At some point, every film set becomes cursed. Equipment breaks, locations fall through, actors go missing, egos clash, money disappears, the food sucks, and your Bigfoot gets shot by a hunter on the first day of shooting. It’s part of the gig, especially when it comes to independent filmmaking. You roll with it, laugh through the madness, and keep the camera rolling. That’s the spirit of Found Footage: The Making of the Patterson Project, a wonderfully chaotic mockumentary that spirals into something darker, funnier, and far more creatively ambitious than its humble setup initially suggests.
Directed by Max Tzannes and produced by the team at Radio Silence (Scream, Scream VI, Ready or Not), Found Footage is exactly what it sounds like and then some. The film is a multi-genre mashup that gleefully blurs the line between horror and comedy, narrative and documentary, HD and VHS, satire and sincerity. And like all great found footage, it’s about obsession. Not with monsters or the paranormal, at least not at first, but with the impossible dream of making a movie when you’ve got more passion than budget, and more ambition than sense.
The story follows Chase Bradner (Brennan Keel Cook), a die-hard movie nerd and aspiring auteur with a small army of low-budget short films and a house full of homemade props to prove it. He’s finally ready to make his first feature: The Patterson Project, a Sasquatch-centered horror movie he hopes will be the next Blair Witch. Alongside him is a documentarian chronicling the behind-the-scenes process; Natalie (Erika Vetter), his girlfriend and suspiciously overqualified first assistant director; Mitchell (Chen Tang), his associate producer, full-time knife salesman, and possible romantic rival; and Frank (Dean Cameron), the self-described “creative money controller” who fronts the film’s cash thanks to his furniture empire.
It’s a lovable and all-too-relatable crew of weekend warriors trying to will a movie into existence on sheer faith and caffeine. The laughs come fast and often, especially in early sequences introducing Chase’s backstory and eccentric team. There’s the classic audition montage, a phenomenal bit with a delusional investor who writes a $20K check on the promise that she’ll meet Alan Rickman (who, unbeknownst to her, has been dead for years), and plenty of classic found footage mayhem.
Tzannes’ direction is sharp, but the editing from Jacob Souza is what really sings here. There’s a brilliant rhythm to how the film toggles between documentary footage, grainy camcorder shots, and the “real” behind-the-scenes chaos. A folksy acoustic score provided by David San Miguel gives the whole thing an off-kilter charm, while the frequent cutaways to nature shots and eerie sounds start to signal that something more sinister may be lurking in the background.
Of course, everything that can go wrong on Chase’s movie set does. The Bigfoot actor gets gunned down minutes into filming. Their catering is inedible. The actor hired to be the camera operator doesn’t know how to work a camera - leading to a hysterical workaround where Chase has to physically puppeteer him through scenes. Natalie’s decision to lend her family’s timeshare as the film’s location immediately backfires. Mitchell, increasingly exhausted and resentful, crashes on the cabin couch instead of a hotel room - claiming it’s a budget thing, but clearly hiding something. The more the crew tries to push forward, the more the universe pushes back.
It’s a comedy of errors, but at the halfway point, Found Footage starts to twist the knife. The movie doesn’t just fall apart - it begins to eat its own tail. Mitchell’s late-night excursions around the cabin become increasingly unnerving. Strange symbols and ritualistic setups are discovered in the basement. The old woman investor reappears, seemingly possessed, still demanding her meeting with Rickman. And eventually, no one can seem to leave the forest - they always loop back to the same spot, no matter which direction they drive.
In other words: the movie about a movie becomes the movie itself. The layered conceit begins to fold in on itself as the horror elements move from jokey to genuine. The final act embraces its lofi terror roots with real commitment, building an unsettling tone that feels earned after all the comedy. The vibe goes from Christopher Guest to Lake Mungo, and the whiplash is part of the fun. It helps that the forest setting is beautifully captured, with plenty of slow pans and distorted audio to sell the dread. Tzannes and his team clearly know their horror foundations.
Still, for all its cleverness and execution, the film isn’t without its stumbles. While the ensemble is great across the board, it’s Cameron as Frank who leaves the strongest impression - some of the other performances feel undercooked once things get heavy. The characters remain likable and compelling throughout, but by the end it’s hard to say what they’ve really learned or what the film wants to leave you with besides a salute to scrappy cinema. And while the documentary crew angle is a fun wrinkle at first, it’s mostly abandoned as the story narrows its focus - a bit of a missed opportunity that could’ve added more teeth to the satire.
Even so, Found Footage absolutely delivers where it counts. It’s sharp, self-aware, and totally willing to take big swings with form and tone. Whether you’re here for the mockumentary antics, the found footage scares, or just to bask in the absurd, frustrating, magical process of making a movie with your friends in the middle of nowhere, there’s something here for you. At its core, this is a celebration - not just of horror, but of filmmaking itself, in all its janky, glorious mess.
And hey, if you're still wondering what really went down on set, you can call the Patterson Project’s missing persons hotline at 1-(844)-PAT-PROJ. Just don’t expect the operator to make a lot of sense.
‘Found Footage: The Patterson Project’ will be in theaters June 20th and available on digital June 24th.
