Director: Burt Grinstead, Paul Odgren, Anna Stromberg
Writer: Anna Stromberg (Screenplay) Anna Stromberg, Rob Runyeon (Story)
Starring: Anna Stromberg, Burt Grinstead, Maureen Keiller, David Nash, Jimmy Driscoll, Denise Walker, Matthew Pilieci
Plot: An unedited memory card from a camera shows Leah Sullivan’s school project about a cold case murder that doesn’t seem to be so cold after all.
Runtime: 1 Hour 27 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Terrifying Conclusion
Story: The Lost Footage of Leah Sullivan starts with the message, this is a found memory card with unedited footage of Leah Sullivan, believing she is dead, we dive into the footage where Leah (Stromberg) who goes out to try and solve an unsolved murder of the Mulcahy family in a town where she grew up for her school project.
Leah is joined with local officer Patrick Rooke (Grinstead) who is helping her learn the truth about the murders in the past, which includes going into the house where they took place, but deep down, she must learn not to dive into the past.
Thoughts on The Lost Footage of Leah Sullivan
Characters – Leah Sullivan is the college student working on the project about an unsolved murder in her family’s home town, she meets everybody who claims to have any information on the murders, she conducts the interviews, while filming herself investigating the truth, this movie is set on the recording she made, before disappearing. Patrick Rooke is the police officer that is helping fill in the official story behind the murders, what he learns brings new light to the murders in the area. We do meet a couple of other people who get interviewed along the way, each with a different story.
Performances – The performances are hard to say anything bad about because the actors do truly make us feel like we are watching a documentary being shot, with the nervous stutters along the way, with Anna Stromberg making us believe she is a student making the film.
Story – The story here follows a college student that has decided to investigate a cold case in her old town, it is meant to be a small project, but she still starts to learn about a bigger mystery around the house. The easiest way to talk about this story would be to compare it to the ‘Blair Witch Project’ we see the investigation being slow, before an incredibly tense final twenty odd minutes. Advertising the story as found memory card footage, does add the mystery to the found footage side of the story, but in this day and age, playing this card doesn’t have the same impact it once did. The one downside to this story comes from just how interested Leah becomes to solve it, this is just meant to be a school project documentary about the murders, she would have gotten a good grade if she hadn’t solved the murder. The slow pace is saved by the conclusion which becomes must watch for the found footage fan.
Horror/Mystery – The horror side of the film comes on strong in the final act which is complete intense and terrifying, but before that, not much is happening on the horror front, it is more about the mystery about what is happening in the town.
Settings – The film is set in the small town which shows that history can often get pushed under the rug, with this town having a house that had a mystery murder.
Special Effects – The effects are used very well, not often, but saved for the final act of the film which only adds to the horror.
Scene of the Movie – The second house investigation.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The interviews are slowed down with the unedited style.
Final Thoughts – This is a horror film that does come off slow to start with but does finish very strong grabbing your attention from the moment they return to the house.
Overall: Scary Finish.
