Muddled Faux Documentary Shadow Reaper (PANIC) Confuses with Uneven Stroytelling

Title: Shadow Reaper

First Non-Festival Release: TBD

Director: Richard Terrasi

Writer: Richard Terrasi

Runtime: 71 Minutes

Starring: Atlas Vavior, Apollo Michael, Michael J. Widger

Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here

This film’s review was written after its screening at the Panic Film Festival in 2025.

A film crew travels to Devensville, Indiana to learn more about the legend of the Shadow Reaper, a powerful entity that has terrorized the citizens of the peaceful town for centuries. As the crew interview the townsfolk, they dive deeper into the terrifying lore that haunts the town. One particular case of family annihilation stands out, revolving around a young child’s devastating encounter with the entity.

Tedious and disjointed, Shadow Reaper has too many ideas to commit to them all fully.

A promising start, with its introduction to the mystifying lore of the entity and its history within the town, Shadow Reaper follows a traditional faux documentary horror format. Explaining the sordid history behind the Shadow Reaper’s influence on the tiny town makes for a fun, if played out, concept. Unfortunately, the scattered approach to its lore never quite finds direction. There isn’t much depth to the urban legend and ultimately the Shadow Reaper serves more as a boogeyman who pops up every now and then before disappearing back into the shadows. The danger is neither palpable nor consistent, making the story drag.

The story structure hits a snag right before the second half and never recovers from there. Shadow Reaper switches between mediums to tell its story in both an unconvincing and confusing manner. It’s not necessary for a film to stick to one medium throughout its runtime, but a refusal to do so cohesively calls into question its ability to tell its story in the best way. Shadow Reaper abruptly transitions from documentary to re-enactments of the killings from its legend. It raises the question: is this the best medium to tell this story? Is the found footage element and fake documentary angle adding to the story or scrambling its narrative? The answers are no and the latter.

Like many indie films before it, Shadow Reaper struggles to make its world feel real, and its production values and performances really underscore this. At its most grounded, its initial documentary format works well enough. It’s only when it gets to various reenactments of Devensville’s grisliest murders that it gets wonky. It’s most apparent in its 2017 iteration. Across the board, the actors fall flat truly unable to convince that anything real is happening onscreen. The town feels authentic enough and the various homes look lived in but between garish lighting choices and irritating filters, it doesn’t matter. These issues are intrinsically tied to its strange formatting but even still, they aren’t done well enough to distract from its lack of scares or its coherence as a story.

Its approach to horror is equal parts exhausting and puzzling, with Shadow Reaper hopping around from technique to technique hoping something sticks.  Aside from its abandonment of structure to tell its story, Shadow Reaper lacks a strong direction in its scares. Never quite landing any of its creepier moments, it trips between its ineffective jump scares and moodier attempts at building atmosphere. Really, its only saving grace comes in the form of its solid-enough practical effects. There’s always something heartwarming about indie films embracing the creative solutions of the 1980s and 1990s and the titular entity from Shadow Reaper invokes this feeling well.

There’s something to commend in a horror film trying out something different but unfortunately for Shadow Reaper it doesn’t work out in the end. Its bizarre structure and generic story make its efforts to inspire horror unconvincing and bland. Without much to hold on in its urban legend or its cast of bland characters, the scares fall even flatter. The fatal blow comes in the lack of effective scares in its unfortunately goofy villain. Some neat and retro special effects can only do so much to counteract all of that. Will you feel compelled to follow the call of the Shadow Reaper?

Overall Score? 4/10