BODYCAM (2025)

Studio:   Shudder
Director: Brandon Christensen
Writer:   Ryan Christensen, Brandon Christensen
Producer: Chris Ball, Kurtis David Harder, Brandon Christensen
Stars:    Jaime M. Callica, Sean Rogerson, Catherine Lough Haggquist, Angel Prater, Keegan Connor Tracy, Chris Casson, Elizabeth Longshaw, Colette Nwachi, Joe Perry

Review Score:

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Summary:

Two cops attempting to cover up an unexpected altercation find themselves supernaturally trapped in an occult ritual.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Responding to a domestic disturbance call, Officer Bryce and Officer Jerome Jackson rush to a dilapidated house in Henderson, a neighborhood notorious for homelessness, drug abuse, and gang activity. On the way, Jerome confirms he is from Henderson and his mother Ally still works with the community there.

Hearing guttural screams coming from inside, Bryce and Jerome break into the home. Jerome finds a mutilated dog still alive inside a baby’s crib and an entranced woman covered in blood. Near a deep hole in the cellar floor, Bryce confronts a man holding something underneath a towel covering his hands.

Ignoring Bryce’s orders to stop and show his hands, the entranced man lunges at the officer. Bryce shoots him dead. Jerome races to the room and discovers the man had been cradling a baby beneath the towel, and Bryce shot the child too.

Revealed as the baby’s mother, the entranced woman Jerome just encountered runs outside in a frenzy. The mother threatens the officers with a broken bottle before using it to slash her own throat. The mother charges at Bryce, covering him in blood before dropping dead.

Worried about disciplinary repercussions and public outrage, Bryce begins coercing Jerome into creating a coverup regarding what really happened. While washing the blood off himself, Bryce calls his pregnant wife Michelle for comfort.

Jerome returns to the cellar where he briefly inspects the strange hole and collects the shell casings fired from Bryce’s weapon. Bryce eventually convinces Jerome to give him the casings and to help stage the scene to look like the mother killed her husband, child, and self while high on drugs.

Afterward, Bryce takes Jerome to a secret room in the back of a pawnshop where they meet with Esposito, a computer expert and underground contact of Bryce’s. Bryce asks Esposito to delete their incriminating bodycam footage. Before doing so, Jerome asks to watch the incident again. Esposito becomes alarmed when she hears the mother mutter “The Underman” before slitting her throat. Esposito immediately ends her activity and leaves hurriedly after telling Bryce she can no longer be involved.

Another call comes in regarding the discovery of the dead mother’s body. Bryce and Jerome respond to that call but discover the mother’s body missing when they return. Drawn in blood on a nearby wall, Bryce becomes momentarily entranced by an occult symbol matching ones seen inside the house.

When Bryce’s nose begins bleeding profusely, Jerome starts rushing him to a hospital only for their car to be blocked by a group of entranced tweakers. Speaking for the group, a tweaker named Tommy taunts them with, “You took something from us.”

Unsure what to do next, Jerome takes Bryce to his mother Ally, who lives nearby. Disapproving of having cops in her home, Ally treats Bryce condescendingly. In a room of tweakers his mother is helping, Jerome meets a young woman who repeatedly says, “You take something from him, he takes something from you.”

As Bryce recounts a haunting vision he experienced, supernatural activity briefly flickers inside Ally’s home. Ally demands that Bryce and her son leave immediately. Jerome asks Ally about the occult symbol, but she refuses to explain it.

Unable to reach his pregnant wife Michelle on the phone after hearing the tweaker’s cryptic threat, Bryce speeds to his house with Jerome. The men are shocked to see the occult symbol drawn in blood on Bryce’s front door. Inside, they find Michelle missing, but they discover Esposito restrained to a chair. After she is freed, Esposito spits up blood, seemingly becomes possessed, and threatens the officers in a demonic voice. Bryce and Jerome flee back to their patrol car and drive away.

Believing “The Underman” took his wife in response to what he did earlier, Bryce returns to the tweaker who blocked the road. At gunpoint, Bryce forces Tommy into a rundown building, demanding answers. Tommy leads Bryce to a room with the number 514, which weirds out Bryce because that is also his callsign. Frustrated that the tweaker continually repeats, “You take something from us, we take something from you,” Bryce shoots Tommy in his face.

Suffering from another nosebleed, Bryce confronts a vision of the dead mother cradling her baby in a bathroom. The vision vanishes as soon as Jerome enters the room. Both men see an occult symbol drawn in blood over the bathtub.

Thinking he hears his wife’s voice, Bryce races up to the roof. Jerome follows his partner, and finds him alone in a cradling pose, claiming he found Michelle murdered. Distraught, Bryce shoots himself in the head. His body falls off the roof and lands on the hood of the patrol car.

Rushing back downstairs, Jerome unexpectedly encounters a reanimated Tommy speaking in a demonic voice. When he gets outside, Jerome sees Bryce’s body is gone.

