The Waves of Madness (2024) by Jason Trost: A Side-Scrolling Horror Odyssey at Sea

Short Summary – A Video Game Horror Voyage Gone Awry

Special Agent Legrasse boards the ominous cruise ship Elder of the Seas after a distress call, only to find it deserted and haunted. As he delves deeper, survival horror gives way to surreal, Lovecraftian dread—rendered not in traditional cinema, but as a literal side-scrolling nightmare come to life.

Link IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28002564/

Link Review: https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3885259/the-waves-of-madness-the-worlds-first-side-scrolling-horror-film-is-now-available-on-digital/

About movie: https://theactionelite.com/umbrella-entertainment-presents-the-waves-of-madness-out-now/

Link to watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-waves-of-madness (US), https://www.justwatch.com/au/movie/the-waves-of-madness (Australia), https://www.justwatch.com/ca/movie/the-waves-of-madness (Canada), https://www.justwatch.com/uk/movie/the-waves-of-madness (UK)

Detailed Summary – A Retro Game of Survival and Sanity

• Legrasse arrives on a mysteriously abandoned luxury vessel, guided only by cryptic audio logs and flickers of memory.

• The camera never shifts from a strict side-scroll format, turning the ship into a single, unending hallway of dread.

• Encounters with Francis, a survivor who eerily resembles someone from Legrasse’s past, deepen the psychological unease.

• Flashbacks with a therapist reveal his unresolved trauma, which begins to seep into the ship’s very architecture.

• Minimalist set design, DIY effects, and low-fi CGI create a deliberately unreal visual space, amplifying the uncanny mood.

Director’s Vision – Gaming Nostalgia Meets Lovecraftian Horror

• Purposeful constraints: Trost shot the film with a $20k budget in an apartment and garage, using green screen and miniatures to craft the illusion of a massive vessel.

• Game-logic narrative: The film’s traversal mimics old survival horror games like Silent Hill, creating both a nostalgic and claustrophobic atmosphere.

• Analog horror influence: Trost leans into visual imperfections—scratched film overlays, abrupt cuts, awkward animations—to make the viewer question what is real.

Themes – Isolation, Memory, and Digital Dread

• Psychological entrapment: The unchanging side-scrolling viewpoint mirrors the feeling of being stuck in one’s own mind.

• Trauma as environment: Emotional backstory becomes physically embedded in the ship’s design and encounters.

• Blurring reality: The visual style collapses distinctions between player, character, and viewer, eroding trust in perception.

Key Success Factors – Vision Over Budget

• Original format: The side-scroll perspective is not a gimmick but an active narrative device.

• Strong atmosphere: Limited resources are turned into strengths, producing a surreal, dreamlike texture.

• Compact runtime: At 68 minutes, the film sustains intensity without overstaying its welcome.

Awards & Nominations – Low-Fi Brilliance Recognized

Premiered at the Nightmares Film Festival and drew critical attention for its originality. While major awards are not recorded, it was highlighted in festival coverage as one of the most innovative indie horrors of 2024.

Critics Reception – Divisive but Daring

• FilmInk: Gave it 7.7/10, praising its originality and atmospheric use of minimal resources.

• ScareValue: Called it “a visual experiment packed with monsters and cosmic dread,” noting the tense pacing.

• Nightmares Film Festival coverage: Lauded the fusion of gaming and horror language, though noted character depth was thin for most roles.Overall: Admired by fans of experimental cinema, but likely too unconventional for mainstream horror audiences.

Reviews – Pixels, Panic, and Practical Effects

• Cinefied: Found the character work arcade-like, but credited the film’s backstory flashes for emotional weight.

• HorrorReview: Praised the analog horror aesthetic and resourceful production.Overall: Viewed as an ambitious, atmospheric project whose novelty lies in

Why to Recommend Movie – Horror for the Bold and Curious

• A fresh visual language: Rarely does a horror film commit so fully to video game framing.

• Compact but impactful: Short runtime makes for an intense, uninterrupted experience.

• DIY triumph: Proves vision and creativity can eclipse budgetary limits.

Movie Trend – Analog Horror Meets Gaming Cinema

Joins the growing wave of indie projects blending retro gaming aesthetics with narrative filmmaking to produce hybrid storytelling experiences.

Social Trend – Nostalgia as Innovation

Reflects a broader cultural trend of re-imagining childhood media forms—in this case, 2D video games—as unsettling, adult-oriented psychological spaces.

Final Verdict – A Voyage into the Uncanny

The Waves of Madness is a bold, unsettling experiment in form and mood. For those willing to embrace its side-scroll format and lo-fi production, it delivers an experience that’s as strange and eerie as anything in contemporary horror.