YouTube is an interesting space for found footage. It’s a fantastic place to find, and post, short films and is absolutely FULL of FF shorts. The site has also become a really interesting option for posting full features. Once upon a time you put these films either from a studio or you and your friends onto Amazon but they cracked down on deep indie content and now it’s up to Tubi to hold down the fort. You literally make halves of pennies on the view though so really, I am not sure you lose out on much by going to YouTube aside from there not being as easy a way to find things. I tell ya though, a search for found footage on YT yields more results than Tubi, since for whatever reason, those flicks tend to get buried in their algorithm.
THE MITCHIN MURDERS follows two documentarians to a small town to investigate a series of mysterious murders and attacks that have occurred in the town. What the two find is that there are a lot of secrets in the town and that while people blame someone they call the “boogie man”, the perpetrator behind the horror may be all too real and the filmmakers are getting too close to the truth.
Another interesting idea that just can’t nail the landing. The conceit of creating a documentary about these attacks is really good, though I am not sure why so many people would want to do it in 1994 – there’s just not a huge interest in murder docs at that time, but maybe these folks were just thought leaders. The acting is also generally pretty good with some actors being a little better than others. The film sticks to the theme and manages it well but loses credibility with the existence of the film itself. We soon see that there is 1. Footage from more than one person being presented 2. Footage that would be incriminating (and overtly violent) and finally 3. It’s all cut together as a presentation with no reason, given that anyone would have obtained ALL of the footage we see. Heck, there’s even a moment at the very end that I am just not sure what it means. It’s confusing.
The film has spirit. It’s got its heart in the right place. It doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s pretty well-made. The two big knocks are that it shows stuff there’s no way that anyone should have as far as we can tall and that it opens too many mystery boxes without really giving full answers on things. It’s an interesting watch and not bad at all. Your interest and investment will vary.
2 out of 5
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 