Bloomer

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.

I bumped into this efficient little film on Tubi. It's a found footage horror in which a young filmmaking couple, with the woman's brother acting as cameraman, illegally explore a trail in the woods, ostensibly to interview a hermit accused of killing his family. The hermit says bigfoot did it. Is the hermit a killer? Or was it bigfoot? Or both?

The crux of the film is the two solid performances by Tatum Bates and Andrew Thomas as the couple. They sell their non-actorly performances and hit all the right found footage notes at different moments. They are real as a couple, as researchers, as filmmakers, as people having minor disagreements. Supporting players are definitely not as good, or not directed as well. A menacing guy who sort of threatens to help them is considerably overshooting. And I didn't think the hermit character was able to pull off the fake documentary type of performance.

The story has a good red herring with the hermit. You know bigfoot's real, you glimpse him in the gee-you-up opening scenes, but the hermit may or may not also be a killer. Little Blair-Witch-like developments keep the story evolving. Can we make this hike? Can we find this guy? Do we trust this stranger?

There are a few weak points. The scenery rarely changes; I guess it's all filmed in one area, and this subtracts from a visual sense that we're getting deeper and wilder in the woods. The characters always look too well-scrubbed, even after twelve mile hikes or with blood on them. And while non-diegetic music is used (kind of controversial in this genre) it's mixed so low it might as well not be.

However, with strong core performances, good story development and excellent late escalation, including some discreet gore, this is ultimately a satisfying film. There are a few killer jump scares, too.