The Horror Show
Found
by Scott Schirmer
No, Found is not a “found footage” film. What the title does appropriately is wrap the whole movie into a neat little word because there are a lot of secrets to be “found” in the film.
12 year old Marty is your typical outcast at school; only one friend, loves gore and horror, gets picked on, and has a serial killer for an older brother. Oh, was that last part not typical for anyone else?
I’m often weary of movies that revolve around children as their main characters, but what this film focuses on is what drew me in. Not only is it an expression for the love of all things horror, but it’s got a very deep message that it’s not okay to bully and it’s not okay to be an asshole hidden underneath this completely different and simple plot of “my older brother Steve keeps human heads in a bowling bag in his closet.”
Found is a low budget film, but the acting is really not that bad and I’m actually pretty impressed with Gavin Brown (who played Marty) and his abilities to accurately portray an awkward 12 year old with a lot of problems. I mean, everybody was at one point an awkward 12 year old with a lot of problems, but this movie puts it out there and throws some really sick and twisted shit into the mix for poor Marty.
A lot of the gore and slasher-esque killing occurs while Marty and his friend David are watching a film called “Headless” that Marty’s brother stole from the video store. (Yes, a video store. Just the simple fact that there is a video store in this movie should be enough to make you watch it.) I think the “let’s watch a horror film” is thrown in here to make the killing make sense. If the film had switched focus and shown Steve on his wild killing sprees, it would have taken away from Marty’s story.
As Marty gets picked on more and more, his brother tells him he needs to stand up for himself and Marty starts to get a little ballsier. The film culminated in an extremely disturbing and shocking ending that was a little hard to watch without saying “Oh god, really?” All in all the movie was great. What I didn’t like though was the “reasoning” behind why Steve does what he does. I don’t feel that it fit in well with the rest of the film. I won’t give away what it is, but it just made me go “is he joking?” Rather than portray his sociopathic and psychotic tendencies as pure evil or just plain and simple: I’m crazy as hell…they make it out to be something completely off the wall.
The film would have been better off with Steve just saying “I do it because I feel like it” instead of the reason that was given. And, the reason for Steve killing makes absolutely NO sense with the end of the film. It doesn’t tie back together, which makes me think the writers and director were truly going for all out shock value rather than a profound story that would leave you with your jaw hanging open at the end of the movie for the ending in itself.
They did such a good job with Marty and Steve and everything else in the movie (including that jaw dropping ending) that it’s a shame that there is one tiny, and very silly, plot hole that bothers the hell out of me. But it wouldn’t make me not recommend the movie to anyone. In fact, I do recommend this film to all lovers of horror and it will be a welcome addition on your horror collection’s shelves. It’ll be available on DVD in September.
Stevie Kopas, HMS
The Horror Show Menu.