Of the small handful of found footage political conspiracy thrillers I have seen (see list below), all of which are above average, ANTHRAX stands heads and shoulders above the rest in terms of suspense.
A group of five friends who, while in the Israeli military, had signed up for an experimental vaccine trial realize that it seems to have serious long-term effects. Their attempts to find out what exactly happened are stonewalled and eventually they end up in mortal danger.
The film begins with a 3-minute prologue that is its weakest part: it rushes through shots of the first of the friends who gets sick and dies, and because it recounts the events so quickly, it disorients the viewer.
The story then properly begins when the remaining four reminisce about him at his funeral, and soon after, another one of the group falls ill.
The acting is extremely naturalistic, the story is really good and the execution as a found footage thriller is almost flawless.
Many found footage films succumb to what I call the "slow-burn syndrome", where efforts to gather clues to a mystery come at such an exceedingly slow pace that they risks losing the audience due to boredom. But not this movie: the pace is brisk, and the twists are well-placed, so it keeps audience attention throughout.
The film is based on the Omer-2 Anthrax vaccine trial, in which over 700 Israeli military personnel were subjected to a treatment which caused long-term side effects for many of the participants.
The Israeli government initially denied the victims' claims, but after the findings of an investigative commission were ordered by Israel's high court to be made public, it was eventually (nearly 20 years later) decided to give compensation to some of the victims. While the secret vaccine trial was presented to the participants as an effort to bolster national security, the findings of the commission were that the participants were selected merely based on "convenience".
This movie contains an important lesson about the dangers of blind obedience of and trust in government, and specifically the military. I consider it now the gold standard for found footage political conspiracy thrillers. Some other good ones are:
1. THE CONSPIRACY (2012)
2. WEKUFE (2016)
3. FRAME SWITCH (2016)
