Intensity: 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Written/Directed by Gerald Robert Waddell
Project MKHEXEÂ is a spectacular documentary style, Lovecraft adjacent, conspiracy-driven deep dive into a top-secret government project. Ultimately, the covert, involuntary testing on regular citizens drove some to acts of violence and insanity. You have been warned.
Project MKHEXE: The Players
- Will Jandro: Sean Wilson, victim of Project MKHEXE? Or, just an unstable young man consumed with an urban legend?
- Ignacyo Matynia [Break Every Chain (2021)]: Tim Wilson, Sean’s older brother and one of the co-documentarians investigating Sean’s suicide.
- Jordan Knapp [Lost in Tomorrow (2023)]: Nicole Martin, a friend of Sean who’s helping Tim investigate the mysterious Project MKHEXE.
- Sebla Demi [The Baby Pact (2022)]: Meryem Yildiz, a graduate student studying unconventional uses of ultrasonic frequencies, who stumbles onto Project MKHEXE.
Project MKHEXE: The Breakdown
Synopsis
Tim Wilson is shocked by the news of his younger brother Sean’s suicide. However, after helping his parents by filming the funeral, he feels that something may not be quite right. Feelings of guilt fuel his desire to continue digging into what may have driven his brother to take his own life.
Tim joins forces with aspiring journalist, Nicole Martin, and the duo begin putting together a documentary investigating Sean’s death. Before they know it, Tim and Nicole are immersed in the mysterious and nightmarishly bizarre research into a top secret government program that’s since faded into urban legend: Project MKHEXE.
Production
Since Project MKHEXE is filmed in a documentary style, the film’s low budget can be easily overlooked. It has the customary found-footage feel coupled with various interviews and other media. In other words, it’s a mix of journal entries, photographs, drawings, news clippings, and video segments. As expected, those video segments come in a multitude of formats and qualities, most of which work well to keep the viewer glued to the screen.
Special effects-wise, Project MKHEXE smartly plays it pretty light. Most of what you get is the usual “video interference” that’s popular with the found-footage sub-genre. Now and then, that gets embellished with some not-particularly-convincing-but-good-enough CG work. Luckily, the story is strong enough to keep it from being a distraction.
Cast and Story
Writer/Director Gerald Robert Waddell put a ton of thought into the mythos and backstory that provides the foundation for his first full-length outing, Project MKHEXE. Not only are the movie’s props absolutely spectacular — you’ll find yourself pausing the film to read excerpts of Sean’s notebook and check out some of the wild drawings — but Waddell even has a number of websites that tie in to his directorial premiere.
For example, go check out the eerie Black Budget Compendium for a heaping helping of conspiratorial goodness. And that’s not the only one! If you hear a website mentioned in the film or see its name referenced in Sean’s notebook, odds are good that you can go check it out for yourself. That kind of dedication to an idea is phenomenal. And, it’s even more impressive on your first indie project.
For one thing, the cast involved with Project MKHEXE is absolutely huge. Obviously, most of them are extras or only have a couple lines in a brief interview snippet, but still. The cast list is one of the biggest I’ve seen for a first time indie production.
And nobody sacrificed quality for quantity here. Nearly all of the actors with speaking roles were perfectly believable in character. Casting director Sebla Demi did a fantastic job finding just the right people for each role. Not only that, but she also gives one of the stronger performances as doomed graduate student, Meryem Yildiz, in the film itself. In fact, many of the cast members pull double duty, filling in behind the camera. There’s the true indie experience, right there.
Summary
Project MKHEXE is a superb example of the slow-burn documentary-style horror movie. Even though the pacing might drift a bit in the third act, the story already has you by the throat and won’t let go. Fans of shockumentaries, conspiracy theories, and things with Lovecraftian undertones will love this. Just be careful.
Project MKHEXE is still out there.
Project MKHEXE can be found on Screambox/Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and possibly others.
Review by Robert Zilbauer.