By Michael O’Connor—

On Saturday March 23, I decided to go see a film, Towers being screened at The Jersey Gore festival at the Darress Theater in Boonton, New Jersey. The theater has a history of being haunted just like the Proprietary House in Perth Amboy which gives it a spooky atmosphere. The film had won awards at The New Brunswick Film festival during President’s Day weekend and that made me very curious to see the film. Some of the other films were also interesting at The Gore festival.

I was there for the 4 p.m. showing, therefore I missed the other films in the 11 a.m. showing. These films gave me nightmares. The next day the films were shown at 3 a.m.; a nice short film about a killer clown, The Tree Farm with nice camera work and a twisted start, and a cool trailer called Clownstrophobia which scared my wife because she is scared of clowns.

Getting back to the film, Towers. The camera work was done by an Old Bridge resident, Jet Wintzer was amazing and the acting was great. For a 1 hr short film I was very impressed. There was even animation in the film. The film reminded me of the 1960’s classic The Last Man on Earth. The funny thing is in one scene in the movie they played The Last Man on Earth. From a scale of 1 to 10, I give the film a 10 for effort!!! 4 stars for my final review.

Summary of the film: Jet Wintzer describes his film Towers as “a post apocalyptic psycho indie rock opera.” Two young women tour the post-apocalyptic American landscape after the human race becomes virtually extinct due to mutations caused by radiation from cell phones and towers. In the film, Radiation from Cell phones and towers has caused brain damage to the populace. The flow of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine to stop permanently causing havoc and violent riots. FEMA states that the condition is permanent everyone is affected. The announcement triggers a complete collapse of society. Two years later, the world is almost extinct. There are some survivors. Jane survived in a bunker under her Amish farm. She transforms into a glorious indie hipster driving all over the roads of America searching for life.

The only voice on the air is DJ Spectacle. Somewhere on the East Coast, he spins indie rock whilst spouting his philosophy upon the state of non-humanity and the conditions which led to the end.

Petal survived in the deep woods of Oregon, where her folks lived as survivalist farmers. Each day Petal attempts suicide. When she finally is about to pull the trigger, Jane’s voice suddenly comes through on the CB. The duo form an instant bond. When Petal is convinced to let go of fear, they set out for a cross-country pilgrimage to a party thrown by DJ Spectacle for whoever may still be alive.

If you love movies like, The Road, Last Man on Earth, Omega Man, and the Twilight Zone episode, Time Enough at Last you will love this Film!!!! It won best feature at The New Jersey Gore festival. The film stars Angela Washell, Lauren Ashleigh, Carson Dougherty, Jet Wintzer, Tony Zajkowski and Keith Ozar.