Film Review: My First Horror Film (2024)
My First Horror Film is one of those indie meta-commentary outings that tries to be a lot of things: a horror film, an portrait of the aspiring actor’s plight, and a broad-brush exploration of the black experience in American cinema, specifically the horror genre. While this territory has been particularly well-explored in the past decade in other films, My First Horror Film struggles to contribute to the narrative, turning in takes that are tired at best, and muddled beyond meaning in the worst cases. It also fails to be much of a horror movie.
The story opens with a young actress/influencer landing her first full role in a secret horror film. Not content to bet it all on this becoming famous the old fashioned way, she takes matters into her own hands and plants several hidden cameras on her body in the interest of creating content for her online channel. Her friend drops her off in a parking lot where she’ll be shuttled to the set, and at once there are red flags aplenty. First, all of the actors involved with the project are twenty-somethings looking for their first real break, and each can share only their character’s name as part of the production agreement. What this means in reality is our characters are known as Lead, Jock, Girlfriend and Black Guy. Yep, that’s right: the Wayans Brothers did this twenty years ago, albeit slightly less ham-fistedly. From there, the actors are hustled into a van and blindfolded to be ushered away to the film location.
The film starts well enough, Lead (Georgina Navarro) has a vibrant charisma that comes through the screen and immediately gets the audience rooting for her. She’s a touch naive, but so convincingly genuine in her love of horror films and her enthusiasm for acting that I couldn’t help but get on-side. The rest of the cast is pretty solid as well, turning in above-par performances that quickly become the sole positive of this film.
“Some people just like seeing a good kill on screen.”
For a while the film tightropes between intrigue and tedium, but the solid acting, likeable people, and premise can only push the film so far before it becomes clear there are substantial pacing issues, as well as a nearly unworkable script. The film meanders, spending nearly half of its runtime telling you just as much as I have in these few paragraphs.
If you’ve read this site before, you know I kind of pride myself on having a solid attention span and try to write content for people who appreciate the same, but even I found myself checking the timestamp and wanting to give the film another ten or fifteen minutes to do something that moved the story forward. It missed the mark in every instance, the script wandering into unnecessary character asides, peripheral plotlines, and probably worst of all, failing for far too long to build any sense of dread or menace.
The there is some decent comedic writing, and at the scene-level, it succeeds in moments, creating exchanges between characters that are at least entertaining even if they aren’t particularly meaningful. Unfortunately, where the film spends its time and what it chooses to show often seems rudderless, and while cast members do eventually start dying at the hand of a killer, when we find out who the bad guy murderer is (something the plot moves unerringly toward….there are no surprises) their motives are explained away in a single line. Why the creators didn’t spend more time on developing the horror angle is beyond me, not because it's required but simply because the film elects to squander so much runtime on unimportant things.
There are occasional cinematographic strokes I appreciate. In several instances, the viewer is dropped right into a scene of the fictional movie without any prefacing and you don't know if a character is sharing some backstory, talking about something that happened earlier on set, or actually just playing out a scene from the film they are purportedly making. And it creates these nice moments of emotional breakage.
“Baby, Nobody Knows Who Bill Murray Is.”
It’s sensitive, but I have to go there, fully conscious that I am a white critic sharpening spears for a black creator’s work. It’s something that gives me no joy (tearing down other’s work never does) but I would be remiss and dishonest if I didn’t engage this element
There’s a substantial amount of commentary on the black experience in both the United States and Hollywood in particular, but none of what is presented in this film brings anything new to the table, and frankly, it offers up perspectives that became mainstream points of lazy conversation for the topic decades ago. Sure, black actors died early and often in horror films, sometimes without much development, but that was forty years ago; it’s been a talking point for twenty, and you just have to find something deeper to contribute at this point. While there are some recent outliers, virtually all of them conscious that they are playing to a much-maligned cliché, they’re vastly outnumbered by films where black characters take the lead, wield influence, have complex character arcs, and receive the plaudits. Maybe the commentary featured in this film would have been poignant in the 1990s or 2000s, but it feels lazy today, and our hands grew tired of clapping for it some time ago.
Final Thoughts
Despite some decent scene writing and the occasional moments of menace, as well as solid performances from the cast, My First Horror Film feels exactly like what it calls itself. The pacing is mangled, the script wasteful and meandering, and the commentary on the black experience in film just doesn't say anything new or poignant. An unfortunate squandering of some talented people. At its heart, it's not a bad idea for a horror film, but there are just too many holes, too many weak areas for it to succeed.
Score: 3.8
Strengths
Decent scene writing, and some real moments of menace when it wants to be scary
Acting is above par
World class cameo that made me jump out of my seat
Weaknesses
Muddled storyline will likely leave some viewers confused
Pacing issues throughout
Fails to say anything particularly unique or interesting about its subject matter
