One of the biggest hurdles that found footage filmmakers have to face is the fact that we live in a post-The Blair Witch Project society where every faux-documentary exists in the shadow of Elly Kedward. While this means that every new POV-horror flick will inevitably be compared to the movie that originally popularized the genre, some clever filmmakers view this comparison as more of a challenge than a creative death sentence.
That’s why films like Rec opt for a different kind of horror experience altogether despite the familiar setup, and more recent projects like Butterfly Kisses choose to confront the stick-figure-shaped elephant in the room directly by acknowledging their cinematic inspirations in the narrative itself.
Markian Tarasiuk’s Hunting Matthew Nichols is a great example of this latter strategy, with the Canadian mockumentary (which was a big hit at this year’s edition of San Francisco’s Unnamed Footage Festival) actively questioning what it means to be a modern-day successor to The Blair Witch Project while also managing to incorporate these decidedly meta anxieties into a story about loss and grief.
In this authentic-looking feature, we follow a documentary crew led by Tarasiuk himself as they investigate the 2001 disappearance of amateur filmmaker Matthew Nichols in an attempt to bring closure to Mathew’s sister Tara (Miranda MacDougall). Unfortunately, this true crime investigation leads to Tara discovering more than she bargained for when the team realizes that this cold case may very well be connected to a terrible force lurking deep within the eerie woods of Vancouver Island.
Presentation-wise, Tarasiuk really knocked it out of the park with the film’s Netflix-like visuals and structure, as well as a series of surprisingly convincing interviews with an assortment of memorable locals. From creepy time-lapse footage to the occasional use of animation in lieu of boring exposition, Hunting Matthew Nichols feels like a genuine attempt at a high-profile documentary throughout most of its runtime – especially when interviewees are allowed to be a little idiosyncratic.
Things get a little less authentic once we get to the more traditional found footage portions of the flick, however, as some of the trope-heavy scripted moments (which are mostly relegated to conversations within the crew) are far less believable than the familiar deluge of talking heads conveying pieces of a larger narrative puzzle. Thankfully, these more over-the-top moments are easy to forgive when you realize that they exist in service of the film’s metatextual layer as a story about the very nature of found footage.
Not only does a big part of the plot involve Tara coming across a lost tape shot by her brother, but the film also establishes that Matthew himself was a huge fan of The Blair Witch Project. The young man’s love of the film and his creative desire to produce something equally spooky is what ultimately led him and his native friend Jordan to venture off into the woods, never to be seen again.
While Hunting Matthew Nichols doesn’t quite explore this idea of unfiction having real-life consequences as deeply as I would have liked, especially now that we know how even the silliest of creepypastas can lead to real-world tragedies, I appreciate how the filmmakers made a point of explaining that the movie takes place in our reality where most people are aware of the concept of a found footage production.
On that note, you could even consider the flick to be something of an unofficial sequel to Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s lo-fi opus, though it’s a shame that the main characters here aren’t quite as iconic as Heather and company from the 1999 film. That being said, Miranda MacDougall does a great job of selling her character’s long-gestating grief and obsession.
There are plenty of original scares to be found here as well, and I’m always in favor of Canadian storytellers incorporating more native folklore into scary movies. While I’m fairly certain that the local legend of a cannibal pioneer was made up for the film in much the same way that Kedward was invented for The Blair Witch Project, the bizarre VHS footage and the climactic “encounter” in the woods still feel terrifyingly real.
I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoiling the experience, but suffice to say that Tarasiuk makes great use of light and shadow during the flick’s final moments, and I love how he shies away from showing too much of Mathew’s tapes and focuses instead on our main character’s horrified reactions.
Hunting Matthew Nichols likely won’t enjoy the same staying power as its retro inspirations, but it doesn’t really have to. Despite some iffy performances and a general sense of deja vu, the film works well enough as a meta commentary on why we still insist on searching for answers in the woods even after so many other scary movies have explained to us why that’s a bad idea. That’s why I’d recommend this indie gem to fans of slow-burning supernatural terror everywhere – as well as true crime enthusiasts who wish that missing persons cases could come with a side of paranormal frights.
Hunting Matthew Nichols releases in theaters on April 10.
