Debut features, like Erie, aren’t exclusive to first-time filmmakers attempting to develop their first big project. In fact, behind most “first films”, you’ll usually find a large collection of half-finished projects and award-winning shorts that paved the way towards a more elaborate, not to mention more expensive, endeavor further down the line.
That’s why I’d hesitate to call Alison-Eve Hammersley a newcomer to the industry, as the writer-director has been pumping out quality short films and collaborating with other filmmakers for over a decade at this point. After all that effort, the stars have finally aligned and allowed Hammersley to release her first feature-length project in the form of the found footage throwback Erie.
A late ’90s period piece that was (mostly) shot on tape, the Pennsylvania-set thriller was completed in 2025 and is finally headed towards its world premiere via this year’s edition of Beyond Fest. While I admire the confidence behind the flick’s ill-advised tagline (“Not all stories are worth telling…”), the truth is that Erie might not be the kind of movie you were expecting when judging from the marketing.
The finished film stars Carley Stewart as Stella Scott, an aspiring journalist investigating the mysterious suicide of her sister Iris (Aimee Paxton). Stella’s investigation is aided by her reluctant brother Oscar (Grant Crater), with the bickering duo soon uncovering a bizarre conspiracy involving multiple unexplainable suicides in the area surrounding Eerie, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, Stella’s growing obsession with the story and what it might mean for her budding career soon puts everyone around her in grave danger as the clues point her in the direction of an otherworldly force lurking in the wilderness.
This is obviously a great setup for a mystery, with the retro aesthetic and uncomfortable subject matter combining into an appropriately compelling thriller that doesn’t need to rely on jump scares and monsters to keep you hooked. In fact, while the majority of the runtime here is dedicated to the characters discussing events that occurred off-screen and piecing together a larger and possibly supernatural conspiracy, the emotional implications behind these story beats keep things consistently interesting.
This subtle approach to scares and intrigue only works because of the excellent performances driving the story forward. In particular, I was a big fan of Ryan W. Garcia’s strange demeanor as the troubled conspiracy theorist Red, though Carley Stewart’s fascinating main character is the obvious highlight of the experience here.
Stewart had previously collaborated with Hammersley on her 2019 short Fragile.com, with that horror yarn going viral back in the day due to its unflinching depiction of the hidden horrors behind seemingly innocuous online fetish content. Much like in that film, Stewart’s dedication to her role also nearly carries Eerie to the finish line, especially during the latter half of the experience when Stella is forced to confront the horrific nature of what she’s investigating and how her work affects those around her.
Unfortunately, this is where I have to address the spoiler-filled elephant in the room, as Erie is not a traditional found footage experience – at least, not entirely. The final act of the feature suddenly and unexpectedly transitions to a third-person cinematic perspective as Stella comes close to unraveling the truth behind all those mysterious suicides.
To go into further detail would require spoiling essential plot points, but suffice it to say that there was very little indication that this highly immersive story was headed in a more conventional direction. While films like Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon and The Last Broadcast have managed to effectively make use of the hybrid format in the past, I’d argue that Eerie loses much of its lo-fi charm the second those cinematic lights kick in and we suddenly find ourselves in a completely different aesthetic environment.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate how Hammersley gives Stewart a chance to shine in a more traditional manner, and that’s not even mentioning how creepy the visuals are during this last third of the movie, but I get the troubling feeling that the abrupt transition was more of a practical decision than a creative one. After all, it’s much harder to convey subjective experiences via an objective in-universe camera, so it’s possible that the filmmakers simply realized that they would have to resort to a comparatively simpler format in order to properly conclude a story about personalized frights that make people take their own lives.
Personally, I view this combination as something of an immersion-breaking cop-out that doesn’t even have a meta justification for its inclusion. However, even if you’re not as much of a found footage purist as I am, you’ll likely still find yourself baffled by some of the narrative decision-making towards the end of the movie, especially if you’re looking for concrete answers about the mystery that Erie spent so much time building up.
At the end of the day, your enjoyment of Erie will depend on both your opinion on the “sanctity” of diegetic filmmaking and whether you prefer your narrative puzzles to be solved with a logical conclusion or a sensorial smorgasbord of atmospheric scares. Personally, I didn’t quite connect with the surreal finale despite really enjoying the first half or so of the flick, but I can imagine that other cinephiles might have a completely different experience.
Regardless, Hammersley is clearly talented enough to warrant keeping an eye on her work, and I’d personally love to see what she comes up with next – especially if Carley Stewart is also involved!
Eerie made its world premiere and Beyond Fest and screens at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival next.
