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Film: Hunting Matthew Nichols
Year: 2024
Director: Markian Tarasiuk
Writers: Sean Harris Oliver and Markian Tarasiuk
Starring: Markian Tarasiuk, Ryan Alexander McDonald and Miranda MacDougall
Review:
This film was the first one that I saw on the final day of Nightmares Film Festival. There was another feature showing at the same time, but this one, being that it was found footage, intrigued me more. It isn’t listed as horror on the Internet Movie Database or Letterboxd, so keep that in mind. I’d agree with most of this. That is until you see where this ends up.
Synopsis: twenty-three years after her brother vanished, a filmmaker investigates his disappearance. Uncovering evidence, she suspects he may still be alive, fueling her quest to unravel the mystery.
The synopsis does well in giving you an idea of what we’re getting here. Tara Nichols (Miranda MacDougall) is trying to find out what happened to her brother on Halloween all those years ago. She is helped by Markian Tarasiuk who is directing this and Ryan Alexander McDonald is the camera, both as themselves.
They go back to her hometown where they meet Brenda Nichols (Christine Willes), who I’m guessing is the real mother to Tara. This is where we dive into the case. There are experts from the time that this happened who give insight. There is evidence shown, possible theories as to what happened to Matthew and his best friend that fateful night.
When things seem to have hit a wall, Tara makes a discovery that there is one tape that was filmed the night of the disappearance that wasn’t with the evidence. That could hold footage to help break up this case as we see this sister breakdown mentally, trying to find any answer that she can as to what happened to her brother.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I’ll start is that I chatted with another patron when this was over. We both agreed that this has a vibe of Lake Mungo. We are seeing a family deal with a tragedy where a child either died or disappeared. There is a logical explanation for everything that happened. Matthew and his friend disappeared on Vancouver Island. They went into the woods and more than likely, fell into a ravine or just got lost, never to be found again. Tara won’t accept that answer. We then see her breakdown as she continues to fight.
I did want to shift gears a bit here to say that MacDougall’s performance here was amazing. She seems like a woman who is bound and determined to find the truth, even if it kills her. There’s an aspect here as well that in the beginning, she acknowledges that she might not find what she’s looking for. She said that she was fine with that. When new evidence is found and still stalls, we see that it got her hopes up and then it was dashed. That adds emotions there that sucked me in, like what she found has done for her. I also like Tarasiuk in his role as he tries to keep her grounded. Since he’s the director, he feels reasonable for her descending into this madness. The other cast around them seem like the characters they’re playing. This feels like a docudrama so that adds realism as well.
Now I’m not going to spoil what happens here, but I’ll say that there’s a local legend here of a man named Roy Mackenize. I believe he was Native American or followed their beliefs. We add folklore with things that he believed as the story develops. Another comparison I want to make would be to three other films in this subgenre, The Blair Witch Project, Blue Hour: The Disappearance of Nick Brandreth and Horror in the High Desert. There are elements of all three in this. Parts of it could be unexplainable things that our team finds. There is also this missing tape that could shed light on what happened.
There isn’t more to go into here since this is a character study of Tara and I’ve already said how great she was. I’ll just finish filmmaking. This being a mockumentary and filmed in the way of found footage adds realism. The acting helps bring that to life as well. There aren’t effects until late into this and when we get there, it goes into the horror genre. That doesn’t always put it into the genre, but when you consider things, we’ve been learning throughout, it makes it creepier. It made me uncomfortable in the best way possible. There is music here, but we know what we’re watching has been edited. The sounds that are ambient ramp up the tension as well.
In conclusion, this is a little gem that I found from this festival. It isn’t horror for most of it, but where it goes in that final act is creepy. How it builds to that was effective. MacDougallleads the way here with her performance with the rest of the cast pushing her to where it ends up. Being that this is a mockumentary and found footage, which adds to the atmosphere. This won’t be for everyone, but I’d recommend it if you like this subgenre of films or how this was shot.
My Rating: 7.5 out of 10