We’re in the midst of an indie horror revolution at the cinema. Recent movies like The Substance have earned Oscar nods, while Terrifier 3 scored big at the box office, disrupting the Hollywood status quo. Earlier in the month, we also saw a Winnie the Pooh spin-off film, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, receive a weeklong release that pulled in $7.6 million on an approximate $390 thousand budget. Margins like these are incredibly appealing to studios, especially since tentpole Hollywood movies with inflated budgets are finding themselves in uncertain territory. Right now, horror is hotter than ever, and it’s the best time to find some underground horror on the big screen. This weekend, writer-director Adam Newman is luring B-movie gem-seekers to his folk-horror fright-fest Round the Decay as he attempts to keep the trend going.

Setting his story in the rural New Hampshire town of Newport Valley, Newman sends us back to the colonial era, where the town’s founder trades his beloved wife’s life to an evil flesh-eating monster to ensure the town’s prosperity by using the Wrexsoul monster to wipe out the local indigenous population. Bringing it back to modern times, the town isn’t doing so well. The local inn has had a revolving door of idealistic owners, and the townspeople are skeptical they’ll see any changes with the current owner, Bart (Cary Hite). Meanwhile, a group of friends who’ve gone camping decide to set up shop by an old cave, unknowingly awakening the Wrexsoul and turning their trip up the hill into an all-out nightmare. Running back to town to escape, Aida (Alexis Safoyan) inadvertently brings the monster with her, putting the entire population at risk of being next on the Wrexsoul’s menu.
I was really excited about Round the Decay, mainly because any horror story set in New England is virtually in my backyard, so there’s a general desire to see how the backdrop is incorporated. Plus, the folk horror angle of Round the Decay and creature feature elements certainly give the film an edge in incorporating scares, gore, and general ebullience. Also, horror staple Damien Maffei (Black Eyed Susan, Wrong Turn (2021), Haunt) as the male lead is reliably worth looking forward to. Unfortunately, that excitement had withered by the time the film managed to get to anything remotely interesting.

For starters, the opening origin story is extremely generic, both in story and stylization. There is an opportunity to be slick and sinister and instill fear by driving home how much of a cold-hearted bastard Newport is, but the scene is somewhat nondescript and tonally off. I felt I understood what was going on better from reading the press release’s synopsis, but it didn’t matter because the scene felt relatively familiar.
Next, there are a million characters, and they all get a bit of exposition time, which choke-holds the film because they create a million storylines. There’s Kenzie (Victoria Mirrer), an out-of-towner who lost her fiancé in the cave two years ago, and then there’s practically everyone else we know way too much about. Roz (Sienna Hubert-Ross) needs a job pronto so she can continue joint custody, Aida’s mad at her ex, James (Jay Voishnis) for bringing his new beau Peyton (Alyssa Batsakis) camping, and then there’s the Newport legacy Gregory (Jamie Dufault) married to Theresa (Melody Kay), and the Hayes’ Larold (Phil Duran) and Enis (Adam Wepper) who are do a poor job of warning the newcomers to town about the Wrexsoul through kidnapping them.
I haven’t even gotten to the tall, handsome stranger that is Maffei’s Munroe, who tells us who he is by saying little to nothing at all. His brave, brooding monster-hunting confidence is so palpable that the costume director gives him the signature Dean Winchester look, which becomes enhanced with the appearance of a shotgun. If this was on purpose, I enjoyed the reference.

While we should care about these characters, Round the Decay doesn’t find the balance to do this effectually as a film, and honestly, it seems more suited for a television drama. With this many characters and personalities to explore, Newman could easily have dived into each at length and killed them off systematically over eight to ten episodes. But as a movie, there’s simply too much going on, and it starkly messes with the pace. The film starts ramping up around the thirty-minute mark when we get our first look at the Wrexsoul and our first character deaths. But there’s nothing to keep up the action, and we’re right back to Kenzie and Bart having a porchside rocking chair conversation.
Seeing the Wrexsoul is another thing. To his credit, Newman sets up a very ambitious slow reveal for the creature, very reminiscent of ’50s sci-fi monster movies such as The Creature from the Black Lagoon. It works for a little while as the Wrexsoul is out of focus, seen from the back, or only revealing a claw. However, when the monster gets up close, we manage to see a lot of its flaws, such as the fang-abundant mouth of the creature never closing and seeing actress Rachel Pizzolato provide a second row of teeth. Other parts of the costume also reveal their limitations. In one scene, the legs aren’t fitted, and they look challenging to move in, creating a pocket between the costume’s material and the actress’ legs. Creases are then seen on the legs just before the monster makes its way to the roof of a building.

When the film finally brushes off its extraneous characters and gets going, it has its moments. The final half-hour manages to be a lot of fun, bringing us location changes, local conspiracies, and a whole lot of plot holes to just go with since we’re now enjoying ourselves.
Lamentably, I don’t have a lot of love to show Round the Decay. I will say that I enjoyed Alexis Safoyan’s performance in the film, whose emoting and line delivery build tension and chemistry between her and her scene partners, but I think that’s all I got. Even as pulpy schlock, Round the Decay does not check any of the boxes. The story is overly convoluted with too many characters, and the creature doesn’t provide much scare value, which is disappointing on many levels.
Round the Decay is now playing in theaters.
Round The Decay – Official Trailer
Official trailer for Dreamscape Productions horror feature film ROUND THE DECAY. A young woman returns to the site of her broken engagement, Newport’s Valley, a sleepy tourist town with an all-consuming secret. Starring: Victoria Mirrer, Damian Maffei, Sienna Hubert-Ross, Cary Hite, Alexis Safoyan, Jamie Dufault, Melody Kay, Adam Weppler, Phil Duran, Sassan Saffari, Angela Palermo, Alyssa Batsakis, Jay Voishnis, Sean T.