Suffering from recent traumatic events, newspaper photographer Pamela Garret (Krista Grotte) is trying to put the pieces of her life back together.  After the murder of her husband (a former priest), it’s really not that easy, though, and life in the big city provides her with plenty of gruesome ugliness to document which does little to help her forget and move on.

Luckily, her boss (Stephen Geoffreys) provides her with an easy-breezy, simple-as-pie assignment:  take pictures of some politicians for the (hopefully scandalous) election season.  While on assignment, Pamela stumbles upon a crime in progress– a man being chased.  She follows, taking pictures, and even witnesses the man’s murder by the blood-hungry group that harried him down.

Pamela, of course, realizes she has seen too much and runs like hell, barely escaping the murderous gang of strangers.  Naturally, this is only the beginning of her troubles.  Her friend, Dylan (Brooke McCarter), a journalist, puts his skills to the task of helping Pamela unravel the mystery murder, and so does a friend of her late husband’s, a friend who is still a man of the cloth, when a lot of really strange phenomena begin to afflict Pamela.  People not only want those pictures from Pamela, but there is something far more evil afoot, and far more not natural coming for Pamela.  It’s something that not wants Pamela, but proves deadly to those around her as well.

If you’re looking for a fun horror movie, you should give Emerging Past a spin.  It’s a competent, sometimes disorienting, somewhat mind-bending, slice of thrill house fun.  Writer and director Thomas Churchill and his cast and crew have crafted an entertaining midnight selection just right for watching with a group of friends.  And speaking of the cast, Brooke McCarter is the best; he is reason enough to watch.  And Stephen Geoffreys is delightfully zany.

John Jason