My quick rating – 4.4/10. Southern horror, creepy folklore, and a dusty old video store? Southern Scares practically walked into my watchlist wearing a “Rent 2, Get 1 Free” sticker. As someone who spent plenty of time haunting video stores back in the West Coast Video days, I was already halfway sold before the opening credits finished rolling. Throw in VHS tapes, tube TVs, and pan-and-scan screens, and suddenly I was hit with enough nostalgia to start wondering if I still owed Blockbuster late fees.
The film opens with a grainy home video aesthetic before introducing Ellen (Sydney Gowan), a video store employee who discovers a package containing VHS tapes from her missing sister Roberta’s (Emma Gaines) paranormal documentary series, Southern Scares. At first glance, it almost feels like an anthology, with Roberta introducing each segment by repeatedly asking, “Are you ready for a Southern scare?” Thankfully, it doesn’t stay in full anthology mode, instead weaving the investigations into the larger mystery surrounding Roberta’s disappearance.
Each tape explores a different piece of Southern folklore, from the Butcher of Sin City and the Southern Sasquatch to the Springer Opera House, a Werewolf Girl, the Shadows of Westwood, and the Haunts of Iron Train Bridge. The legends themselves are interesting enough that I kept wanting them to go just a little deeper. Every time one segment started getting intriguing, it was already time to eject the tape and move on to the next one. It’s like ordering a sampler platter and discovering every appetizer is only one bite.
The movie absolutely nails the VHS presentation. If you miss tracking lines, fuzzy analog video, and televisions that weighed roughly the same as a family sedan, you’re in for a nostalgic treat. The production intentionally embraces that homemade camcorder style. Unfortunately, that’s also where it lost me. I’m simply not a fan of the “found garbage” style of filmmaking with endless handheld shaky camera work. I know it’s a deliberate artistic choice, but after a while, I was ready to personally stabilize the cameraman.
Gowan and Gaines both do solid work carrying the emotional side of the story, while Jason Townsend brings some enjoyable moments as Ellen’s grumpy grandfather and video store owner. Horror fans will also get a kick out of seeing Dee Wallace show up. Seeing a genre legend from The Howling, Cujo, and countless other horror classics pop into a low-budget indie always grabs my attention. I’ll leave it to your imagination why she ended up in Columbus, Ohio, for this production…because I like Dee Wallace far too much to speculate out loud.
Then comes Tape 9.
Unfortunately, that’s where Southern Scares completely loses its footing. As mystery has built up through the movie, the conclusion comes off as if director Paul Rowe realized that he had run out of time on the reel and said, “Oh well…what if the VHS tapes just started attacking people?” It seems to have been thrown together without explanation, with less mystery than I expected, and was more like I accidentally fast-forwarded into a different movie.
That’s the frustrating part because Southern Scares had the ingredients for something memorable. The nostalgic setting, the folklore, and the central mystery all work. They simply needed a stronger mythology and an ending that answered at least a few of the questions it spent ninety minutes asking. Instead, the credits rolled, and I was left feeling like I had rented a promising horror movie only to discover someone forgot to rewind. And maybe forgot to film the ending too.
