For me, this was a case of two out of three weren’t bad, but which two? Let’s find out.
THE STICKMAN’S HOLLOW (2024)
This refreshing take on found footage films is broken into four separate tales based around the same mysterious force in the woods and the presence of a stick figure in each case. I found parts of it quite creepy.
Part 1
A father, mother, and their son are out camping when they encounter an evil being. We don’t see the physical form of the attacker, but there’s a very effective scene in their tent.
Part 2
A priest and his assistant arrive at a house where a child is believed to be possessed. It’s not what happens in the house that’s eerie. Imagine encountering Regan from The Exorcist on a rural road. Eek!
Part 3
This is an extremely short segment about a woman and man rowing a boat to an island that was an ancient place of worship and finding fresh, disturbing signs of occult rituals.
Part 4
This final tale runs longer than the rest, and it’s a slow build to a strong and freaky finale. A woman heads into the woods where she lost her family after reports of a feral child running around…a child she believes could be one of her relatives. Exploration of the forest leads to a crawling being in tight tunnels, and it is definitely the most effective sequence in the movie for me.
STRANGE HARVEST (2024)
This movie is structured like a true crime docudrama, and it’s damn convincing. However, it is in no way an action or scare-filled horror flick, so it might bore those who aren’t satisfied with just unsettling tone and atmosphere.
It does, however, deliver on some really gruesome crime scene imagery.
The movie is comprised entirely of interviews with detectives, witnesses, and survivors, and features some found footage style clips of detectives examining the scenes of the super disturbing murders.
Like, truly disturbing, and often described in great detail by the experts being interviewed.
Along the way, suspects are questioned, there’s an investigation into the meaning behind a symbol found at every murder scene, and eventually the killer is identified and hunted down.
There’s almost something disappointing about the movie delivering a definitive conclusion after it builds such a sinister and mysterious serial killer story.
STRAWSTALKER (2026)
This found footage flick fails to be scary, right up until the end.
A straight influencer couple films the experience of moving into a new home. The guy is cute, likes to get naked for the camera, and seems a little gay.
I especially enjoyed his appreciation of his own nipples.
We occasionally see a figure passing by the couple’s windows, they find a scarecrow in the bushes by their pool (and just leave it there on a lounge chair), and then the guy begins noticing some strange things occurring around the house.
Eventually, they have a party, and the scarecrow comes out to play, but this isn’t a found footage scarecrow slasher. It veers off into cult territory, and it is an absolutely lackluster experience. There was potential for something eerie to unfold, but unfortunately, the entire plot feels totally underdeveloped, and a found footage film with a cult conclusion is very cliché.
