I'm quite the fan of a good found footage movie. This one was actually really difficult to find, though I've heard about it quite a bit. It's probably better to classify it as a mockumentary as well since there are interviews and whatnot. Styled kind of like something on Dateline.
It's pretty self-explanatory. There are these tapes found by police from a serial killer obviously taping all the torturous acts and murders. I feel like it's been done before. As far as calling it a "snuff" movie, I wouldn't go that far. I enjoyed how the interviews with the FBI agents, police officers, and families of the victims seemed fairly realistic. They played really believable characters - someone could almost think this is a real true-crime story based on the interviews. The real problem I had was with the actual footage. I know it's set in the '90s, but the found footage is honestly so unwatchable it actually takes away from the suspense. The camera goes from black and white, to green and purple, to full color during a 10-second span of footage. It's also extremely distorted, and almost like the film is cut off and stretched at some points. I'm not sure if they designed it this way to make it seem like the tapes weren't well taken care of or if the camera really was that terrible. But, for a serial killer who really loved to film, you would think he would take the equipment he used a little more seriously. After all he spent a tonne of money on knives, table saws, and costumes - he could have at least bought a decent camera. I mean, whatever. It's probably another one of those things I don't get or appreciate. But honestly, you can hardly see what's going on. They also never really explained what could be a possible motive for all these murders. He obviously hated women or something, but it doesn't necessarily become clear. The best part of the movie though, is when they think they've found the killer because of evidence found in his car. They recovered DNA that fit 4 of the victims and they sentence the guy (who is a cop) to the death penalty. And in the end, it wasn't even him. The serial killer literally used the justice system to murder someone for him.
I wouldn't say it's terrible scary or gory. It's pretty watchable even for someone who is a bit squeamish. You can hear the screaming and see some blood, see women tied up and crying, but there aren't a tonne of torture scenes as would be expected from something in this genre. It's well put together and I do enjoy that they leave the element of suspense because the killer has never been found. "He is somewhere, in some town, doing the same thing." There were some really interesting killings but they don't really show a lot of the bodies and whatnot. It's definitely watchable but I wouldn't put it up there as a classic.
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