Hunting Matthew Nichols<\/a>\u201d earns points for self-awareness: Not only does \u201cBlair Witch\u201d get name-checked here, but the missing-persons cold case it centers on involves two aspiring-filmmaker teens who were obsessed with that popular hit, and indeed may have been trying to recreate it when they disappeared in the forests of Vancouver Island. The film we\u2019re watching is an effort by one boy\u2019s surviving sister to solve the mystery decades later, with Tarasiuk and Ryan Alexander McDonald playing themselves as professionals helping her make a documentary about that quest. Needless to say, something very sinister and deadly lies at the end of their path.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tThat climax is sufficiently creepy. But \u201cHunting\u201d takes a long time getting there \u2014 not even entering the island\u2019s woods until its last lap \u2014 a buildup overfilled by that least-appealing staple of found-footage horror movies, i.e. nervous or frightened characters yelling at each other. The result is a competently crafted if unmemorable thriller perhaps most impressive for its off-screen enterprise. The self-distributed indie production opened on over 1000 North American screens (in partnership with various theater chains) on June 10, following an even wider sneak preview the prior week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tMock vintage TV news clips and direct-camera-address from Tara Nichols (Miranda MacDougall) spell out what\u2019s being \u201chunted\u201d here: Twenty-two years earlier, her older brother Matthew (James Ross) vanished with best friend Jordan Reimer (Issiah Bull Bear) on Halloween night, 2001. They were last seen traipsing into a vast, densely wooded parkland just outside town. When they failed to re-emerge, an extensive search began. Police eventually found their camcorder in a remote abandoned cabin, but no other sign of the boys, and no evidence of foul play. It was assumed they had, like numerous unwary hikers before them, fallen to accidental deaths off a cliff, or into a ravine. Nonetheless, nasty rumors circulated for a time \u2014 most casting unfounded suspicions on Jordan\u2019s family, for little reason beyond their being Indigenous people.<\/p>\n
\n\tThese events occurred when Tara was a child, haunting her since. Now she\u2019s returned from the mainland for the first time since her father\u2019s funeral, in search of \u201ca better answer\u201d to her sibling\u2019s absence. Perhaps as tribute to his passion, she\u2019s turned that inquiry into a film project, with Tarasiuk as director (it\u2019s rather murky whether they\u2019re also in a romantic relationship) and McDonald as cinematographer. They interview her mother (Susinn McFarlen), Jordan\u2019s father (Trevor Carroll), the cop once in charge of the now-cold case (Christine Willes), a former mayor (Bernard Cuffling), and others. Little is gained beyond resuscitated creaky gossip about speculated \u201cSatanic rituals,\u201d and spooky local folklore regarding a 19th-century religious commune that a modern-day anthropologist dismisses as \u201cjust an old story to keep kids out of the woods.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tStill, Tara begins to suspect the authorities are hiding some intel, which is confirmed when she gains possession of the original evidence box. It holds surprises, as well as indications that still more might be missing. Tara grows obsessive to a point of near-hysteria, suggesting she ought to step back and take a mental-health break. Instead, she insists on pressing onward \u2014 into the forest itself, with or without her colleagues. Needless to say, that turns out to be a very bad idea.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt was also arguably a bad idea to keep our protagonists out of the woods for the feature\u2019s entire first hour, though faux archival footage plus actual cinematographer Justin Sebastian\u2019s occasional gorgeous scenic shots provide teasing earlier glimpses. Nonetheless, there\u2019s no immediate peril until the trio finally go camping, at which point things get more actively suspenseful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tTarasiuk doesn\u2019t try all that hard to maintain the mock-doc illusion, with those more-polished images, MacDougall\u2019s histrionic performance, and an effective if sometimes overblown score (by Jeff Griffiths and Christopher King) all poking holes in that ruse. Which would be fine if at least some scares arrived earlier, rather than being held in reserve for so long. Their lack leaves us too much time to grow weary of Tara \u2014 whose unraveling under pressure is understandable, yet has an effect on the viewer more exhausting than empathy-inducing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe actress throws herself into it, but less might have been more. It\u2019s also a minus that, by contrast, her costars get so little character definition, despite a surplus of often cliched dialogue. Nor do investigation subjects Matthew and Jordan, seen in old video footage, warrant any deeper interest from Sean Harris Oliver\u2019s screenplay.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe last few minutes of belated payoff are strong enough. But not so much so that they fully redeem the preceding 80, let alone will make anyone eager for a sequel.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Though it was not entirely without precedent as the progenitor of faux-found-footage horror, few films have been more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,173696,61,60,270],"class_list":{"0":"post-394191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-hunting-matthew-nichols","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}