Macabre…ish Horror Review: Last Radio Call
Last Radio Call, 2022/1 hr 16 min.
A police officer, David Serling (Jason Scarbrough), goes missing on the job while searching an abandoned hospital with his partner. He just vanished and all that’s left if his body cam footage.
His wife, Sarah (Sarah Froelich), requests what information she can for a documentary she plans to make about his disappearance. She needs answers even if she has to get them on her own.
David’s partner was the last person to see him alive and survived and not only did he not have a scratch on him but no memory of that night. Sarah returned to the hospital and called the department, everyday for a month, unsatisfied, she’s hired a documentary crew to investigate and piece together what happened that night and get the word out.
She talks to David’s former partner, Giles Ali (Ali Alkhafaji), who is still obviously struggling and traumatized by whatever happened there. Sarah also talks to a witness who called 911 after hearing screams from the hospital, that night. The witness has a video and on the video is the scream, it is not quite human.
After getting drunk and giving up on the whole thing after unsuccessfully breaking into the hospital, Sarah sees a strange and terrifying clip online, that changes her mind. Then David’s partner calls Sarah and invites her back to his house, unfortunately before she arrives, he takes his own life. In his hand, is David’s radio.
She then meets a man who has thousands of hours of raw footage that contains proof but he requires anonymity.
As expected, the videos are disturbing and in many cases the press coverage is very different than what’s recorded on body cam footage. This hunt for the truth is turning into much more than Sarah expected.
After having a personal and physical experience with an entity, she becomes despondent and obsessed with David’s radio. She sits with the radio, talking to David.
Later, in the hospital, Sarah shares recordings with the documentarist, of people talking, including her but she swears it’s not her. Soon she’s running down a hall yelling David’s name. And she finds him. The crew gets left behind unfortunately but it’s probably the only thing that saved their lives.
This is a POV documentary style indie horror directed by Isaac Rodriguez, this feels like it could be on a tape from the V/H/S franchise. As a matter of fact, his style has that feel. This movie has some blood and gore but this is no gore fest. This movie also feels longer than it actually is, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Good ending, I don’t think I’ve seen an ending like it in this horror genre. Sure there’s a Rec and Quarantine moment but those are zombie genre. It fits well here. I really enjoyed this film