Before I start, just so we’re clear – this is a movie. This is not real. There is no serial killer filming victims and these are those tapes.
Let me break it down.
- No family would agree for that sort of footage to be released. Could the killer release it online? Sure, but it’d be pulled almost immediately and only live on deep web sites and for moments on messageboards.
- This film breaks the cardinal rules of found footage – there are inserts in the footage, it’s made as if all of these tapes were edited into easily digestible snippets – as if for a movie – and finally there is music and sound inserted into the film as if we are in the killer’s head.
So there you go.
This isn’t real.
Carry on.
I have to admit that I am never really anxious to watch found footage films like this. They feel, to put it as my daughter might – yucky. It’s hard to get past the uneasy feeling that these sort of movies are just to get actresses in vulnerable positions and as victims with no agency. There’s no mystery to movies like this so they rarely work. The only one I can think of, that focuses on the killer in this way, is POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES and that’s presented as a documentary delving into the mystery of the killer. It’s not glorifying them, it’s examining them. Most of these films are so hung up on the killer and fetishizing the women that there just isn’t anything of nourishment to gain.
AUDTION presents the tapes of a self described ‘director’ who is auditioning young women for his imaginary film. The film is to be a reality piece and he needs to shoot footage of the actresses in their day to day lives to get the feel for if they’ll work for the part, giving him access to the women for a greater length of time. The film focuses on the director’s interview with one of the actresses, revealing his steady turn from interested ‘director’ into predator.
First off, the lead actress is fantastic in this. She’s absolutely natural and she’s the reason some may think this is real. She is great at either improv or rolling with the flow of the back and forth and truly raises this film up more than it would be otherwise. She’s one of only two reasons to watch this.
Aside from the focus on the killer as the ‘star’, the big issue I have here is that the film doesn’t stay in its lane. It inserts footage, as if we’re seeing the world through the killer’s eyes, it inserts music cues, it inserts internal sounds, and it cuts footage in that is from other victims. And that’s fine, for a regular film, but if you’re going to make a film in this style then you need to stick to the rules. The film reminds me of the remake of MANIAC but instead of a look to the inner conflict or psychosis of the killer we are kept at arms length, only MAYBE getting some glimpses that don’t amount to anything.
And there’s the rub.
It’s salacious without going far enough and sleazy without showing any real skin.
It’s weird.
With such a focus on the killer we only get glimpses of him with the women and really don’t see what he does. The film becomes about his fetishization of women and hate for them but we don’t see wha that means. Not that we need another film where women are killed and tortured graphically but it plays too cute with its artsy shooting style of the ‘kills’. The movie focues on one aspect of his obsession outside of women, again tying it to MANIAC, but just doesn’t have that film or its remake’s pathos.
I said there were two reasons to watch this. The lead actress is the big one. The other is a climax that is very effective. The whole movie stretches its believability to the furthest it can but the way the end plays out is very creepy and makes good use of the location. I may not like the film but that climax has a really chilling reveal and plays out very well.
This sort of movie isn’t my thing.
I can appreciate films like this but don’t like them. Done well, they can really chill you and leave you haunted. Alas, most of the films like this are, well, like this. Leering killers and us along for the ride as we hunt and kill women for reasons that are never explored. At least in a film like POUGHKEEPSIE you get to see so much of the evolution of the killer and it’s all presented in a way that pulls you out of it as an investigator and not participant, that it’s far more palatable.
Kudos to the actress, she was amazing.
The film, I can live without.
1 out of 5
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 