Piercing Screams (2025)

In the last few years I have become friends with a number of artists and musicians in the towns of Superior and Miami, Arizona.  One person that gets talked about, although I have never met him, is Cory Busboom.  He bought the town of Hayden to use as a filming site and has multiple properties with cars that are used in local films.  He is also into suspension, where metal hooks are placed through the skin and a person is lifted off the ground, often being swung around while being barely held aloft by their own skin. 

Enter musician, filmmaker and actor Michael Jason Allen, aka Jason Mysteria.  He has been making feature films and music videos for over a decade in Arizona and obviously something about the suspension culture intrigued him as he decided to do a retro slasher film as a tribute to the subculture. 

Don (John Minch) is the leader of an adult rehabilitation group.  To celebrate his latest class's graduation he takes them to a remote town in Arizona to spend some time relaxing by a river.  Among those to come along are a Vietnam veteran named Roger (Michael Jason Allen), a sex-addicted hippy named Sandra (Elley Ringo), a jock named Bruce (Ryan Bullock), stoner Bernie (Adon Fanion), germophobe Judy (Allyson Lambert) and the uptight Regina (Leslie Infalt).  

They arrive in a malfunctioning bus the night after a double homicide and, despite the local sheriff (Rhett Ashley Crosby) telling them to beat it, they stay.  It turns out the killings are being carried out by a local suspension cult led by Velvet (Milena Saboya) who demands human sacrifice over a three-night period.  

Busboom plays Ralph, the local tow-truck guy, and isn't bad in the role.  He also gets to participate in the goings-on.  The suspension scenes are real and, except for a couple of the main actors, not done with prosthetics.  The only known performer is Elley Ringo, who had some small parts in other horror films, while the rest are locals and character actors.  The reason I wanted to see the movie is because a number of friends do have cameos as cult members and, since Allen is a local filmmaker, I find it my duty to support, even if it is just watching his film on Tubi. 

The problem is that Piercing Screams isn't that good.  The attempts at dark comedy, particularly with making most of the characters overblown stereotypes, often falls flat.  While there are a couple kills that look good one segment that was going in the direction of the famous sawing scene in Terrifier ends up looking like someone is squirting fake blood from a ketchup bottle off screen.  In some of the suspension scenes breasts are inexplicably blurred despite many of the female participants wearing pasties.  As the leader of the cult Milena Saboya seems less like a menacing leader and more like an actor trying too hard to be such.

Still, Jason's soundtrack is good and it is fun seeing my friends trying to look scary.  I just wish that it was all in service of a better film. 

Piercing Screams (2025)

Time: 81 minutes

Starring: John Minch, Elley Ringo, Michael Jason Allen, Rhett Ashley Crosby, Milena Saboya, Corey Busboom

Director: Michael Jason Allen