Murder in the Heartland: The Search for Video X bills itself as a real documentary, even though it isn't. In a way, it was a bit ahead of its time, released 5 years before the 'found footage' craze really took off. This is more of a fake documentary than a 'found footage' movie though. I can think of only a few 'found footage' movies that are even a little bit realistic. Most of the time, they involve a zombie or demon. So, I liked the subject matter, if not the way the movie actually turned out. It wasn't bad considering the limited budget, but I expected/was hoping for much more. By the time the mysterious videotape ("Video X" as referenced in the title) appears, it's a little bit too late.
7 Reviews
Not bad for a straight to video camcorder cheese fest
unkle_nasty_fingers6 June 2004
I stumbled upon this movie by accident one night. I saw the cover of the box and it looked like a faces of death style video so I ended up renting it. What I got was a cheesy made on a camcorder crime spree movie....it resembles a nasty car wreck on the side of a road, yet it's strangely interesting to watch. I would've preferred a faces of death video but this was not so bad. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll probably wanna shoot yourself in the foot for renting such a piece of garbage, but it will hook you in like a crack rock and keep you watching. It's really not a terrible movie, but once you see Darla-Jean naked, you'll most likely just wanna turn it off.
Proof of being fake, but was entertaining
stingazombie27 March 2005
Was hilarious, wife and I were cracking up when grandma got her dander up. Following is proof of fake. Look up on "The internet Movie Database" and one will find the actors Josh Gibson/as Dwayne, Jack Kyle/ as Billy Epp, and Michelle Moretti/as Darla-jean. Check out the differences between the supposedly police forensic still photo of the woman that was shot in the stomach and the so called "real" video of same woman. Slow down the video and pause it and count the differences. Still photo has older lady with hair tied back with ears showing/video has younger looking lady with shoulder length hair over her ears. Still is wearing top and something like clam digger pants/video lady is wearing bath robe. Still has a blood splatter and tissue by her left knee/video has no splatter or tissue, tho tissue could of ended up underneath the knee. Phone base is in different position tho that could of been moved. Most obvious is the phone. Still has phone laying right in front of stove/video has Darla come in screaming,pick up the phone,throw down the phone,stomp on it and leave it on the other side of the blood smear almost two feet away from the still photo layout. Camera man could not of moved it back into position cause he left the house hot on the heels of Dwayne and Darla. Other fakes-one of the still photos of husband of lady shot in the stomach has his shirt missing for some reason when in other scenes he has it on. Horribly bad acting, pastor that has no idea about spiritual things, filming of the ground when confronted by Dwayne's dad and and sheriff which is of all times the moment a cameraman would be filming the people. There are other things, but I would be really nit picking. Once again, entertaining
spare yourselves
jludt1113 June 2006
GOD AWFUL. Absolutely the BIGGEST waste of time spent on a movie in my entire life. When I rented the movie I was under the impression that it was an "actual" documentary detailing vicious murders on a graphic spree of killing. NOTHING CLOSE. Its a couple of hicks that purposely make use of bad lighting to give the feeling of a home camcorder filming the whole ordeal. People please spare yourselves from this pile of garbage. I actually signed up on this site tonight SPECIFICALLY because of this film. HORRIBLE MOVIE. I cannot say enough about how miserable this movie is and how angry I am for my video store stocking it on the shelf. To be honest I didn't even get all the way through.... and I can't remember the last time I had to shut a movie off because it was that bad, and I've sat through some stinkers.
Watched on Tubi
ozzy-475537 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Watched this on Tubi, a free app, the commercials were a reprieve from the garbage I was watching. I was on Reddit through most of the movie since I like background noise. Meh time waster. Some of the folks seem believable, probably paid $20 to just act like themselves. 911 operators sounded SO fake, the interviewer is ridiculously pushy so you know it's bs. I will say this, Granny was the absolute star of this movie, bless her.
So, if you need background noise or need to waste some time, go for it but don't watch it on an app you pay for. The producers should actually pay me money to sit through this, which I did.
So, if you need background noise or need to waste some time, go for it but don't watch it on an app you pay for. The producers should actually pay me money to sit through this, which I did.
