BEFORE: I've got to work on my November job schedules today, because next month is going to be here before you know it. The last two months of the Movie Year are traditionally a bit of a slower time, because I've usually used up most of my slots and I'm really just interested in finding a path to Christmas and working on the wrap-up post. This year should be no different, except I'll have 15 slots in each of the last two months instead of the usual 10 - so, essentially a movie every 2 days. Or a movie every day until I hit the holiday film, and then down time. Before that I've got to get through a couple Nets games, the WNBA playoffs, and a couple festivals like NewFest and DocFest. Those are real-world events, while my own personal movie blocks are more virtual - it's important that I prioritize things that are real over movie things, which are not, especially during October. Horror movies are not real, I can't stress that enough because if I lose sight of that I'll start having night terrors that are unrelated to work.
Ethan Hawke carries over from "Black Phone 2". This was made by the same director, only a few years before the first "Black Phone" film.
THE PLOT: A controversial true-crime writer finds a box of Super 8 home movies in his new home, revealing that the murder case he is researching could be the work of an unknown serial killer.
AFTER: I haven't watched too many horror films in this "found footage" genre, which I think goes back to "Blair Witch", which was a big sensation back in the day. But that was a little different because somebody made that indie movie to LOOK like the whole thing was found footage that we were all watching, it was a trick of course but a good one. Most of the time the "found footage" is an element within a larger story, in other words, we're watching somebody who's watching the home movies or whatever, as seen here. Ethan Hawke plays a true-crime author who has bought or rented the home where a family was killed, and moved his own family there so he can research his next book. But he hasn't exactly told his wife that they'll all be living inside a crime scene, I'm sure she'll be fine with it and there won't be any repercussions of that whatsoever. What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
This film was partially inspired by "The Ring", which wasn't really about found footage, but it was about deadly footage, that 2002 film had a cursed VHS tape that killed everyone who watched it, and you know, this was a common problem back in the old days before everybody switched over to DVDs. But I think if you watch "The Ring" on streaming you also die, don't say I didn't warn you. The crime author here finds a whole box of snuff films in his attic, but, umm, who left them there? It's easy enough to think that someone in the family who lived there had a thing for watching people die, but maybe it was whoever killed them? You'd think that the police would have been through every inch of that house, looking for clues, even the basement and the attic.
The whole family was hung in the backyard, except for one young girl who disappeared and was never found. So, did someone kill the whole family just to kidnap the girl, or what? As Ellison checks out the other films in the crate, he sees a bunch of murders, all by different methods - a family burned up in a car, a family tied to chairs and drowned in a pool, and so on - but they're all filmed in the same style, which implies the same cameraman and/or the same killer. And then after watching them as video files, in slow-motion he notices an ominous face in the background in every film, watching the deaths take place. Creepy. So is this a cult or a deranged psycho? Bigger question, why not turn the videos over to the police or FBI so these crimes can be investigated by professionals? But no, he keeps the films to himself because he thinks he can get his next book out of them.
A little research with the help of a local deputy (the sheriff is no help, and would very much like it if the author and his family would just pack up and move away) reveals that there are unsolved murders around the country that match what Ellison saw in those films - and in each case, there is a missing child from those families. The film kind of kicks into another gear when the author finds more stuff in the attic, namely child-like drawings of each murder seen on the Super 8 films, each cartoonishly shows the family members in the pool or in the burning car or hanging from the tree as "Mr. Boogie" watches. Then an expert on the occult gets back to Ellison with information about the symbol seen on the walls in some of the films, which is linked to the Babylonian god Bughuul, who lures children into his realm and consumes their souls.
Sure, the creepy factor is very high here, but it's also just a little pat, like there just happens to be a noted Babylonian demon-god whose M.O. fits all these murder scenes so precisely. And Ellison burns the film projector and the snuff films with lighter fluid, but the next day there's a new crate of them in the attic, and a reel of "Extended Cut Endings"? Come on, no editor works that fast, and it takes like months to reprint films from negatives and half the time the lab screws it up and just gives you a free roll of film to make up for it, am I right? Now we've got a DEMON arguing with the studio over final cut and demanding the release of his extended cut? Give me a break...
Directed by Scott Derrickson (director of "The Black Phone" and "Black Phone 2")
Also starring Juliet Rylance (last seen in "Love After Love"), Fred Dalton Thompson (last seen in "ReMastered: Tricky Dick and the Man in Black"), James Ransone (also carrying over from "Black Phone 2"), Michael Hall D'Addario (last seen in "People Like Us"), Clare Foley (last seen in "Southpaw"), Rob Riley, Tavis Smiley (last seen in "I Am M.L.K. Jr.), Janet Zappala, Victoria Leigh, Cameron Ocasio, Ethan Jack Haberfield (last seen in "We Have a Ghost"), Danielle Kotch, Blake Mizrahi, Nicholas King, Vincent D'Onofrio (last seen in "Caught Stealing"), Rachel Konstantin
RATING: 5 out of 10 talk show appearances
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