A DJI Phantom gone rogue is the unlikely star of a new horror film coming to screens in 2019.
Titled, The Drone, this movie is brought to you by the director behind quality horror titles such as Zombeavers (4.8/10 on IMDB) and Critters – A New Binge.
The plot of the film is relatively simple, a drone becomes autonomous and tries to kill its owners. Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, according to a story we brought you last November, in which Elon Musk warned us about possible future autonomous killer drones – perhaps it’s not quite as far-fetched as it seems.
The trailer opens with a montage of shots of modern technology that humans rely on- smartphones, aeroplanes, a space station and MRI machine. “What happens when technology..”, the captions ask, ” GETS A MIND OF ITS OWN?” Queue a blare of heavy orchestral horns and a shot of a DJI Phantom ‘sitting’ on a rocking chair, swaying back and forth.
From the intentional absurdity of the trailer, it seems this film will belong in the well-traversed genre of over-the-top splatter horror (which includes titles such as Scream, Night of the Living Dead & Bad Taste). Clearly, it won’t be winning any acting or directorial gongs and nor, I suspect, were its makers aiming for that. It might, however, be a bit of stupid fun and win a place in people’s hearts like other cult classics such as The Room (a masterpiece of cringe).
So how does one make a bunch of DJI drones appear menacing? With the right editing, framing and exaggerated sound effects, nearly anything can seem frightening (see horror classics such as The Birds).
The other question that crossed my mind while watching the trailer was – wouldn’t stopping the average drone be as easy as throwing a towel at it? They make those drone tough but if toilet paper can bring down the average consumer drone, they are unlikely to pose a threat to human health and safety just yet. Anyway – put your scepticism to the side for a sec and check out the trailer below:
We’re not sure how widely this film will be released in the United States (and it’s pretty unlikely to make it to NZ where I’m based) but even it doesn’t make it to your local cinema, it will probably eventually end up on YouTube.
We’ll let you know what we think once we’ve seen it!
