jryn7’s review published on Letterboxd:
I always try to stick one or two found footage that I haven’t seen into my Halloween revelries. Technically I crossed that off this summer with The Outwaters. But enough reviewers here had said this movie was better than the “one star, save yourself and avoid” reviews critics gave when Phoenix Forgotten was released that I decided to give it a go.
For half the running time I agreed with the people here who liked it. It’s a film within a film, with the outer film a “documentary” about a woman returning home to make a documentary about her brother, who went missing with 2 other teens back in 1997 investigating the real life “Phoenix Lights” UFO incident. The inner film is the video footage her brother took leading up to his disappearance. The teen actors actually have a lot of charm, and this part keeps you engaged and excited to see the solution to the mystery.
Obviously the sister is making the same mistake all over again, right? Well, no. The “documentary” veers between acting like one and just being an actual feature film. She doesn’t retrace her brother’s steps really either, or do that much investigation beyond talking head interviews. Instead a deus ex machina delivers her the missing second tape that reveals their fate. And then the movie falls apart - first the sister watches the tape and we don’t get to watch, then more delays pad the already short runtime, and then when she does reveal the tape, what we get is derivative, repetitive, and annoying. To be kind, you do see their fate I guess, but it’s pretty weak.
So, good first half, bad and disappointing second half. Don’t rush to watch.
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