The Cult Leader

Director - Nate Thompson

Starring - Halle Rose, Jeremiah Goldmain, and Brandon Gee

Release Date - 2021

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "No escape for the wicked"
Format - Streaming (YouTube)

Rating (out of 5):

     The pandemic has put a bit of a strain on last year and this year's Halloween horror binge for me but I'm still grateful for the few films that was able to get knocked out with so many obstacles that has befell them the last two years.  A few days ago director Nate Thompson reached out to check out his newest short The Cult Leader.  The title really sold me on the short so I quickly agreed to check it out.  I'm glad I did because I had a lot of fun with it.  Thanks Nate for allowing Horror Society and myself the opportunity to check out your hard work.

      The film follows a group of young adults who are looking to party and watch some television when they hear a strange noise.  One of them tells the others about the legend of the cult leader and soon they find themselves face to face with the masked wearing lunatic ready to slaughter them all where they stand.

     The Cult Leader doesn't set out to reinvent the genre.  It is straight and to the point with amazing atmosphere and a story that most feature length slashers try to stretch to reach a feature length running time.  It was fun for what it was and I really enjoyed the look and tone of the film.  Hell, if Thompson wanted to turn this into a feature film or a sequel I would be totally down.  The acting in this one is fun.  The characters are cliched and generic but the cast tackles these rolls with a comedic tone that I really enjoyed.  The cast had fun with it and that fun translated very well to the scene.  The story for this one is pretty much a tribute to standard slashers with a fun killer and just as fun kills.  The film runs around 7 minutes so the movie pretty much skips on the character development and just a little time is spent on the the backstory of The Cult Leader.  I loved how quick it was to get into the action but more time could be spent on the killer's origin story.  Finally, the film only has a few kills but they are very entertaining.  We get a good mixture of blood and humor which is always something that I look forward to when I toss in a movie.  The humor doesn't completely over shadow the blood and works with it.   Overall, The Cult Leader is a fun short that I would highly recommend to anyone looking for something short, sweet, and to the point this Halloween season.  I had a lot of fun with it and I'm sure you will too.