There is no suitable time like the present to make a horror film that taps into the paranoia and uncertainty that the so-called ‘New Normal’ is hitting everybody with left, right and centre. Things appear to be more optimistic, but something still remains deadly in the shadows.
Howard J Ford is no stranger to horror, given his films THE DEAD and THE DEAD 2 and he follows up the family entertainment ADVENTURE BOYZ with the dark supernatural yarn, THE LOCKDOWN HAUNTINGS.
The country remains in lock-down and something malevolent is hiding in the wings to terrorise a specific group of women to the point of strangulation. Things are going bump all over in the night, day – and everywhere in between. For Detective George Parker (Angela Dixon), herself in quarantine, she may have to break a few rules like some people to get the job done, but how can you get the job done when the threat remains invisible and sinister all around?
As Parker pieces together the case and the increasing murders, she discovers there might be something else in a deeper phase of perception that could affect her as much as her victims.
Shot and filmed during the height of the global crisis, THE LOCKDOWN HAUNTINGS harks back to the truly spooky elements that defined many a classic mainstream and indie offering, coupled with classic British genre TV like CHILDREN OF THE STONES and HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR.
Fusing elements of the likes of Ulli Lommel’s THE BOGEY MAN (1980), POLTERGEIST (1982) and more recent hits like PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and THE CONJURING, this very British affair works a terrific mandate on the horror crowd, with some pretty effective scares based on expectation as much as anticipation.
Dixon invests the right balance of courage and vulnerability as she attempts to close the case and Ford shows a terrific sense of genre awareness in a film that is an achievement in itself – and an inspiration to other film-makers and aspirants who want to get into the indie film market.
A modern horror gem.
THE LOCKDOWN HAUNTINGS is available now on Amazon Prime and other streaming platforms.
