Stars: Chris Ash, Levi Atkins, Chloe Benedict
Director: Jed Brian
Writer: Jed Brian
Movie Review by EDF
Based on video recordings of a horrific event called the Owner Killings in Lawford County, Illinois, which took place over the time span of five months. The video footage from five different video cameras are the basis of this found footage movie. The sheriff department has catalogued all the footage according to the days the footage was shot.
We follow a family that is moving into their new family home. The kids are complaining that they had to leave their friends behind due to daddy’s new teaching job. The second video follows a group of guys getting ready to go camping when they hear the news over the radio about a family that were found slain in their house. Thinking that it would be cool, they all head off to check out the murder site. After checking out the scene of the crime from behind the police line, they decide later on that night to check out the house itself, where they are confronted with all sort of weirdness.
The next video we find is a sheriff interrogating Tanner Lewis, who was seen earlier on the video talking to the camping group. The next video is the camera from Officer Travis Diggs car who is sent out on a call. The last video footage is, well, it will spoil the ending.
This feels like a low budget found footage movie and it can be forgiven for some of its shortcomings but not for others. One of the interesting things it does with the first video footage is that the footage has somehow become corrupted and it jumps about to a different point in time. A let down is the extended camping scene which goes on for a bit too long where a bunch of adolescence just talk nonsense and drunkenly insult certain people in the group. The shots that are taken by those that handle the camera are amateurish but believable and so they should be. Yes, it looks and feels realistic enough but you just want it to move on to the fun bits. You almost wish that there was more footage of the family in the first video but we do not stay with them long enough to care for them.
Clocking in at 65 minutes, it is a quick watch and you know what to expect. Directed, co-written, co-produced, co-edited and starring Jed Brian, we should keep an eye on what he does next.
