity that came about through the mingling of souls. That is something that fits with what I saw in this movie. I'd also say that it borrows from the Wendigo mythology as well. Regardless, it is an interesting monster to use here.

Now that I've set that up, the location of this film is also a positive. I love that we're in a small tourist town in New Hampshire. It is the offseason so we see that the established businesses are fine. It is just this inn that has another new owner, Bart, who is struggling. He can't afford to pay Roz to come into work and there's already Felicity. I'm not fully sure why this is the only business that is struggling, allowing new faces to be in the town. This just being out of the way and the isolation that comes with it worked for me.

These last parts of the story are something I'll tread lightly with as I don't want to spoil. The first one is that I didn't necessarily pick up at first why we got this cold opening. It made sense to introduce that there is a creature that stalks the town. It took me longer to realize that Greg is a descendant of Whelan and a legacy in town. I'm not sure if he was the mayor or if this town just recognizes him as the leader. Despite how welcoming he is of Bart; it made me not trust after making that connection. Then the other one is Munroe. What I'll say is that he's like a witch hunter, being called here but we don't necessarily know by who until the end of the 2nd act. He's mysterious which fits the role. Both elements help deepen the story.

Let me then shift over to discussing the acting performances. Mirrer is good as our lead. She is troubled and it takes time to develop that. This helps to build her character which works. Maffei has enough swagger to him as this mysterious monster hunter. What I like though is that he's not an expert. He puts his life on the line to defeat different things. I wouldn't hate to see him come back in more stories. Hubert-Ross, Hite, Safoyan and the rest of the outsiders are good. There are a lot of characters for cannon fodder. I did appreciate that. They're all given just enough personality to stand out as well. I also like Dufault, Kay and the rest of the townspeople. They distrust outsiders for a good reason as this feels like a tight knit community. I'll also say that Pizzolato worked as this person inside of the creature makeup. I would have never guessed that is how she looked. How she moves as this entity brings life to it.

All that is left then is filmmaking. This doesn't have the biggest budget, but it does good things to hide that. I've already said that I liked the setting. The cinematography and framing help bring that to life. This also helps with the effects. They mostly went practical from what I could tell. The look of the monster was good. The blood and gore we got did as well. They did limit this which is fine. When we got closer shots, there were no issues. There was a bit of CGI used here. It didn't look great, but it was trying to do fire with them. That is just too difficult unfortunately. Other than that, the sound design was solid and the soundtrack that was synced with what I saw worked.

In conclusion, this was a solid low budget creature feature. I do like the setup to set up the monster, the town and that something is not quite right here. The acting isn't great, but it makes distinct enough characters. This was also made well enough with the setting, cinematography, framing and effects leading the way there. If I have a gripe, this just ran a bit too long. Trimming this to 90 minutes would help. How it is though, I enjoyed my time here. I'd recommend this if you are into these movies.

My Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Fresh off seeing Round the Decay, a very impressive indie horror film. Victoria Mirrer is fantastic as the lead. The rest of the cast is solid, with shoutouts to Cary Hite and Sienna Hubert-Ross. Unlike most movies, you walk away from this movie having learned something about most of the characters and their quirks. Some humor, some sadness, and a modicum of gore. The use of flashbacks was very well done. The pacing is great, and the movie flies by. The monster and the monster screeches live on in my memory. What else can you ask for? I recommend taking a chance on this flick. It's on a limited distribution at this point, but worth searching for.