Jerome drives away, but reality repeatedly flickers, supernaturally returning him to the house in Henderson no matter where he goes. Jerome calls his mother, who warns him not to reenter the house, and insists her son is stronger than “him.” The call with Ally eventually cuts off.

Realizing he cannot escape the house where the ordeal began, Jerome reticently goes back inside. Music draws him into the hole in the cellar. Jerome descends into a deeper room where Bryce’s voice and a screaming woman lead him to a scene where entranced tweakers surround Bryce as he delivers his wife Michelle’s bloody baby. When the demonic Underman appears, Jerome flees into a dead end adorned with the occult symbol.

Cradling the baby, Bryce, bearing a gruesome gunshot wound in his head, confronts Jerome while speaking in a demonic voice. Jerome’s dead sister Neisha joins Bryce. Neisha mentions becoming a family together, horrifying her brother. The Underman suddenly lunges at Bryce.

Desperate to find her son, Ally directs Sergeant Dobson and Officer Malone to the house. Ally and the two cops find Jerome standing entranced over the hole in the cellar floor. Jerome greets his mother in a demonic voice. Also in a state of possession, Neisha emerges from the hole. Ally and the officers try to leave, but their exit is blocked by entranced tweakers. Unseen forces and The Underman drag away all three of them.

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Review:

Running only about 72 minutes, “Bodycam” can’t afford to waste time, so it doesn’t. Quick introductions to police officers Bryce and Jackson begin immediately as the two cops tail a vehicle that had been speeding before the movie started. Bryce decides to cut the guy a break without lighting him up. Instead, he and Jackson pull up beside the driver for a knowing smirk. The “as*hole,” as Bryce calls him, might think he got away with it, but Bryce and Jackson don’t want to bother with a routine traffic stop. Content to know they could have had him if they wanted, Bryce blips the siren to give the guy a scare, then lets him go with a sarcastic wave.

Officers Bryce and Jackson have better things to do anyway. Seconds later, dispatch sends the duo to a domestic disturbance in Henderson, a neighborhood notorious for rampant homelessness, drug abuse, and gang activity. To Bryce, it’s a “sh*thole.” To Jackson, it’s home, as he reminds Bryce not only did he grow up in Henderson, his mom still lives there.

Forcing exposition via dialogue ordinarily earns an eyeroll, except “Bodycam” inserts it via an organic interaction where it makes sense for Jackson to recount his background. The movie is not yet two minutes old and already its audience gets a good grasp on the main characters. Jackson is a humble good guy connected to his community, and evidently didn’t stray too far from family. Bryce isn’t a racist cop caricature, though there’s clearly a chip on his shoulder making him susceptible to power trips and aggressive behavior. That’s no more and no less than the exact amount of information necessary to get off the ground.

After screams hurry them inside the house they were called to, Bryce and Jackson both wish they were busy writing that speeding ticket. Jackson ends up finding a mutilated dog that’s still alive in a baby’s crib as well as an entranced woman covered in blood. Near a strange hole in the cellar floor, Bryce confronts an entranced man holding something suspicious under a towel. Ignoring the officer’s repeated commands to show his hands, the man rushes at Bryce, and Bryce reacts by firing his gun.

A bad situation grows worse when Bryce and Jackson find out what was hiding in the man’s hands. Already on edge, another shock comes at the cops when the blood-covered woman does a bum rush of her own. Once that matter is settled, surveying the situation reveals Bryce inadvertently ignited a powder keg ripe for an angry mob to call for his head.

Bryce sees a coverup as the best option for concealing what just happened. Jackson isn’t so sure, but a guilt trip compels him to reluctantly go along with his partner’s plan. For them, however, the horror has barely begun. Because even attempting to escape the scene drags both men deeper into a spiraling nightmare of supernatural scares, cult activity, and a demonic force with a devilish plan for getting back what Bryce and Jackson unknowingly took.

Straightforward in concept and in execution, there’s nothing particularly innovative about “Bodycam’s” cryptic occult creeps. Seasoned viewers have seen possessed people speaking in distorted voices, witchy symbols drawn in blood, and “how did we get back here?” location loops plenty of times before. “Bodycam” even copies a couple of signature moves directly from “The Blair Witch Project,” “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” and other famous frights that lunge into the lens.

Yet even with deja vu ringing bells, it’s easy for a horror-minded head to get into the movie’s groove due to its no muss, no fuss efficiency. Although the first-person fears feel too familiar at times, they’re intermittingly inviting more often than not. Shots of flashlights flitting over shadowy figures in rundown buildings still have a way of evoking eeriness no matter their context.

With “Bodycam” smartly choosing to bite off only as much as its low-budget mouth can chew, it’s more of a snack than a meal, yet correctly portioned for that smaller size. Viewers don’t have to wade through lengthy worldbuilding, cliffhanging sequel setups, or side-plots speeding into disappointing dead ends. “Bodycam” is simply a sit-and-go haunter that only requires a minor investment of time and attention, and that’s more than enough to get a quick charge from its chills.

Review Score: 65

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