Review: Robbie Banfitch’s ‘The Outwaters’ is dizzying terror like you’ve never experienced before.

THE OUTWATERS

Robbie Banfitch‘s found footage horror film THE OUTWATERS begins its reign of terror immediately. Presented as case evidence in the disappearance of four friends shooting a music video in the Mojave desert, we experience the film through the three memory cards filled with video in chronological order. Yes, we’ve seen plenty of found footage since The Blair Witch Project in 1999, but THE OUTWATERS takes the genre to a new level. Welcome to the latest film you’ll talk about for a long time.

Like in The Blair Witch Project, each character goes by their real-life name. Banfitch is the sole cinematographer. The shaky handheld camerawork gives the film solid legitimacy. The sound editing varies based on the speaker’s proximity to the camera, lending to the validity of the experience. With the film opening with a horrifying 911 call, memory card number one contains relatively mundane introductions to the characters. Background information reveals itself in what is essentially Robbie’s private vacation footage. But, you’re so entranced by the opening audio, you become obsessed with discovering the cause of those screams. That, my friends, is compelling editing.

Card two introduces the mystery in earnest. Card three is chaos. 99.9% of the film occurs through Robbie’s lens’ perspective. Much of the explosive final hour is lit by nothing but a flashlight. Therefore, a great deal of what we can’t see paralyzes us. Don’t for a second think that the daylight is any safer. What we do get a glimpse of is gag-inducing and chaotic fear. Ultimately, the ear-piercing manipulation of sound grabs you by the throat. I forgot to breathe. Fair warning: Everything is so dizzying you may get queasy. The script evolves in such a clever and unique way I just resigned myself to yelling. “WTF?!” at each new reveal. It simply keeps going and going. I stopped trying to figure out which way was up. THE OUTWATERS‘ final few minutes made me gasp. If that’s not an endorsement, I don’t know what is. Robbie Banfitch is the next great horror auteur. No one can take that away from him.


Directed by: Robbie Banfitch

Starring: Robbie Banfitch, Angela Basolis, Michelle May, Scott Schamell, and Leslie Ann Banfitch and features original music by Salem Belladonna.

Playing in select theaters nationwide (US and Canada) beginning February 9 including: New York (Alamo Drafthouse Manhattan, Regal Essex 14, Kaufman Astoria), Los Angeles (Music Hall 3), Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Calgary, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, D.C and many more.

Following its theatrical run, Cinedigm and Bloody Disgusting plan to release The Outwaters exclusively on its horror streaming service as a SCREAMBOX Original.

All theaters: https://fandan.co/3jjjkuW


 

Fantasia 2022 review: ‘All Jacked Up and Full Of Worms’ is gagworthy arthouse horror.

ALL JACKED UP AND FULL OF WORMS

Writer-director Alex Phillips brings a special kind of WTF to Fantasia 2022 with micro-budget arthouse horror, All Jacked Up and Full of Worms. In a wicked multiple narrative of some seriously messed up people, we are party to some of the sickest storylines we never signed up for. Roscoe, a motel maintenance man in a creepy, sexually adventurous throuple, a mentally ill man named Benny looking to be a father, a violent addict couple, the former pagan member giving an endless interview, and his sex worker daughter all collide. The throughline of these stories is that the characters ingest worms like drugs. The consequences will make you as queasy as you think. If David Cronenberg and Requiem for a Dream had a baby, you might get All Jacked Up and Full of Worms in the bassinet. The likelihood that you’ll be looking around the theatre to check if everyone else is just as horrified as you are incredibly high. Would I recommend you watch high? I’m not not saying it’s a good idea. Films like this bring audiences to Fantasia in the first place. Am I jacked up to see what Alex Phillips does next? Yup.

All Jacked Up and Full of Worms also stars Eva Fellows, Mike Lopez, Carol Rhyu, and Sammy Arechar. The film was produced by Phillips, Georgia Bernstein, and Ben Gojer.


Click here for more information about Fantasia 2022