Emesis Blue Review
When Fanmade Terror Becomes Absolute Cinema
This is one of the scariest horror movies I’ve become obsessed with in the last five years, and I mean that with no exaggeration. In a film genre that’s known for low-quality films that have become formulaic, with paper-thin plots that are just an excuse to pile on the jump scares and gore, and with concepts that don’t make a whole lot of sense when scrutinized, this film stands head and shoulders above them in terms of a carefully constructed plot with multiple layers.
The weirdest part of all this? It’s an SFM (Source Filmmaker) film set in the Team Fortress 2 video game universe, and it’s entirely free to watch on YouTube, which I’ll provide at the end of the review.
At first, I didn’t know what to make of the film, and it took me a while to pick it up despite my friends’ insistence that it was amazing. I play video games as a hobby, but I have only a cursory knowledge of Team Fortress 2 (TF2) from online memes and from reading one of the comics a few years ago.
It took a bit of coaxing, since I didn’t want to waste an hour and forty minutes being confused, but I’m glad I took the plunge into the story, because it is absolutely horrifying in all the right ways. There were a few moments where I genuinely felt dread in certain scenes and was almost too scared to continue—a sensation I have not felt in years while watching horror movies.
From here, I’ll avoid major spoilers for the movie because I believe you should experience it for yourself, and the point of a review is to discuss whether a film/game/book/other is right for you. With that said, let me begin by going over several segments that highlight the film’s strengths.
Story
The story is highly complex and dense for a film loosely based on a video game property. The movie opens with an explanation of game mechanics, but in a terrifying way. All the characters from the game are constantly respawned through a machine called “The Respawn Machine,” and it’s implied that every time the characters go through ‘respawning,’ there’s a chance that some level of corruption happens. The more a character is killed, reincarnated, killed, and reincarnated again, the higher the chance that something goes wrong with them or they remember their experiences while “on the other side.”
An unnamed character emerges from the machine, uttering the phrase “It’s an eternity in there,” a nod to Stephen King’s “The Jaunt” and a phrase mentioned several times throughout the film by other characters.
We then open up on our characters on Halloween night in 1968. The first two we meet are Jeremy (Scout, from TF2), who is visiting Doctor Fritz (Medic from TF2) because he’s been suffering from paranoia and nightmares. Fritz explains that the Respawn Machine created defects in all the mercenaries over time from repeated use, and prescribes the medication “Emesis Blue” to help with Jeremy’s problems. From there, Jeremy goes home, where he lives with his Mother, and she ends up murdered, kick-starting the middle act of the film.
The second group of characters we come across is Jacques (Spy from TF2) and Soldier (Soldier from TF2), investigating the disappearance of New Mexico Governor Jules Archibald and the theft of materials from a corporation called the Builders League. They run into the character Stalingrad (Heavy from TF2), who used to work with them, carrying a briefcase containing something that belongs to the Builders League. A fight ensues, and from there, they, too, are kick-started into the next act of the film.
From there, I won’t spoil much else, as it should be watched and experienced for yourself. The story is multi-layered, with many different themes present throughout the film, including death, rebirth, the idea of mortality, what it means to be caught in an endless reincarnation cycle, and what it does to a person.
It is also a film that smartly pays homage not only to “The Jaunt” by Stephen King but also to films such as Kubrick’s “The Shining,” Se7en, and Fritz Lang’s “M,” as well as other works of horror. There were even some nods to works that weren’t horror-themed, such as “Dr. Strangelove” and others.
In fact, that’s half the fun: seeing what the homages are and catching them. The other half is trying to piece together the story and the mystery of the Respawn Machine, Archibald’s disappearance, what’s inside the briefcase that Stalingrad had, and its significance to the story. This is a film that almost requires multiple viewings to get the entire scope of the story. In the first viewing, you can understand the story well enough to enjoy it, while the second viewing is meant to piece together parts, phrases, and meanings to understand how it all comes together while a third viewing rewards you with understanding the whole concept and the horror behind the story.
Thankfully, one viewing IS enough to understand the story and still enjoy it. Personally, that is both an upside and a downside. The upside is that if you’re someone like me who enjoys complex, multi-layered stories with hidden depths and meaning, then there’s a lot to chew on, and if you’re not, you might get lost at several points.
Another thing to be highly thankful for is that you don’t need to know the Team Fortress 2 story, lore, or game mechanics to understand this movie. As I stated at the beginning, I only have a cursory knowledge of the game. You only need to know it’s based on a game, and the characters respawn when they die.
Cinematography
A few times, I forgot that this was technically an animated film made with an outdated animation program. Certain scenes were so well constructed and beautifully shot that I had to remind myself that it wasn’t a live-action film made with sets or practical effects, but was entirely made using free assets bundled with the game. While the developers added some assets to flesh out the world a bit more, most of them are found in either Team Fortress 2 or the Half-Life game series.
Yet many of the movie’s scenes were atmospheric, and I suspended my disbelief and was completely immersed in the film. There is a scene in which one of the characters enters an underground bunker reminiscent of Dr. Strangelove’s, and it suddenly turns black and white, save for the color red. It was slow and quiet, building up the tension so much that I was on the edge of my seat.
Here’s another example of another scene. Near the end of the film, one of the characters stands still, staring at the camera. It’s a silent scene, and we see his eyes beneath the rim of his helmet. He’s staring into the distance as this scene occurs after a particularly harrowing event in the film’s central act. We see how traumatized they’ve come out of their ordeal with a disturbed, thousand-yard stare. I momentarily forgot that we were technically looking at the model of a video game character and not an actual person. I realized how well the scene was directed regarding atmosphere and emotion. I physically felt the character’s duress, and I kept watching.
