An adopted documentarian traces her birth family to an Amish community: she makes a film. Otherwise-unrelated reboot of the long-running found-footage horror series. Takes its time, but there’s some okay supernatural stuff among the usual jumpscares and format contrivances (a Christopher Landon script helps). An unfamiliar cast helps.
Here’s the trailer.
A vlogging couple explores a submerged supposedly-haunted house. Technically proficient but dumb-as-wet-rocks underwater jumpscare horror flick (with found footage and real-time elements), that’s wholly uncertain what to do with its premise. Mercifully brief and good-looking, though.
Here’s the trailer.
A horror anthology, linked by the contents of a video tape. Overlong (there’s a short movie too much) and at times repetitive, this is nevertheless a generally solid found-footage horror compilation, even if the dudebro-ness on display doesn’t always translate into critique. Two standout stories and the interesting credits (acting and direction) make it worth your while. Sequels followed.
Here’s the trailer.
Four US backpackers searching for a long-lost heir in Southwest New Guinea disregard rumours of cannibal tribes. Straightforward but effective found-footage horror with interesting credits, clearly in dept to both Cannibal Holocaust and The Blair Witch Project, with a glimmer of Heart of Darkness in the background.
Here’s the trailer.
A driven archaeologist and crew investigate the Paris catacombs for a sacred alchemical relic. Decent location work, a photogenic cast, and a couple of unsettling early moments make promises that the movie can’t quite sustain, setting for straightforward face-your-demons stuff but no real story answers.
Here’s the trailer.
An archive documentary time-lining the 2018 murder of Shannan, Celeste, and Bella Watts by Shannan’s husband Christopher, and the subsequent police investigation. Grim and compelling, and well-assembled from news coverage, social media posts, police and court interview videos, and from text conversations.
Here’s the trailer.
A couple explore a Northern California forest, making a documentary about Bigfoot. Straightforward but strong found-footage horror; a Sasquatch Blair Witch Project in all but name. Effective nevertheless, and doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Here’s the trailer:
A YouTuber psychologist attempts to force a cure on an agoraphobic; supernatural forces are at work. While some performances are fun, the bulk of the movie is simply an arrogant and unlikeable bloke bullying a woman for running-time-consuming reasons. A decent genre idea for a short is stretched uncomfortably to feature-length. Not for me.
A documentary crew travels to a remote religious community to conduct an interview. Its found-footage approach to its riff on the Jim Jones/Jamestown cult mass suicide works, but the film doesn’t convince in the storyline logic of its sudden dark turn. A shame, as there’s talent involved, and Gene Jones is great as the messianic Father.
The story of an online sensation: a clown you can pay to scare your children. Solid documentary (which flirts with the extent to which it might be fictional, an art project, or something else) that explores memes, contemporary media folk devils, coulrophobia, parenting, “behavioural services”, and more.
255 Review 