A young girl brings home an old tape player. However, she unwittingly unleashes an entity when she accidentally spills her blood onto it…

Ever since Stranger Things became such a massive success, films and other television shows have tried to capture the same thing, the combination of nostalgia and horror. Some films in this vein, such as Summer Of 84 or Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark have captured this very well indeed.

Sadly, They Reach doesn’t.

The film’s prologue takes place in 1969, with the main story set ten years later. The film focuses on Jessica (Mary Madaline Roe), a thirteen year old girl, who’s brother has recently died. Unusual for a film of this type, there’s no tension between her and her parents (Elizabeth Rhoades and Ash Calder) over this. It’s a refreshing little detail.

As is often the case, Jessica is into science and engineering, more into building gadgets and fixing things than playing with dolls. Her best friends, Sam (Morgan Chandler) and Cheddar (Eden Campbell), help to varying degrees. It’s after the return from the funeral, that Jessica leaves to go to an old antique store where she uncovers a box of junk, including a tape recorder that, after accidentally spilling her blood on it, unleashes the evil trapped within.

The film is co-written by Sylas Dall and Bry Troyer, with Dall directing. It’s their first full length film, after working on shorts before, as is Dall with directing. Sadly, a lot of the problems are down to the writing aspect. While the idea behind the story isn’t bad, the way it is written is. The early parts of the film are the best, but as the horror begins, there doesn’t seem to be a consistent feel to it. While the horror aspects are well done, the attempts to inject moments of humour, particularly through the character Cheddar are very weak indeed. It doesn’t help that the character isn’t that well written and sadly, the actresses’ performance is weak too.

That’s not to say it’s badly directed. I did think Dall directs the film better than it is written. Some of the horror moments are well staged, as the film heads to its bloody climax, where, sadly again, the writing lets it down, as the ending feels a bit of a cop out.

The performances are a mixed bag, though I do think Mary Madaline Roe is a solid lead in the film. The effects are mostly well done and the music, isn’t too bad either.

But I come back to the nostalgia aspect. The film wants to fit in with the recent wave of media that uses it, but it doesn’t fully capture the period as well as you hope it would. It’s not a flaw that derails the film, but it is a weakness.

I wanted to like They Reach. I thought the premise a good one and it does have some little moments that work well. But uneven performances and tone, mainly caused by the writing let the film down.

Not a bad film, rather a disappointing one.

Rating: ** out of 5