THE DARK TAPES: The Best Found Footage Film In Years

Found footage horror is hardly the most respected nor acclaimed film making style on the market. Besides the genre-defining The Blair Witch Project and the more recent critical and commercial successes of the early Paranormal Activity franchise, most found footage horror films tend to pass by relatively unnoticed. After all, The Gallows failed to make any lasting impression with pretty much anyone who saw it and As Above, So Below essentially crashed and burned on arrival. It’s one of the riskiest genres to experiment in if you want to make a name for yourself as a new director.

Enter Michael McQuown‘s The Dark Tapes. Not only does The Dark Tapes offer more knowledge of horror film making than every found footage film produced in the last few years combined, but it does so across four individual but quietly linked short stories. Much like the solid V/H/S from 2012 and the borderline masterful V/H/S 2 from 2013, The Dark Tapes is an anthology feature. It’s comprised of four different short films that each tackle a different kind of found footage story, all tied around a central narrative that unfolds in the background.

The Four Shorts

In his directorial debut, McQuown immediately demonstrates an impressive confidence and a deep understanding of how to construct a found footage film. In early scenes, he takes the time to allow characters to question whether they should acknowledge the camera and generally look uncomfortable around it. The film doesn’t shy away from humour either, there are a handful of effective one-liners throughout. Everything comes together to craft a sense of realism, something the found footage genre heavily relies on.

The Dark Tapes, like any good anthology should do, allows its short stories to take on varying genres and styles; The Hunters & The Hunted tackles a conventional paranormal haunting of a new home, Cam Girls uses webcams to investigate the demonic dangers of an online porn site, Amanda’s Revenge takes a more sci-fi approach to the found footage style and finally, To Catch A Demon offers an inter dimensional story confined to one room. The constant shaking up of horror sub genres prevents the film from ever going stale, retaining your interest from the first frame right the way through to the last.

McQuown‘s understanding of atmosphere is immediately recognisable: Hunters scarcely relents the paranormal goings-on from the moment they begin, and Cam Girls holds a persistent sense of dread for its entire run time. The latter makes an especially good case for intricate editing – at one point there are over five different live streams within the frame, and the editing cuts them all together seamlessly. Your eyes dart around the screen every time something moves – it’s a brilliant piece of horror film making and the feature’s strongest short by a wide margin.

Not Perfect, But Not Far Off

While the other films are plagued by small issues, they each have a lot going for them. Hunters feels frustratingly conventional on first viewing but a game changing twist works to alter your perspective on everything you’ve seen. It toys with found footage tropes in very smart ways, creating something I already can’t wait to dive back into again. The explanation for the twist might feel a little wordy, but it won’t stop your heart rate from skyrocketing.

Amanda’s Revenge, the weakest of the four shorts, struggles to find a real identity. It’s undeniably ambitious, tackling a handful of intriguing ideas all at once, but the film struggles to balance them. It gets caught up in explaining everything to us rather than actually showing it. Besides one expertly performed moment of the titular character talking straight to the camera for a good few minutes, it’s the hardest of the four shorts to buy into.

After the minor disappointment of Amanda’s Revenge, though, The Dark Tapes pours everything back on To Catch A Demon (the only segment directed by another filmmaker- in this instance, Vincent J. Guastini) for an explosive finale – and boy does it go all out. It’s a terrifying final sequence making expert use of framing, sound editing and practical effects, but it’s the resolution of this tape that leaves your jaw on the floor when the credits roll. To even hint at how the film connects its stories would verge on spoiler territory and, trust me, you don’t want this spoiled for you.

More Than Just Spooky

Looking away from narrative and style, the four shorts all have one other thing in common – superb performances. Strong acting seems to be something of a rarity in contemporary horror (when was the last time you saw a first rate performance in any mainstream horror besides Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson in The Conjuring?) but not a single member of The Dark Tapes‘ cast is off key.

Emilia Zoryan steals the show with her turn as Caitlin in the heart stopping Cam Girls: she’s almost never off screen, and her quietly commanding voice couples with her sweet and seductive body language to form a performance of terrifying intensity. Even the weakest of the films is strengthened by Brittany Underwood‘s mesmerising performance as Amanda. It’s a universally well performed film – one of the strongest casts assembled for a horror film in years.

But the real winner here is McQuown. In his debut film he shows great potential in a number of areas, demonstrating himself as a director of immeasurable confidence in how to craft a variety of sub genres all at once. A lot of the film’s missteps can easily be dismissed as inexperience and I’m filled with confidence that his films will grow in strength with every release. Due to the success of The Dark Tapes, as of writing this, it’s been nominated for over sixty awards from its festival circuit, McQuown is already in pre-production for a sequel. You can count me in.

Conclusion

After a pretty length dry spell, it’s satisfying to have another found footage horror that understands the genre and its inner workings. The Dark Tapes is fun, scary and consistently tense – it knows exactly what kind of film it wants to be and isn’t afraid to simply roll with it. There are great jump scares, periods of elongated tension, slick editing tricks, jaw dropping plot twists, smart directorial flourishes and mesmerising performances. Even if you’re watching through your fingers, and you probably will be, just try not to have a blast. I dare you.

While perhaps a little rough around the edges, Michael McQuown‘s The Dark Tapes is a successful found footage anthology that boasts solid scares, palpable tension and a plethora of first rate performances.

Which was your favourite of the four shorts featured in The Dark Tapes? Did any of them not work for you? Let us know in the comments!

The Dark Tapes is released on VOD services globally on 18th April.