“Sounds like a line from a horror movie.”
Horror’s found-footage genre has a low barrier of entry due to its inherently lo-fi, small-budget nature. This accessibility is exactly why found-footage is such an exciting horror format that can inspire innovation and creativity when it’s properly utilized. Unfortunately, for every subversive and ambitious found-footage triumph there are considerably more lazy misfires that exploit the format without saying anything deeper about this intimate style of filmmaking. This has led to many general audiences dismissing the majority of found-footage horror except when it’s a breakout success like The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, and the V/H/S franchise.
Found-footage is still a genre with high highs and low lows, and there have been some really encouraging triumphs from the past few years, like Host, Frogman, Man Finds Tape, Late Night With the Devil, or even Curry Barker’s Milk and Serial, that are helping rewrite the found-footage narrative. Arker Soe Oo’s debut feature film, The Last Footage, is not just Myanmar’s first found-footage movie, but the first film to be entirely shot with 4K Pro camera glasses.
What follows is a horror story that basically plays out in real-time. This approach, while ultra bare-bones in its own way, still makes The Last Footage feel like a modern evolution of the found-footage genre that successfully justifies its footage and presentation style. A simple nature getaway among friends leads to cursed rituals, resurrections, and supernatural creatures. The Last Footage is Paranormal Activity meets The Ritual, with a standout final act that doesn’t hold back.
An extended group of friends plan a relaxing trip to a cabin in Wingabar Forest when they inadvertently stumble upon something considerably more sinister. The Last Footage doesn’t break the mold in terms of its story structure and, like many other found-footage films, it takes some time to get moving. That being said, The Last Footage is well crafted and shows a lot of promise from debut director Arker Soe Oo. A domino effect of darkness sweeps over these travelers once a boy disappears and a grieving witch demands justice.
There’s some interesting lore that’s unpacked that involves guardians of a dark realm who protect the forest from the sleeping demons that dwell below. There’s just enough backstory provided to make sense of the brewing horrors at hand, but without demystifying them or getting lost in clunky exposition. The group’s presence has disturbed a deadly creature and given it greater power. While there’s initially some skepticism over these dangers, The Last Footage slowly intensifies its terrors, and this friend group starts to fracture. All the performances are properly naturalistic and never pull the audience out of this immersive onslaught. However, the witch (Mo Khum) gives a creepy, committed performance that’s a real highlight.
The Last Footage takes advantage of its completely first-person perspective that lacks many of the basic flourishes of other found-footage efforts. It makes sure that the audience gets no escape from this experience and that they’re locked into this never-ending nightmare. This stylistic approach makes The Last Footage a claustrophobic fright that embraces its small budget to great effect. Tense scenes are interrupted by intrusive scares that seep into the corners of the frame and pop out like whack-a-mole monsters. The Last Footage has a playful, self-aware sense of humor that helps lull the audience into a false sense of security until it’s too late to turn back. There’s a great monster design that’s sparingly used. It’s shown just enough and from the right distance to sell the illusion. It’s an unnerving entity that looks like a wendigo mixed with a minotaur.
The Last Footage is a step in the right direction for found-footage, even if it still succumbs to many of the genre’s standard misgivings and criticisms. It features its share of unnerving setpieces that culminate in a fantastic final half-hour that’s extremely intense. However, The Last Footage is still a little too muted and shaggy for its own good. It lacks the precision of superior found-footage films. There’s too much dead weight on The Last Footage for a movie that’s not even 90 minutes, but it’s easy to look past this once the final act locks in. It honestly feels like The Last Footage would have worked better as a half-hour segment in a V/H/S film, rather than a full-length feature that sometimes struggles to fill time and maintain compelling pacing.
The Last Footage saves its strongest material for its extreme finale, which takes some big swings, not all of which work. It’s a film that knows how to do a lot with a little as it stretches its small budget and makes sure that it never gets in the way of its scares. Director Arker Soe Oo shows a lot of talent in The Last Footage that he’ll hopefully continue to refine, whether it’s in additional found-footage movies or a more conventional horror film. As far as first films go, there’s a lot to appreciate and plenty of technical skill on display in The Last Footage that makes it a worthwhile-if-not-flawed found-footage treat.
Summary
The Last Footage brings some innovative ideas to horror’s found-footage subgenre, but it struggles to find itself, despite its unnerving atmosphere
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