Six Films From the Unnamed Footage Festival
Unnamed Footage Festival is a celebration of found footage horror, faux documentary, and POV film that takes place in San Francisco, California. Featuring 15 full length films and 11 short films over two days, this jam-packed festival showcased a wide array of movies. Both Natalie and Whitney watched a handful of the films the festival had to offer. Read on to see what they recommend!
Alien Report
A frequent alien abductee captures high resolution video of his close encounters in Patrick Donnelly’s Alien Report. From a technical standpoint this movie is a micro-budget marvel. All of the visual and makeup effects are way better than they have any right to be on a budget this tiny and with found footage this clear. And “grimy charmer” (that’s what he’s called on his IMDB page, I kid you not!) lead actor Braxton Hale, who essentially carries the movie on a character level, gives a strong performance. While the film gathers steam and improves in narrative quality as it goes on, the earlier acts could benefit from more story structure and less seemingly aimless and repetitive abduction footage. - Natalie
The Collingswood Story
Filmed in 2002 using state-of-the-art technology at the time, The Collingswood Story, directed by Michael Costanza, follows a young couple navigating a long-distance relationship via video chat software. I absolutely love fake computer interfaces and programs and this movie delivers on that. Rebecca (Stephanie Dees) and Johnny (Johnny Burton) are very charming and I found myself really invested in their story. I had the opportunity to ask Costanza if he intentionally wrote these characters as likable as they come across and he admitted he did because he was tired of watching characters in films that he absolutely hated. There’s more at stake here when things start to go south because you like the couple so much and are hoping for the best for them. Additionally, there are a few funny moments that I genuinely laughed out loud at, especially when you meet John’s friend and the internet psychic. This hidden gem was ahead of its time and is worth a watch if you liked Unfriended and miss the days of dial-up internet and AOL.com. - Whitney
Deadware
In Isaac Rodriguez’s Deadware two friends take on an evil supernatural online game in the late 1990s/early 2000s. This movie definitely hits a sweet spot as far as early internet nostalgia goes. And the look of the spooky game within the movie is pretty dead on. But when your movie consists almost entirely of two actors, the writing and acting need to be on point. Unfortunately here, the combination of sub-par written dialogue and acting ultimately make this story hard to enjoy. Rodriguez’s body of work makes it clear that he has a strong affinity for the found footage horror subgenre, and if he continues focusing on this area he can hopefully hone his skills to make more effectively engaging and scary movies. Props on the sound editing though as it was more than sufficiently creepy.- Natalie
FTW
FTW, directed by Jorge Torres-Torres is one of the older films shown at the Unnamed Footage Festival and that piqued my interest. I grew up in a small town in East Texas and there was a sense of familiarity I got while watching this as it is shot in Louisiana. The film focuses on two friends mourning the death of a friend and becoming detached from reality. We see many characters in this faux documentary that don’t seem to add much to the overarching story of the two friends. It felt as if I was watching a compilation of VHS tapes found in an abandoned garage, aimless stories that wandered and never really got back on track in the end. This may work for others, but ultimately I just felt a bit confused by what I was watching. - Whitney
The Outwaters
Four friends set out to the middle of the Mojave Desert to shoot a music video but suddenly find themselves tormented by an indescribable force. Director Robbie Banfitch absolutely knows what he’s doing when it comes to effects, but I can’t really say I liked this movie. A lot of the film is well done - the cinematography, the music, the effects, but the flashing lights and very loud screeching noises turned me off. It’s easy to make me jump because you insert an incredibly loud sound in your film. I didn’t need those noises to feel unsettled because the story and visuals did that on their own, but I became tense watching it and looking forward to it being over. Had I experienced this at a home viewing where I could control the volume, I’d probably have had a better time. However, I’m looking forward to seeing Banfitch has up his sleeve for his next film as he’s incredibly talented and I would love to see what he could do with a bigger budget and larger crew. - Whitney
The Zand Order
A grieving mother hires two women to help her find the cult that killed her daughter in Sarah Goras Peterson’s The Zand Order. It’s unfortunate that a horror movie written and directed by a woman, with an all female cast lead by a woman of color turned out to be such derivative and tedious subgenre fare. Any fan of found footage horror will know this movie and its components all too well. A small, barely sketched group of characters spend almost the entire runtime wandering around in the dark wilderness, screaming loudly and shaking the camera violently at scares that are hardly seen or heard, and fighting with one another endlessly. Aside from depicting the all-too-real horror of a group of people attempting to pitch a tent in the dark, The Zand Order fails to deliver any scares or interesting storytelling.- Natalie