Filmmakers Nic Bonesteel and Carl Fry, teamed up to co-write and co-direct Something’s Wrong With Peter, a short film that pays passionate homage to horror-comedy classics of the 80s and 90s. Students of The University of Texas at Austin, their film was recently showcased at the UT RTF Longhorn Denius Student Film Showcase as well as many other festivals since premiering in 2019.

Something’s Wrong With Peter follows three high school friends — Peter (William Magnuson), Lucy (Luxy Banner), and Kat (Khali McDuff-Sykes) — who, like any good gen-x kids, come up with a brilliant idea to visit a well-known local murder house. There, they find a book on how to summon demons, which somehow brings a demon into the body of Peter. Lucy and Kat must work together to bring their friend back, however, the new Peter has other, more murderous plans with his newfound demonic powers.

Something’s Wrong With Peter manages to elicit some out-loud laughs, despite much of the comedy verging on over-the-top silliness that tries so hard to be funny. Yes, it is a parody film, but the purposely overacted performances have the opposite effect of comedy — better to have acted well and lost (some comedic effect) than to have overacted at all. The film stars a mix of amateur and up-and-coming talent, as well as Austin locals. The supporting characters shoulder the brunt of the film’s humor, and perhaps the biggest standout was Michael Jastroch as the troubled but loving Coach Powell.

The film’s direction is its saving grace — it has some great shots that are perfectly framed to conjure memories of Halloween and even John Carpenter’s The Thing. The film has a sound design that really helps to paint the pictures in the film’s cinematography, but since the film was going for an 80s aesthetic, I felt the music score was lacking — I would think some kind of synth style music would add more character to the film. Also, for a low-budget student film, excellent special and practical effects help give a quality, finished look for the film.

A love letter to 80s teen horror, Something’s Wrong With Peter shoots for cult classic and almost reaches the mark. The end of the film alludes to feature film aspirations, and I believe with some cleanup of its tangled plot this could be a fun, teen-horror feature.

MOVIE RATING — 6 out of 10