Filmhub has announced the official US digital release of Jeremy Schuetze’s found footage feature Anacoreta. Following a festival run and debut in Canada, Anacoreta debuts on digital platforms February 24 in the US. Anacoreta screened at the Heartland International Film Festival, where it won Best Horror, and the Manchester Film Festival, where the team took home Best International Feature.

Found Footage Movies remain a pretty fun genre of filmmaking, especially within the realm of Horror. At this point in cinematic history, there has been far more found footage flicks than you could ever start to count. And yet, I remain a sucker for the class of films, and I will pretty happily watch any new one that comes down the pike.

I just think there is something fun about them. The acting often feels more genuine in these types of movies, and you can do a lot of different things with them (especially when they aren’t restricted to the horror genre, even though I admitted that is where I prefer them). The stories feel more personal and like there is one fewer barrier between the viewer and the action.

Granted, there is always the “Why is the person holding the camera still filming this?!” aspect that some people find frustrating, but if the movie is made well, you can get too engrossed in the moment to worry too much about that.

It’s odd… I was never actually a huge fan of The Blair Witch Project–often considered THE found footage movie–but several years later, I really ended up digging Paranormal Activity, and ever since then, I have been all-in on the genre.

Today’s movie, Anacoreta, is a new found footage-esque flick that is debuting soon on digital streaming. It’s the tale of a group of young friends traveling out to the woods to attempt to make a horror movie. Once there and in the process of filming their picture, weird goings-on start occurring, and we soon learn that everyone involved may not be what they seem.

I’ll admit it’s not a brand new idea at any point. A lot of found footage is based around the idea of people setting out to make a movie but getting in over their head. But Anacoreta still has a few tricks up it sleeve that make it all a little more gimmicky than you might otherwise guess…

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ Anacoreta got me at the end where I thought I had all the Whats figured out and was just trying to puzzle together the Whys. Turns out, I was wrong on the Whats, too. There was a brief moment where I thought “Oh, what if…?” and considered the eventual ending, but I didn’t seriously entertain the notion of it. So credit to the film for keeping me on my toes and guessing (albeit mostly incorrectly).

When thinking about the movie in hindsight, the ending works and makes perfect sense, too, so it’s not like it’s an inconceivable resolution by any stretch. The story is well told in that way where all the pieces come together. I probably fell for the red herring version of the climax that Anacoreta was selling me. And that’s to the effort’s credit that I bit on it. They did a really excellent job making it seem likely and believable.

+ The performances are mostly fine from our cadre of young actors here. Antonia Thomas is the star of the production, and she does really solid work from beginning to end. Jeremy Schuetze, also the director of Anacoreta, plays her boyfriend and the would-be director of the movie they are trying to make. And he’s a loathsome scumbag that you genuinely want to deck more and more as everything progresses. He does a great job. Matt Visser and Jesse Stanley get less to do than the other two, but they are also more than adequate. I would argue that MAYBE Jesse’s performance gets weaker as the movie goes on, but that might be thematic, all things considered. 

The point is, the acting worked for me in that way it often does in found footage, and I was into everyone’s roles here.

– When you get to the very ending and everything is coming into focus, Anacoreta starts beating you over the head with the resolution you have undoubtedly already figured out by flashing to images from earlier in the movie. It’s a little insulting and a lot annoying. I wanted to tell the director “Okay, I already got it; this is a bit much”. I have to assume that the filmmakers just didn’t have enough faith in the audience that they would recall the earlier scenes. Trust your viewers more, movies!

– There are moments where the lighting really isn’t at its best. I get what the picture is going for, but it’s hard/impossible to see things at certain times. There is a difference between mood lighting and effective shadowing, and I feel like some movies need to learn that lesson a little bit better.

OVERALL

Anacoreta is a perfectly good movie that doesn’t come across as highly original at any given point, but is still executed well enough to be worth a watch. The cast is all perfectly game for what the flick wants to do, and any movie with a Guess The Ending style conclusion can be fun. Also, it clocks in at about 83 minutes, so it’s easily worth your time.