- Director: Drew Fortier
- Writer: Drew Fortier
- Stars: Drew Fortier, James L. Edwards, Douglas Esper
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
Synopsis
Drew, James, and Doug are three filmmakers that recently disappeared while shooing a documentary about the homeless.
Three days earlier, Drew goes to see his investors. They want the film done by Sunday at the latest, and they are not impressed with Doug and James. So now Drew has to shoot an entire documentary film in a weekend.
The story is told by Doug, who apparently survived the weekend and is being interviewed by Mr. Dotani, presumably with the police.
He goes to see James, who isn’t too happy about it either. Doug shows up, and they all get started working. Doug explains that the homeless are everywhere, but Drew explains that a huge number of the homeless have been going missing recently.
They stop a few homeless for interviews, and yeah, they’re all crazy. They can’t get any straight answers, but it’s also clear that some of the homeless had seen something. Many of them were “Dwellers,” a whole community living in the sewer system. Some of them describe something terrible. They also interview a detective who has lots of logical explanations for the homeless disappearances.
Eventually, one homeless guy shows them how to get into the sewers. There’s a huge tunnel leading downwards, and they slowly make their way down there. Doug, of course, can’t draw a map, so the three guys quickly get lost. The guy who told them to go in the tunnels shows up and robs all three of them, including the cameras.
The robber then walks away with the light and camera still, and the monster kills him. The three guys then find the camera and light and are able to continue. They find a security camera in the tunnel. Why?
Paul tells Dotani about the cameras, and Dotani insists there are no security cameras down there.
They finally get a glimpse of the sewer monster, and they all run away. Paul gets lost somewhere, but the other two continue on. Their battery dies, and they hear heavy breathing. When they replace the battery, the thing is gone.
Dotari seems to be trying to convince Paul that there was no creature. That it was a figment of his suggestible imagination. He says they found the remains of Drew and James about an hour ago. This whole thing was so Paul would incriminate himself in their murder. Paul confesses in confusion, and they take him away.
We get some more footage of the two guys in the sewer as they get exhausted and the monster gets closer and closer. It gets James offscreen, and when Drew wakes up, he follows the trail of blood straight to it.
Dotari gets a visit from the Agency, who thanks him for spinning the situation and getting a confession. No one really needs to know what happened down there…
Commentary
Drew farted around and didn’t make his film until the weekend it was due. I’ve had English students do that with essay projects, and it never ends well.
This is a found footage film, a genre which is usually pretty played out, but this moves quickly enough that it doesn’t get boring. It’s clearly really low budget and shot on the cheap, but the found footage angle covers that nicely. I do find it hard to believe they were down there for days and never found a single way out, not a single connection to water, and not even an access point from the street above.
I went into this not thinking much of the premise, but it’s really very good.