By Simon Thompson
I have a huge soft spot for 1980s American horror. With the tinted neon, synth soundtracks, colourful visuals, and atmosphere of something dangerous lurking underneath safe suburbia- that era and aesthetic has a special place in my heart.
Even though the 1930s-40s is the golden age of Universal, and the mid 1960s-1970s features movies which broke new ground for the genre stylistically and psychologically, it’s the 1980s above all else which I keep finding myself drawn to – with directors such as John Carpenter and George A Romero at the top of their games and the gaudy spectacle of indie horror being produced by studios like Troma.
This is why I found Matthew Fisher’s short film Consumer an absolute joy to watch, an 8-bit horror which functions as an unabashed love-letter to that decade and style of horror movies, but with a slick and contemporary twist due to Fisher’s influence from creepypasta’s (internet-based spooky stories).
Consumer tells the story of Matthew, a shy and bullied yet artistically talented high-school misfit (who because he’s in a movie if you took away his rinsed haircut, NHS glasses, and dusted trainers would look like an Edwin model).One afternoon after being bullied and mugged by a jock tough- guy, an artsy girl, and a more conventionally handsome Andrew McCarthy, happens upon a mysterious video-game shop run by an eccentric proprietor who offers Matthew an esoteric PC game called Consumer, a game which might just be a little bit too realistic.
Consumer works because it nails the visual aesthetics and cinematography of the movies that Fisher is paying homage to perfectly. Armed with a vapor-wave colour palette and an intentionally smaller aspect ratio, Consumer feels like a movie which could have easily been released in 1986 and that is probably the strongest compliment that I could pay it.
Fisher mentions that he’s strongly influenced by John Carpenter’s Christine and Prince of Darkness, and whilst the fingerprints of both of these movies is plainly there to see, I also felt that the visuals and tone were strongly reminiscent of other classics from the decade or slightly before, such as the opening shot being straight out of Dawn of The Dead and certain filters used in the cinematography reminding me of Creepshow. Alot of American horror from that decade was directed by people who grew up reading EC horror comics in the 1950s and wanted to achieve the same garish effect of an EC panel- something which Fisher possible does inadvertently here due to EC comics influencing his influences.
Overall Consumer is a simple yet atmospheric and well-made horror short, with enough personality and enthusiasm to make it worth your time. If you lean more into being a gore junky and enjoy the excessive side of 1980s horror this short might not be for you, but if you love more low-tech psychologically orientated horror then it definitely is.
Consumer screened as part of Panic Fest 2024.
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