Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Disco Inferno’ on Netflix, a Horror Short Set in a Chaste Church-Turned-Sinful Disco

Disco Inferno (now on Netflix) is a scary-season short film set in a sinful place that used to be a holy place: a church where people prayed to Jebus and took communion, now converted into a disco nightclub where people gyrate their nethers and sniff cocaine. Director Matthew Castellanos casts Fuller House star Soni Bringas as a glitzed-out mom-to-be who finds herself in the throes of a diabolical force, which is a major bummer, because it’s hampering her participation in a far-out disco-dance competition. Will she burn up the dance floor, or burn in heck? No spoilers, baby, no spoilers.

DISCO INFERNO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: A woman we’ll soon learn is Sister Lynn (Helene Udy) weeps in a Catholic confessional. She gets increasingly deranged as she weeps and wails about how she always wanted to have a child of her own but couldn’t – and now she has one, stolen from a woman she killed. Then we realize blood is all over her hands. Moments later, the priest walks into the room and there’s Lynn, dangling at the end of a noose. It’s 1955.

Now it’s 1973. The church is no longer a church – it’s a disco nightclub dubbed Inferno. Mel (Bringas) and her boyfriend Brandon (Stephen Ruffin) rehearse for the club’s grand-opening dance contest. There’s eyeshadow up to here and lapels out to there. They’re pretty good together, even though they’re nursing some nerves. Mel suddenly dashes to the bathroom to barf, and you know what that means, because in movies, female characters don’t barf for any reason unless they’re totes preggers. She isn’t 100 percent sure yet, but she knows, like a mother knows things like this.

Mel leaves the bathroom and walks into the club and then BAM. With a rapid cut the disco is gone and the church is back and Mel’s eyes are all black. She seems overtaken by something. Possessed, maybe. She walks into a hall and there’s the confessional. And Sister Lynn is in there, with upside-down crosses reflecting in her eyes. Very cool, yes – unless you’re Mel.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Castellanos’ use of reds and oranges made me think of the ever-lovin’ original Suspiria, and there’s a crazy-old-lady-who-might-be-a-ghost-or-a-zombie scene that seems inspired by Drag Me to Hell. 

Performance Worth Watching: Bringas seems wholly capable of carrying the weight of a feature-length version of Disco Inferno, but the film’s too truncated to allow her room to explore the character and her situation. (More on that in a minute here.) 

Memorable Dialogue: Sister Lynn, screeching: “I’ve gone too far. I’ve taken a mother’s life. Taken a child she didn’t deserve!”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Disco Inferno feels like a sizzle reel or teaser for a full-length feature: Compelling concept, characters in transition, a setting and location rich with potential. And that’s precisely why this 18-minuter is frustrating – just as it establishes its core ideas and plot, and hits a groove, it ends. Castellanos has an eye for disturbing imagery – the eyeballs, gotta love the creepy eyeballs – and we want to see more. Bringas and Ruffin show enough affectionate chemistry to carry these characters through 90 minutes, and we want to spend more time with them. The subtext stirs up ideas about faith and sin and motherly anxiety, but leaves us hanging; it’s too thin to stir up any serious scares. There’s a fine line between being suggestive and sketchy, and this film lands in the latter camp. 

Our Call: Disco Inferno’s style is enough to warrant a small time investment, so I say STREAM IT with reservations – and a warning that you won’t be fully satisfied. Now call me when it becomes more than just the intro to the first act of a potentially excellent horror feature.  

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.