A farm girl moves to the big city and a sinister apartment complex. She discovers that the residents have been driven insane by the consumption of too much Mountain Dew.
Jessica (Austin Highsmith) is new to town and is moving into the Dante apartment complex. On the way into the building she drops her toothbrush into some muck and meets artist Evan (Ryan Doom). She meets the creepy apartment manager Ed (John Bishop) whose office is in the elevator. She’s shown to her new apartment and is surprised to find a new toothbrush waiting for her.
She meets the other residents of the complex: geeky videographer Randall (DJ Qualls, doing his best Anthony Perkins), India (Natashia Williams) and Damon (Jesse Johnson), and married couple Bale (Josh Kelly) and Elaine (Katie Lowes). The residents seem to know much about Jessica and keep inviting her to a New Year’s Eve party that night. When she starts to develop feelings for Evan murders begin to occur.
Circle of Eight (or Circle of Ei8ht) is a film from Mountain Dew Green Mountain Studios that was released on YouTube in short increments. It’s pretty obvious when one of the characters mixes up some glowing Mountain Dew to paint with. Talk about beating your audience over the head with product placement.
What’s more annoying is that the formula used in the film turns out to not really work, not that I’d want to drink a product that with some minor additions glows like it’s radioactive. When the film played on YouTube it was released in short bits (around 2-3 minutes each) so it might’ve been more compelling and played better in those short bursts. Now that it’s all been assembled to make a whole movie it appears heavy-handed and derivative.
Characters really need to start off somewhat normal so that the audience is taken off guard when the horror movie stuff starts. Again, maybe that was done to get things rolling when it was a YouTube film, but as a feature it doesn’t jibe.
Circle of Eight is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include the 5 minute “Behind-the-scenes of Circle of Eight,” the 4 minute “On Haunted Location” about eerie happenings on the set, the 5 minute “A Day in the Life of a Production Assistant,” and previews of other Paramount releases.
Circle of Eight might have been better on your monitor and best taken in short doses. As with other attempts, when it’s stung together and “blown” up for the home video market the cracks start to show.
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