Movie Review: Black Holler (2017)

Black Holler is an independent horror film directed by Jason Berg and written by Berg, Heidi Ervin, and Rachel Ward Heggen. It’s set in 1989, and is a comedy/horror film that dabbles in many traditional tropes from traditional slashers of the era. It starts off with a cheesy montage-type sequence that introduces Tamiko Robinson Steele as LaQuita Johnson, who is the new girl in school. She starts the day they are preparing to go on a camping trip, which she is required to join, and they are lucky she did. The class arrives at camp and things start to get freaky in more ways than one. They start partying and dabbling in the dark arts, and the next day swim and do some camp activities but run into some evil along the way. LaQuita and the rest of the camp are in some serious trouble and have to try to survive the experience.

The first thing we noticed was that this film was done really well for being Berg’s first attempt at directing a feature film. The vibe was definitely reminiscent of ’80s horror. There are some well-done flashback scenes, and the overall quality of the production was good and much better than you would expect. The acting wasn’t that bad either, and most of the cast didn’t have much if any prior experience. The score was all classic synth which was perfect for the time period.

The story itself wasn’t really that fresh, but the film plays out as a parody of itself and the “camp killer” theme. The writers accomplished that well in this film. The practical effects were extremely cheesy but practical, and this film did a great job of capturing the ridiculousness of ’80s horror and films from that era in general. There is even a nod to a specific chant from a classic 1988 film in which the same phrase is used to conjure up evil.

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed Black Holler. We don’t know if it was the cheesy acting, story, special effects, or a combination of all of the above, but there is definitely something special about it. It maintains that charm that a lot of ’80s films had and stays in that pocket for the duration of the film. We would definitely recommend it to fans of horror/comedy, cheesy horror, or campy slashers in camps with a lot of slashing. It’s a fun film that doesn’t take itself seriously at all but manages to stay enjoyable throughout by hitting that nostalgia button in the best possible way.

You can find Black Holler right now streaming on Amazon Prime here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YM4BQ3B

Below are some of the festival appearances and awards it has won: