Written by: Ryan Dailey
WJHC AM is another one of the micro budget movies that are floating around the horror community that restores faith in the horror genre and movies as a whole. This film takes the audience back to a simpler time in the way it is written and filmed as well as the time period it is set in, mere days before the turn of the millennium. Like many other films that the talons of Tinseltown have not sunk into, WJHC AM is not afraid to contain dialog or put situations on screen that most movies are afraid to touch.
The premise of the film is tried and true. It’s the end of the world and the audience follows one man’s fight to survive. Again, the subject matter has been done ad nauseum and even the shot compositions and character and action beats have been seen many times before. This might not have worked in any other movie, but writer Vinnie Vineyard makes these tropes his own by
“Adding his own funk” to his films. In a conversation I had with the writer/director, he states that, “WJHC is part auto biographical. When I first moved down South and the only job in radio I could get was ata Southern Gospel radio station. I got exposed to pentecostal preachers in a trial by fire. At the time, most of these people thought Y2K was when Jesus was going to come back, and this is a fable looking into that alternate history.”
The end of this quote sums up my point from earlier. As stated, the Apocalypse is a tired subject, but Vinnie Vineyard made it his own by making it relate to personal experience and real-world events.
There are going to be obvious comparisons to pre-shill Kevin Smith by virtue of the fact a lot of the camera set-ups, such as a handful of static two shots and the fact the film is almost entirely shot in black and white. This is not to the film’s detriment, however, as Vinnie Vineyard has made these things his own. Even the comedic beats, again heavily influenced by Kevin Smith and Mel Brooks, becomes Vinnies’ in the post-apocalyptic world he created.
The subtle nods to horror, horror-comedies and comedies are well-placed and thought out. The film maker even has references and easter eggs that this viewer picked up on that the writer/director may not have intended to add. This is a great testament to how much love he has for the cinema community. There is a love for the subject matter and the craft of filmmaking that exudes from every frame of WJHC.
WJHC is available in physical form on Amazon. Check out their Youtube channel, Big N Funky Productions.