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For a debut feature, Dean's The Trip swings big - and it connects. It captures the altered-state headspace with a surprising amount of authenticity, using visuals, pacing, and sound design to keep the viewer disoriented in all the right ways. It's trippy without being over the top, unnerving without losing its human core.

I first talked with Dean about The Trip on my podcast back when it was still in its crowdfunding stage. That conversation stuck with me, and it ended up influencing my own upcoming cosmic horror novella, Seams of the Infinite. Different story, different world, but both share that hallucinogen-threaded perspective Dean handled so well here.

And horror fans - yes, that really is Doug Bradley, the Pinhead from Hellraiser, making an appearance. It's a great touch, and it ties the film into horror's larger legacy.

If you're grading Dean Jacobs on the same scale you'd grade a John Carpenter film, you're missing the point - and you're not being credible. This is a debut, and grading it on the proper curve shows it for what it is: an impressive first at-bat from a filmmaker with a clear vision and the nerve to tell it his way. I'm excited to see where he goes next.