**Plot**
In 1986, the town of Lutton, MA was rocked with the grizzly murder of the Mulcahy Family; consisting of the schizophrenic doomsday prepping father Joseph, mother Rebecca, teenaged daughter Jessica and the troublemaking 12 year old son Edward. The family were tied up in various areas in and outside of the house, and chopped up with what police reckoned was a hatchet. Certain limbs that were hacked were missing, including Joseph's legs, Rebecca's left arm, and Jessica's head. Edward's left arm was left tied to his bed, separated from his now missing body. The perpetrator of this crime was never apprehended, remaining a cold case for decades.
On the 30th anniversary of the murders in 2016, Seattle college student Leah Sullivan returns to her hometown of Lutton to shoot a documentary about the cold case for a class project due by the end of January. She meets local police officer Patrick Rooke, who aids her in filming her documentary. Over the course of her and Patrick filming, they begin to not only discover more about the Mulcahy family, but also begin to piece together supposed unrelated missing people reports that occurred over a decade after the house was abandoned. This 30 year old case file might just be solved by Leah and Patrick, but as the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. Or in this case, Leah's curiosity nearly killed a dog while she was driving her car. But it led to a funny exchange with the dog's owner, so it's fine.
**Review**
The writing and the performances by all of the leading and supporting actors were very good. I can't tell if some lines were improvised or were scripted, but regardless, all of the actors felt natural while simultaneously being awkward as they should be.
Some of the genuine awkward humor from Leah interviewing people without properly informing them what it's for led to some moments of laughter from me. Even the brief scene of the woman walking her dog scolding a driving Leah for nearly hitting the dog was hilarious.
Sound and Image Quality were fine, outside of moments where you get the usual shakiness from when a jumpscare happens or Patrick messes up the tripod or when scary things start to happen in the final act.
I think the film's detractors would be the last act, where Leah has been smart up until this point, but greed corrupts her thinking, for she now wants to forget the class project and make this her meal ticket to fame and enter the world of journalism. She wants to properly investigate the supposed condemned house, not considering the risk of getting injured or attacked by looking in the house. Even Patrick, the voice of reason, gets dragged into helping her because he wants to have a clean conscious if something happens to her. At the cost of your life, though, Patrick?
The lack of straight forward answers to the mystery will upset some people. Some may think the interviews leading up to the last act are pointless exposition, but they're actually clues that hint towards what to expect in the last act. To really understand what was going on, the film isn't going to give it to you on a spoon like a parent feeding a baby. You'd have to sit down, recollect the information the characters have gathered, jump to some conclusions, and roll with it. I had to look up what others who watched the film thought happened to see if I was close to solving it. I kind of was, but I missed some details to make it more clearer.
The big thing people want to see in found footage films is the big scary thing that's stalking or haunting in crystal clear images or video...which if you think about it, kind of destroys the ambiguous nature of found footage, so I'm glad this film opted to not go the Blair Witch 2016 route of being in your face with everything.
You or others might be disappointed just by the source of light in the last act, and not being able to see what the end credits call the Creature. I think it sells the realism of the found footage aspect a bit better when you're actually in pitch black, for it puts you right in Leah and Patrick's shoes.
Overall, the film is 84 minutes long, and it goes by quick. It's a decent watch for a Thursday night off from work if you have no plans that day. Or at all for life in general, so I'd say give it a shot, so long as your aim isn't like Patrick's.
In 1986, the town of Lutton, MA was rocked with the grizzly murder of the Mulcahy Family; consisting of the schizophrenic doomsday prepping father Joseph, mother Rebecca, teenaged daughter Jessica and the troublemaking 12 year old son Edward. The family were tied up in various areas in and outside of the house, and chopped up with what police reckoned was a hatchet. Certain limbs that were hacked were missing, including Joseph's legs, Rebecca's left arm, and Jessica's head. Edward's left arm was left tied to his bed, separated from his now missing body. The perpetrator of this crime was never apprehended, remaining a cold case for decades.
On the 30th anniversary of the murders in 2016, Seattle college student Leah Sullivan returns to her hometown of Lutton to shoot a documentary about the cold case for a class project due by the end of January. She meets local police officer Patrick Rooke, who aids her in filming her documentary. Over the course of her and Patrick filming, they begin to not only discover more about the Mulcahy family, but also begin to piece together supposed unrelated missing people reports that occurred over a decade after the house was abandoned. This 30 year old case file might just be solved by Leah and Patrick, but as the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. Or in this case, Leah's curiosity nearly killed a dog while she was driving her car. But it led to a funny exchange with the dog's owner, so it's fine.
**Review**
The writing and the performances by all of the leading and supporting actors were very good. I can't tell if some lines were improvised or were scripted, but regardless, all of the actors felt natural while simultaneously being awkward as they should be.
Some of the genuine awkward humor from Leah interviewing people without properly informing them what it's for led to some moments of laughter from me. Even the brief scene of the woman walking her dog scolding a driving Leah for nearly hitting the dog was hilarious.
Sound and Image Quality were fine, outside of moments where you get the usual shakiness from when a jumpscare happens or Patrick messes up the tripod or when scary things start to happen in the final act.
I think the film's detractors would be the last act, where Leah has been smart up until this point, but greed corrupts her thinking, for she now wants to forget the class project and make this her meal ticket to fame and enter the world of journalism. She wants to properly investigate the supposed condemned house, not considering the risk of getting injured or attacked by looking in the house. Even Patrick, the voice of reason, gets dragged into helping her because he wants to have a clean conscious if something happens to her. At the cost of your life, though, Patrick?
The lack of straight forward answers to the mystery will upset some people. Some may think the interviews leading up to the last act are pointless exposition, but they're actually clues that hint towards what to expect in the last act. To really understand what was going on, the film isn't going to give it to you on a spoon like a parent feeding a baby. You'd have to sit down, recollect the information the characters have gathered, jump to some conclusions, and roll with it. I had to look up what others who watched the film thought happened to see if I was close to solving it. I kind of was, but I missed some details to make it more clearer.
The big thing people want to see in found footage films is the big scary thing that's stalking or haunting in crystal clear images or video...which if you think about it, kind of destroys the ambiguous nature of found footage, so I'm glad this film opted to not go the Blair Witch 2016 route of being in your face with everything.
You or others might be disappointed just by the source of light in the last act, and not being able to see what the end credits call the Creature. I think it sells the realism of the found footage aspect a bit better when you're actually in pitch black, for it puts you right in Leah and Patrick's shoes.
Overall, the film is 84 minutes long, and it goes by quick. It's a decent watch for a Thursday night off from work if you have no plans that day. Or at all for life in general, so I'd say give it a shot, so long as your aim isn't like Patrick's.