Not horrible
oggybleacher23 January 2015
Warning: Spoilers
I can only comment on the interview style "search" portion of this multi-film project that James Mortellaro assembled over 4 years. I guess this was supposed to wet my appetite for the actual "footage" of video x, but I'm in no hurry to see that. I was in a media blackout era in the early 2000s so I honestly thought I'd not heard of Dwayne and Darla Jean's crime spree. And it's a testament to the baffling true news that I didn't doubt for a minute that such a crime spree could and did happen. A guy decapitates his mother for telling him to clean his room. A father throws his baby off a bridge. A mother drowns all her children. Anything can happen. It all seemed no more crazy or horrific than current events. If someone told me a robbery was perpetrated by a person wearing a werewolf mask I'd say that was a hoax. Or many other crazy things that turn out to be true.
Murder in the Heartland is indeed a fictional film about invented events and characters, presented in the style of a low budget documentary. With so many true crime/frontline/dateline/60 minutes style programs that are based on actual events the format is now almost paint-by-numbers. The twist here is that aside from interviewing the characters, it's revealed there is footage from the crime spree shot by the couple and the filmmaker tries to find the footage. That's plausible and now 12 years later obviously any crime spree by teenagers will probably include selfies and live chats and video footage. That's automatic so it's a good premise and that's sort of original.
I'd expect local actors pretending to be real people to do a much worse job than they did. The interviews did sound improvised and credible. I give the actors credit because they are being asked to portray parodies of themselves and that's a little humiliating but they pulled it off. Only during the final 15 minutes did I feel the whole presentation fell apart and it all became fake. The events themselves were sort of plausible (I guess everything is plausible today) but the presentation looked staged while the rest of the interviews didn't seem staged.
There were some major gaps in the story telling but I could attribute that to the amateur "director" forgetting to fill in the gaps or assuming all the facts were known already. Like, the hostage from the bank allegedly drove the getaway car? And she drove it over a cliff? So where was Darla Jean? She had to film the getaway? And what happened to Billy Epp? And a Los Angeles company is selling Video X openly, but the Sheriff and District Attorney can not comment? Maybe these were questions left unanswered so I'd watch Video X when it was released in 2007.
Murder in the Heartland is indeed a fictional film about invented events and characters, presented in the style of a low budget documentary. With so many true crime/frontline/dateline/60 minutes style programs that are based on actual events the format is now almost paint-by-numbers. The twist here is that aside from interviewing the characters, it's revealed there is footage from the crime spree shot by the couple and the filmmaker tries to find the footage. That's plausible and now 12 years later obviously any crime spree by teenagers will probably include selfies and live chats and video footage. That's automatic so it's a good premise and that's sort of original.
I'd expect local actors pretending to be real people to do a much worse job than they did. The interviews did sound improvised and credible. I give the actors credit because they are being asked to portray parodies of themselves and that's a little humiliating but they pulled it off. Only during the final 15 minutes did I feel the whole presentation fell apart and it all became fake. The events themselves were sort of plausible (I guess everything is plausible today) but the presentation looked staged while the rest of the interviews didn't seem staged.
There were some major gaps in the story telling but I could attribute that to the amateur "director" forgetting to fill in the gaps or assuming all the facts were known already. Like, the hostage from the bank allegedly drove the getaway car? And she drove it over a cliff? So where was Darla Jean? She had to film the getaway? And what happened to Billy Epp? And a Los Angeles company is selling Video X openly, but the Sheriff and District Attorney can not comment? Maybe these were questions left unanswered so I'd watch Video X when it was released in 2007.
Poor Natural Born Killers Rip Off Documentary SCAM
tor-294 March 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I was very disappointed with the poor acting in this faux-documentary. The characters are transparent, and the motivation of the "film" makers is as well. An attempt to sell a spin off film, of the crime scene video...s'posedly photographed by the offenders themselves. Didn't fool me one bit. The formula is simple, start with Natural Born Killers, segue to documentary with a poor homage to Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, and throw in some Blair Witch for good measure. I was left feeling disappointed, mislead, angry, and sorry this film was ever made. I believe it damages the integrity of the documentary format.
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