Comparisons
we just can't help ourselves. I see a lot of comparing between this particular shadowy cult effort to the very similar in style, worldwide hit 'The Blair Witch Project (1999)'. Both share a low-budget cost and that documentary edited structure, but other than that. Really that's it. Well it did come out before its more fancied rival. We begin with Steven Avkast and Locus Wheeler hosts of a cheap cable show called "Fact or Fiction" going into the Pine Barrens of New Jersey with the aid of Rein Clackin and Jim Suerd to broadcast the search for New Jersey Devil. However Suerd is the only to come out alive, and accused of the murders. A year later filmmaker David Leigh decides to make a documentary about it using the live footage they shot to get down to the bottom off what really happened in the woods that night. 'Broadcast' has more an entertainingly detailed background (from actual footage to interviews) to its story-telling and for most part it's highly captivating and immensely inventive. Well that's up until the indifferently eye-rolling last ten minutes, which totally spins back onto itself with a ridiculous (if off-putting) revelation. It was going so well (I liked the whole ambiguous, open-minded and eerie nature), then they shot themselves in the foot. It feels like it came from another movie. They lost that chilling vibe and cooked up some glaring plot holes because of that sudden inclusion even if it was undeniably effective. Still the gimmick is provocatively engineered and efficiently presented by the director and his actors (believably capable performances by Jim Seward, Stefan Avalos, Lance Weiler, Rein Clabbers and David Beard) to leave an unforgettable imprint. The set-up manages to feel sincere with good use of illuminating the manipulative air stemming from the media to influence an outcome. Be it bullet proof or not. Everything is basically suggestive with a drearily dreaded tone. Some sequences can cause a shudder and make your skin crawl, as things are linked together or put down for us to mull over. A slick, stark and engrossingly blood curdling concept that's almost pulled off.
Review of The Last Broadcast
