What would you give to be together with the person you love?
This is the overarching question of Clark Baker’s retro sci-fi horror Test Screening, where a group of teenagers become paranoid after a test screening of an unknown film comes to their small town, with drastic consequences.
Set in 1982, Baker’s feature wears its influences on its sleeve, commenting on The Thing, and Star Wars and the director does a serviceable job of bringing us back to a simpler time.
Leading them is Drew Scheid who many will remember from Halloween 2018 and the Fear Street series, who works at the local cinema, letting his friends have their own private screenings from time-to-time.
Interestingly, there is a queer sub-plot which feels like it’s dropped before it can gather steam.
Baker also draws from Society with some of his commentary around class, capitalism and of course there’s some body horror thrown in for good measure.
Test Screening is more comfortable when it slips into B-movie territory, as some of its more elevated narratives feel a little contrived.
The film is held together by the performance of our quartet, with the other great turn in the film coming from The Passenger’s Johnny Berchtold, who conveys a troubled home life, with a terminally ill mother and a dad who is barely keeping it together.
Test Screening will be lapped up by nostalgia hounds and is entertaining enough to appeal beyond that crowd.
Test Screening screened as part of Frightfest 2024.
Bloody Flicks 