Director: Ian Tripp, Ryan Schafer
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Coming together on a movie shoot, a documentary crew is tasked with following a controversial horror director’s return to filmmaking for his last film ever, but the more footage they take the more they realize his unhinged nature is spreading to the rest of the crew and impeding their attempts.
Review:
There was quite a lot to like with this one. Among its better elements is the film’s use of the mockumentary format to document the shenanigans on-screen. Presenting everything through the approach of the two trying to document the comeback film and using that as a guise for collecting interviews with an increasingly frazzled cast and crew trying to present what’s going on around them in the best light possible, this allows the film to generate the kind of budding tension and suspense in what’s happening the longer this goes on. With the movie-making ventures on-set getting increasingly screwed over by various forces both in and out of their control and how this seemingly affects the already-unhinged director at the forefront of everything, this brings about a rather enjoyable sense of chaos that takes over as the shoot wears on and it turns into a somewhat enjoyable finale where the dark nature of everything is finally revealed.
There are a few issues here that hold it down. The biggest factor with this one is the highly underwhelming factor about the tyrannical director at the center of the shoot. There’s little about him that demonstrates any kind of ability to be the charismatic cult-like leader that he’s built up to be as this is just information we’re told at the beginning of the disastrous interview segment that instead paints him as a delusional egomaniac that only gets enhanced more the longer this goes on. The antics on the film set and the abusive behavior he unleashes clearly show him to be at odds with reality from the start and not this type of cult-level figure he’s been painted up to be. It makes for a tough time trying to buy into what’s going on here but otherwise is pretty much the main detriment alongside the cheap, low-budget look that ends up being the main drawbacks.
Overview: ***/5
Enjoyable for what it is but still let down somewhat by some big issues, there’s still more than enough to like here that’s watchable overall if you can get past the drawbacks. Those who are able to do that or appreciate this kind of genre effort will have a lot to like here while most others that can’t should heed caution with this one.
Comments
Post a Comment