Studio: H13 Media
Director: Tony Cadwell
Writer: Norman Alston, Tony Cadwell
Producer: Norman Alston, Tony Cadwell
Stars: Todd Smith, Jessica Smith
Review Score:
Summary:
A husband and wife investigate a series of unexplained clown sightings in 2016 and end up in the center of their story.
Review:
In 2016, a wave of weird clown sightings washed across the United States as well as other parts of the world. Apart from an isolated incident or two of alleged physical violence, nothing much came of the unexplained epidemic. Folks just freaked out at the sudden sight of creepy clowns standing spookily in random spots for no apparent reason. Smirking reporters commented on the cases here and there before the whole phenomenon faded like it never happened at all.
You aren’t in the minority if you read this recap of outdated events and thought, “Oh yeah, whatever happened with that?” Most people were amused by the strange story while it was ongoing and haven’t given it a second thought since.
So filmmaker Tony Cadwell was already late in capitalizing on the craze when his “found footage” horror flick based on the “true story” was announced in 2017. Any remaining relevance then cooled completely since four more years would pass before “Behind the Sightings” finally released in 2021.
What happened with “Behind the Sightings” between 2017 and 2021? One guess is as good as another because no one is talking. Well actually, some people are talking, but the only thing being said is a bunch of transparent PR malarkey.
In a March 2018 “interview,” director Tony Cadwell told Dread Central that his movie had been held up due to legal complications. According to Cadwell, an attorney representing the family featured in the film informed producers that his clients weren’t willing to sign off on the first cut, which was a contractual requirement. NDAs supposedly prevented Cadwell from getting into details, though he burped some half-baked hooey about password-protected hard drives with hidden files or something to continue promoting an illusion of “Behind the Sightings” being a documentary rather than a mockumentary.
Here’s the thing. “Behind the Sightings” is fiction. There is no factual family, and I don’t know how dead a brain has to be to believe “Oh my God! They caught an actual murder on camera and released it as a movie?” Hey, I get it. Promoting an indie film is a tough racket. But “The Blair Witch Project” already burned through the whole meta-marketing concept in 1999. That stale strategy can’t come close to working again 20 years later; I don’t care if you name your lead character Todd Smith to cut down on easy internet search exposés. In the midst of watching this movie, I also saw the names of two legitimate actors (Voltaire Colin Council and Caulder Council) disappear from the film’s IMDb page. I want to admire the commitment to shrouding “Behind the Sightings” in semi-secrecy, but give the dopey deception a rest. Even the WWE eventually gave up on trying to convince fans that wrestling wasn’t staged. Are we really still trying to pretend that a “found footage” horror movie is real in this day and age?
This might be the first you’re hearing about any of this because naturally, no one is paying attention to the movie or its behind-the-scenes blustering. Why would they? The clown sighting story fizzled while Obama was still in office. Arriving well past the sell by date, this “inspired by true events” adaptation turns out to be another by-the-book bore that’ll also be forgotten with equal swiftness.
Opening text touts what you are about to see as being culled from recovered recordings. The first act fills up on interviews with locals talking up an urban legend. Rising tensions boil over into an intense argument between the main characters. A handheld camera has several seizures while running around the woods at night. All it needs is a tear-streaked confessional that looks straight into the lens and “Behind the Sightings” would have copied “The Blair Witch Project” template to a T.
Honestly, “Behind the Sightings” doesn’t look bad. It’s in focus. Colors are corrected. Exposures aren’t overblown. The clowns are definitely eerie. The cinematography might be too good for what this is, with the camera always framing action perfectly even when it falls to the floor.
The problem is that there are vague plot beats but no story. The main man’s wife finds out she is pregnant at one point, except her revelation contributes nothing substantial to the characters. Neither does their conflict, which makes zero sense that one of them would even think to argue everything is a harmless prank after being beaten bloody by masked men in a dark forest. “Behind the Sightings” builds to a conclusion that’s merely a lot of running around and screaming before the centerpiece couple gets tied to chairs and tormented for a full 15 minutes.
With that, there really isn’t anything else to say about the movie’s basic blandness. “Behind the Sightings” shows up five years after the forgotten phenomenon it photocopies and two decades after the “found footage” fad hit its peak too. Might as well move along because there’s nothing to see here. Not literally, although it might as well be.
Review Score: 35
If you want to see impossible amounts of blood explode crimson colors like the world’s worst version of a gender reveal, well, “Abigail” at least has that.