Destroy This Tape

Tubi thought Destroy This Tape might be my bag, and it largely was. The film uses a reverse of The Blair Witch Project dynamic. The found footage comes first, then we switch to the present where an egotistical but secretly self-loathing writer is investigating that footage in hopes of a great story. The found footage segment is about forty minutes long and it's strong. In spite of incredibly low contrast visuals from the handycam (or handycam effect?) used, it cultivates the weird ominousness that good found footage films cultivate, mixing naturalistic situations and performances with creepy technical glitches and a sort of abstract threat that comes from bleached-out swirling shots of trees and nature.

The investigative second half in HD tends to show up the microbudget limitations in general. It does achieve some atmosphere in spite of the overdone obnoxiousness of the writer character, but where the film ends up is courtesy of the kind of twist that felt like it undercut the value of what I'd already seen. The film strains at the last, which is not where you want your strain.

Destroy This Tape is more ambitious than most microbudget found footage doing the rounds in 2025, and it has strong elements. It also has some weak ones. I just didn't like how it came together in the end, but I enjoyed it on the way.

The acting of the writer is awful. Shockingly, appallingly bad to the extent it ruins the movie. There's very good acting by one character, but it would be a spoiler to say who that is. The cabin owner is good too.

Honestly, I thought this was a rip off of Shelby Oaks at first, from the place being called 'Alpine Oaks' to the concept of videos of young people who go missing to the way the movie unfolds, plus even the writer looks like Chris Stuckmann, the director of that movie.

I got here by way of the Found Footage reddit. The found footage and the one character's acting are the only reasons this isn't one star. It's the best part of the film. It is only the first third of the movie. The second third is the writer's godawful investigation. The third part is where we see good acting. To even say what classic horror/suspense movie it clearly draws inspiration from would be a spoiler. There are so many plot holes by the time of the 'twist'/third act that if this were a boat, it would sink before leaving the dock.

There is something good here, buried under all the trash. Apparently this was a short film first. The writer HAS to be the director or producer or someone involved with the film, right? He sucks, bro.

This move was really good it hade a lot of ups and downs but I really enjoyed it. You should really watch the move and it is funny in some parts if you do watch it you should leave a review on the move even if it was bad in your opinion and if you did like the move add a positive review hope you like the movie.

You have to wonder how desperate streamers must be, to actually put content like this on their site.

I am sick of Tubi showing bargain basement tripe.

Upon initially viewing this, it had a "five star" rating, which isn't bad, for the found footage (of which this actually is not) genre. However, it's obvious that the "filmmakers" spammed this site with a few high scores.

Yuck.

Good mix of "found footage" and regular filming for fans of both styles. Fun concept of a film, not too much supernatural aspect but a good feeling of it. Good twist at the end. I don't go into a movie trying to figure out the end, so the twist was a nice touch for me.

I like a film if it has a good concept.