THE ASMA JOURNALS (2025)

Streaming on YouTube!
Directed/Written by Dan Asma.
Watch the whole series here!!

After a large area of land is purchased by a developer (Director/writer Dan Asma), he finds a box of video tapes and journals that suggest the land is haunted by strange creatures that seem to come from a portal located on this mysterious land.

I was sent THE ASMA JOURNALS a while back when it was on its seventh episode, but I waited a bit until the last episode was released and then binged all eleven 10-15 minute episodes and I think that’s going to be the best way to digest this strange little series that relies a whole lot on liminal spaces, long quiet shots, jump scares, and other elements I will talk about in a minute. But first the good.

The concept which THE ASMA JOURNALS is based upon is quite fascinating. It proposes that the earth is much older than we know and that buried under the mountains and sands and earth are ancient structures we simply haven’t discovered yet. On this particular land that the developer is on, there seems to be cracks in reality where those past structures and technology can seep through. But these fissures or portals has an adverse effect on the human body, as it was not meant to be able to exist in this past plane of existence, rending the body into all sorts of mutations. Writer/Director Dan Asma finds this out when he plays the tapes and reads the notebooks he finds on his newly acquired property and ends up venturing too far into this phenomenon where a return to normalcy becomes less and less of a possibility. While this basically is a concept that is not brand new, per se, but it is a new way of looking at it. The fact that civilization is cyclical in nature where it rises from the primordial stew, advances and advances, until finally it develops the means to destroy itself. Run, rinse, repeat and that’s the theory this film plays with. That…is just plain cool to me.

Now, the format this idea is presented is equally fun. Asma plays some of these old VHS tapes and uncovers this information in real time. For the most part, at least in the earlier episodes, Asma is sitting right there next to us watching these tapes going into this concept, not understanding the ramifications until its too late. We also get videos Asma takes on the property where he runs into some of these other dimensional mutations the tapes are talking about. So the story is told in a multi-media format which both entertains and immerses the viewer into the imagery. Because of this immersion, I was shocked with some well timed jump scares as well as creeped out by the foreboding subject matter the tapes and journals are talking about. So, yeah, awesome use of both cheap thrills (the jump scare) and more substantial ones (the lingering, analof style horror we saw in films like SKINAMARINK). But unlike SKINIMARINK, Asma smartly adds a story to the mix, making it all the more satisfying.

On top of that, the monsters themselves are downright nightmare fuel. Most of them look like people wearing thick, practical make-up either lurking around in the dark background or lurching towards the camera. But the grainy way the camera captures the image once again worked for me almost every time it is utilized.

Now let’s chat about the controversial stuff. It appears Dan Asma did pretty much everything he had available to himi to make this extremely low-budget movie. While there are moments of cool practical effects, the further into the series the story gets, more and more A.I. imagery is used to depict strange photos of mutations from the past. As well as other shots which, otherwise, a film of this budget would never have been able to get. Is this morally bad? Well, I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

Personally, I feel using A.I. puts an effects artist out of a job, which is definitely not cool. Then again, I support Asma’s go-to spirit, nabbing the bull by the horns and saying, “I’m going to use everything I can to make the best-looking film possible.” and saving a bit of coin while doing so. If THE ASMA JOURNALS were a large-scale production and used A.I. art, I’d be more pissed. But I can’t fault Asma for using this technology as a tool to tell a story in his ultra-low fi horror series.

That out of the way, the A.I. imagery is absolutely horrifying. I’m versed enough in the tech to know what is A.I. and what isn’t. But THE ASMA JOURNALS uses that uncanny valley effect deftly, amping that strange, otherworldly feel these mutated souls have as rendered with the A.I. tools. It looks like A.I. but because the images are so bold, horrific, and in your face, they work. You or I might not agree with the usage of it, but Asma uses the A.I. tools to make some scenes that will take permanent residence in your night terrors.

THE ASMA JOURNALS is a YouTube series and not necessarily a movie, though edited together it is a little over feature length. And while the series is put together with controversial tools, I have to admit, the results worked with me. This is low-budget ingenuity at its best here as this series was made by one man, his camera, and his computer. And to get scares as potent as this, I think the risk Amsa took was worth it.