- Directed by Robbie Banfitch
- Written by Robbie Banfitch
- Stars Robbie Banfitch, Angela Basolis, Scott Schamell, Michelle May
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6Du7TvNqvY
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This follows the formula of something-awful-happened-to-these-people-and-they-disappeared-but-we-found-this-footage-afterward. They put in the work, and it tries to be unique, but it doesn’t quite succeed. It takes a very long time to get to anything strange happening. It takes a while after that for things to make enough sense to be interesting. It does pay off with some really horrifying things near the end, but it was a slog to get there.
Synopsis
We open in 2017 with a 911 call of someone screaming in panic. Our screen shows us a list of people and names, all of whom were last seen on 8/8/2017. The camera memory cards were later found in 2022. Yes, it’s a found footage film.
We open with Robbie filming Scott getting a backpack and some things for his birthday. Then we get Michelle singing and doing a recording that’s almost entirely autotune. Then they fly to see Robbie and Scott’s mother, and also Michelle. These various things are interspersed with shots of small, realistic earthquakes, so this is probably made in California.
Robbie, Scott, Ange, and Michelle go out to the desert. Lots of random travel-stuff happens. At about 40 long minutes in, Scott hears something outside his tent at night, and they all go outside to look around in the dark. They are all terrified at what sounds a lot like thunder or muffled explosions.
The next morning, Ange complains about “All the weird shit that’s happening.” Up to this point, we have not seen any weird shit at all beyond the noises last night. Scott records a high-pitched sound coming from an anthill. He says there is water running under the mountain. We then cut to artsy-fartsy footage of Ange frolicking around in the desert with no sound but a baby crying.
That night, there are more booms from the sky. Robbie sees someone standing on a hill in the dark, and then there’s a bright flashing light. “The sky opened up,” he says later. Suddenly, there is much screaming in the dark as something happens to someone, somewhere. One of the girls screams, “I want my mommy,” about ten times. Someone carries the camera around, but it’s either off or pointed at the ground through all the screaming action. We finally see Michelle, hysterical, covered in blood, and talking in autotune.
The sun comes up, and Robbie and his camera get up with it. He’s chased by screaming, skinless snakes. After many hours of wandering around the desert naked, encountering the snakes again and again, he finds his way back to camp. The tents are soaked in blood. Night falls, and for some reason, he’s still wandering the desert naked. Did they not arrive here in a car?
He sees the man on the hill again. The flickering light comes back, and we cut to him, puking up a gallon of blood the next morning. He then peels off all his skin so he’ll be skinless like the snakes. In the distance, he sees four people walking– it’s the original party just arriving on the scene. This is a time loop of some sort, but they can’t hear him screaming.
Night falls, and Robbie returns to the camp, where no one can see him. He watches Michelle, who is covered in blood and freaking out. Lots of weirdness continues as we start to hear airplane sounds. There are many flickering lights and glimpses of blood mingled with donkey sounds. There’s some kind of bloody animal growling in the dark, too. Then there are screaming snakes in his tent at night.
We stop for twisty lights and choral music for a couple of minutes until we return to Robbie, who is standing on a “restricted area” sign. He then finds a really old gas mask. He approaches the man on the hill with his ax, and it’s really himself.
In the morning, he finds just the heads of his three friends on poles in the desert. Robbie then starts cutting off his own body parts.
Commentary
“Everybody involved with this should be ashamed of themselves,” said Kevin, about 40 minutes in. “It’s like somebody watched The Blair Witch Project and said “Let’s remake that, only make it awful,” Kevin, again, at 59 Minutes in.
It’s not as sleep-inducing as “Skinamarink,” but it’s definitely in the same category. There’s no real plot here. Robbie’s camera must have an infinite battery because there’s no way he was carrying spares, and that thing recorded everything for several days.
So what happened? I dunno. Why did it happen? I dunno. Why was this film made? I dunno. What are the people who gave this a positive review thinking? I dunno. How can I get nearly two hours of my life back? I dunno.
One thing I am sure about, however, is that this film is a waste of time. If you must watch, skip to the last ten minutes.