REVIEW: DEATH CIPHER

DEATH CIPHER by writer/director Wade Patterson is a microbudget, shot in 12 days noir-ish thriller/mystery that feels very much like a "Pandemic Film" which, if you've been around for the last six years or so, is very much its own genre.

It has a cold open of some slightly disturbing imagery on an old CRT television set, which does a great job at setting the tone. The rest of the film that follows takes place in the apartment of Nora (Ashley Gennarelli) a journalist with a problematic past.

She is contacted by the mother of missing vlogger Emma (Christina Kroell) and is then propelled down a rabbit-hole of mystery and weirdness. You see, Nora hasn't left her apartment in months because of something that happened in her recent past, something character-defining and fairly bad. The course of her investigating into Emma's disappearance brings her into contact with substance abuse counselor Colt (Casseus Limes) and the oddness level ticks it up a notch from there.

I can't really say more without giving the whole game away, so I won't. For a tiny budget film shot in under a two-week timeframe, this comes across as pretty slick. It is very well shot, edited, acted, and has crisp audio. The pacing moves along nicely, revealing just enough to keep you hooked, with plenty of twists, turns, creepiness, and odd humorous bits to elevate it from a lot of similar films. The use of older video technology is a great touch as well.

I will say that for me, there was a bit of a stumble at the finish line where I think some elements could have hit harder. I wasn't expecting a complete payoff moment, but I would have liked more than what we got.

Still, DEATH CIPHER is well crafted and shows that solid indie filmmaking/storytelling doesn't need a huge budget and a ton of bells & whistles to make a compelling, easily watchable movie.