There are many scenes like that, where the camera pans slowly, and you glimpse something terrifying. These include the scenes that pan over the Connager Slaughterhouse (the film’s central location), the Church after Fritz fights an assailant with an axe, and the ghosts that watch him. Where Soldier peers down into a well to hell, and we cut back to the trepidation and fear on his face before he takes a plunge.
What makes it even better is that Source Filmmaker is notoriously finicky and outdated as an animation tool. It’s a program that hasn’t been updated in 10 years, and many people who use it give it up for easier-to-use tools like Blender. The fact that Fortress Films created something extraordinary in five years is a testament to their filmmaking skills.
Scares and Horrors
The question remains: Is it scary? To that, I say yes. As I said earlier, all too often, horror films in the last few years have felt very formulaic and tropey. It’s to the point that I can predict jump scares, or when a character will die, or that visceral violence becomes so outlandish it almost becomes cartoony and unbelievable. It’s a shame that many horror movies are boring, since it’s one of the few genres of storytelling that captures humanity’s most primal emotions.
With “Emesis Blue,” the horror doesn’t come from shock but from dread. In fact, there are minimal jump scares throughout the film, and the violence that does happen isn’t so grotesque as to be off-putting. Instead, it has a realism that makes it feel natural, even though the character models themselves are cartoony.
Plus, the horror builds up over time, even though you know something is wrong right at the start. This is a film that doesn’t start happily and then goes downhill. It puts you on the back foot with the opening scene and our first character introductions, and inches towards the full scope of the horror the further we go.
Here’s an example, even though it is a minor spoiler. In an early scene, one of the characters is talking to another off-screen. It’s silent, save for the backdrop of a movie playing on TV. The second character sounds off—like they’re mimicking human speech rather than speaking naturally.
The first character notices this and turns their head to see the second character staring at them from around the corner of the room. Their head then immediately drops to the ground, revealed to have been severed from their body. Then, a large shadow looms from around the corner. The first character gasps, and we immediately cut to black.
We didn’t see the person being killed. There wasn’t a gratuitous amount of bloodshed, we didn’t linger on the carnage, and we didn’t see the killer. All we saw was the head drop, and the scene changed quickly after, leaving us no time to process what we had just witnessed, despite the slow build-up.
That’s one example of the slow-burning dread throughout the film and how the movie uses pacing to its advantage. In that scene, you could feel the tension building. Personally, it was the first time in a long while that I had to pause the film to prepare myself for what was coming up.
For those who enjoy slow-burn horror, this movie will make you feel uneasy from start to finish. However, those who want horror and thrills to be immediate and in-your-face might find Emesis Blue boring. Be aware that when you go in to watch it, it’s the type of film that doesn’t hold your hand. It relies on its themes and scenes to convey dread effectively, and quick-paced terror is far and few between.
Downsides
I’ve praised this film a lot so far, which raises the question of whether there are any downsides. There are a few, but they don’t detract from the overall story.
For starters, one of the film’s bigger downsides is that many of the assets used to build the scenes or the characters don’t mesh well together and stand out. You don’t notice the models at the start, but by the film’s final act, you’ll see how many models they had to reuse. You notice this mostly when they introduce additional human characters that aren’t TF2, which look grungy and realistic compared to the exaggerated, cartoonish features of the main cast.
For example, Soldier is depicted as broad-shouldered, square-headed, with a straight jawline and thin legs. Jacques is tall and lanky to an almost comical degree, and the other characters we meet look uncanny when depicted alongside human models with realistic proportions.
Not only that, they end up reusing several models to fill background characters with. Jeremy’s model stands out, with several bodyguards in the final act who look like him but wear different outfits. This ties in with the movie’s themes of cloning and reincarnation/respawning, but first-time viewers might be caught off guard, as there’s no clear indication that the other characters are tied to these themes.
Another downside for some might be that the story doesn’t hold your hand as it’s told. Most movies and shows are meant for you to turn your brain off for a little bit, but Emesis Blue requires you to think about the subtext of the story and how the themes interpolate with each other.
For some, a first viewing is enough. There’s enough there to chew on and absorb while paying attention, even if some scenes might not make sense in the overall scheme of the meta-story. For others, a second viewing might make things a lot clearer.
While some people (like myself) love to dig in and figure things out, others might not want to feel they have to work for their entertainment. In this instance, your mileage may vary.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, it’s one of my favorite movies that I’ll revisit. For those looking for a movie that requires you to piece the subtext together (such as Jacob’s Ladder, The Shining, The VVitch, and The Lighthouse) and who enjoy atmospheric horror that builds dread and tension to a cathartic release, you’ll love this movie.
For those who want something quick, action-packed, visceral, and bloody, this movie might feel like a slog, even if it has some genuine thrilling scares that’ll make you jump. It’s just that those types of scares are few and far between in this movie.
No matter what you’re looking for, it’s easy enough to find since it’s entirely free to watch. You can find it below in the following link and watch it guilt-free.
(Note: Best to watch it in a separate tab)
If I had to give it a score, I’d give it an overall score of 9/10. Minor things hold it back from being perfect, and I wish some parts of the narrative were clearer, but for what it has and how well it was executed, it’s definitely going into my yearly Halloween movie rotation.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the film.
