Round the Decay is an independent horror film written and directed by Adam Newman. It’s about a town called Newport’s Valley out in the mountains that holds a dark secret. The story follows a few different groups of people whose lives are all brought together because of an evil that resides there. It’s a demon called a Wrexsoul, and it has a thing for killing people.
What we liked:
The cinematography was pretty decent. The production overall, including the sound and lighting were pretty good.
The gore was really well done. They had a few spots where this was prevalent, and it looked great and like they put some real effort into it.
The Wrexsoul itself was an interesting antagonist. It had some interesting characteristics that set it apart from a lot of other monsters we have seen in the past.
What we thought could have been better:
There were almost too many characters. We felt like a lot of the characters in this film were not necessary and could have easily been extras. This would have given them more time to focus on developing a few really well instead of giving small scenes to a lot of different ones. It felt like the dialogue was really diluted because of this.
The writing could have used some work. The characters, dialogue and scenes all needed some help here. We think the actors did what they could with it, but it was difficult to watch at some points.
Overall:
Overall, Round the Decay is not the best indie horror we have seen, but it wasn’t the worst by far. Newman had a pretty solid concept for the film, the cast was good, and there was some nice gore mixed in there at times. Ultimately, though, the writing of the story and characters weren’t great, and that is the foundation of any film. For an early entry in Newman’s writing/directing career, this isn’t a bad entry, but we felt it could have been a bit more dialed in.
