Ever since The Blair Witch Project emerged as the famed horror flick of the last century, filmmakers have been trying to replicate its success when it comes to foind footage horror. The Curse of Professor Zardonicus is a valiant attempt with a good amount of local appeal.
Written, directed, and starred by Houston’s own Gabriel Theis, the movie centers around a student filmmaker Greg who gets lost in the delusions of another college student he is documenting. Alec White, a Houston actor, plays Daren, who is convinced that a cryptid that haunts the University of Houston campus attacked him. Prof Zardonicus was a teacher who was burned alive in a lab fire and emerged as a monster mutant craving blood from co-eds.
To address the question at hand, Zardonicus is practically a lifted version of Patrick Brice’s 2004 film Creep. Both films are ”two handers” in that they both feature a man with a video camera slowly descending into the depths of another person’s violent insanity. Both images are set up so that the family members of the deluded person being chased inform them that he is not as he seems, plus, both have terrifying rubber wolf masks as part of the final scenes. The two films are so similar to one another that it becomes somewhat painful to watch Zardonicus.
This is regrettable because Zardonicus is without a doubt a rush as an experience on its own. While Zardonicus does not have the scares that Creep has due to Darren being much less of a monster than Creep’s Josef, Zardonicus makes up for it with a nuanced portrayal of a man in severe mental distress. Darren, in this case, is the ultimate true believer, even if he knows perfectly well that what he believes in is clear bull.
It might actually be more disturbing when we compare stalking behavior to frantic and anxious propheteering of students on campus as it does not only involve him crashing an LGBT poetry showcase, but includes him forcing people to listen to him preach about the beast. It is reminiscent of the fascist conspiracy that we have witnessed over the past few years. When we consider how Darren is endlessly pursuing the cryptid, it is easy to compare him with a deeply radicalized young white supremo who is being slowly lured into elaborate vicious theories about microchipped Jews or vaccines.
Even more intriguing is the interplay between them which appears deeply disturbing. Rather shocking as it may sound, Greg sets out on this documentary project with the plan of using Darren as an exhibit, that is until he starts believing in the existence of the monster. When prodded, it becomes increasingly clear that he actively encourages Darren to create his fantasies. His actions result in Darren experiencing psychological break out that goes past being mere harm. In all honesty, whatever happened to never shining a light on someone’s darkness this practice of enabling someone to do so is guaranteed to turn them into the monster they are meant to be. Everyone is aware of the parallels this has with social media.
This time around Zardonicus might have just borrowed one of better faux-documentary horror films in the last 20 years and just called it a day. It would have been entertaining, but forgettable. Still, the movie comes through with the skills Zardonicus and White managed to deliver. Theis gets what even some well-known Hollywood movie talents fail to understand. Faux documentary means one thing in form of Blair Witch, but everything else is simply fictitious. A movie should look like random home videos, but have proper sense of framing and dramatic build. The Curse of Professor Zardonicus is a very good example of a horror fauxcumentary is supposed to be done.
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.jpg?w=1024&resize=1024,1024&ssl=1 "The Longest Yard (2005)")
