Hunting Matthew Nichols review
Hate the format all you want…there’s a pretty high floor on these things.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Hunting Matthew Nichols
Directed by Markian Tarasiuk
Written by Sean Oliver and Markian Tarasiuk
Starring Miranda MacDougall and Markian Tarasiuk
Hunting Matthew Nichols Review
I’ve written a lot about the Horror in the High Desert series. Not just because I’ve reviewed all four films (so far), but because so many independent horror movies have begun to follow in its footsteps. Consider the gimmick these movies use as a slight evolution on the found footage concept. Instead of presenting a piece of allegedly discovered footage in totality…many modern independent horror films have begun to form a mockumentary around them. It isn’t enough to simply have a piece of footage anymore. You have to spell out the lore surrounding it as if it were a true crime. And guess what? It works. The footage used in the High Desert series or any number of similarly themed films feels more alive this way. When you sit through an hour of talking heads telling you that what they found is real…you suspend that disbelief a little further.
Shelby Oaks found a new way to present it all. It begins as a mockumentary, turns into a stretch of watching found footage…and then relies on a straightforward narrative to bring it all home. Whatever the story demands, Shelby Oaks bent to its will. Strange Harvest was a bit more rigid with sticking to the format if memory serves me right. Hunting Matthew Nichols feels more like the former than the latter. While it never fully turns into a traditionally shot film…it often feels like it has. You just kind of except that the cameras are running even when no one is shooting the documentary part of the story. And the found footage, like Shelby Oaks, feels almost incidental. Neither movie begins with the promise of seeing someone’s shaky camera in whatever demonic thing they’ve gotten themselves into. That’s just how things end up progressing.
What we’re supposedly watching is a documentary about two missing teens. They vanished over two decades ago…and now Matthew Nichols sister Tara (Miranda MacGougall) is making a documentary to try and find answers. Directing this soon to be obviously bad idea is Markian Tarsiuk. If that name looks familiar…he’s also the real world director of Hunting Matthew Nichols. He isn’t the first to blur the line between fiction and reality by playing a version of himself in a horror movie…but I get a kick out of it every time. Tara hopes to find out what happened…or, at least, get some closure and feel closer to her long lost sibling by going through this process.
That means we get talking heads aplenty in Hunting Matthew Nichols. Interestingly, the movie isn’t presented as a final cut the way that the Horror in the High Desert movies are. We’re really watching the making of the documentary with the finished parts edited in. It’s weird when you think about it but in practice it feels kind of natural. We hear from Matthew and Tara’s mother, a police officer who handled their missing person’s case, the father of his missing friend…all the stuff you’d expect to fill out the backstory of the case.
Truthfully, there isn’t that much backstory to go over. While the film is called Hunting Matthew Nichols, it’s really more about the determination of his sister Tara. She’s leading an investigation with seemingly no leads as fervently as if she was onto something big. And it’s taking an obvious toll on her. Imagine how that intensifies when her pursuit uncovers the first lead in 21 years? See…that’s why this format works. If you’re a true crime fan and that happened in whatever “real” documentary you were watching…you’d be riveted. Movies like this have full control over making those moments happen.
What about the fond footage, you ask? Well, Hunting Matthew Nichols does a bit of a twist on the norm here. Tara uncovers a missing tape from her brother’s disappearance two decades earlier…but we don’t actually watch that tape. We see the reaction of people watching it…we hear it…and we do eventually see small flashes of it during the climax of this film…but we aren’t sitting down and viewing it like most movies of this ilk would have us do. Hunting Matthew Nichols has a different idea. After an hour or so of watching Tara and Markian make their documentary…Tara decides it’s time to go into the woods and find the cabin where they found Matthew’s final footage. What follows is the most found footage this movie gets…and it’s pretty effective
Many independent horror movies are smart enough to save their best shot for the third act. Hunting Matthew Nichols saves practically everything it has for it. Tara and Markian find themselves in what would have been an effective little short horror film had that been the goal. Is it worth the hour that precedes it? That will vary by the viewer. I thought several points of Hunting Matthew Nichols first two acts began to drag a bit. But you might find yourself more invested in what it’s offering. If you do…there’s a good chance you’ll really enjoy the payoff. I was only halfway in on the story and I certainly did.
As always, recommending this type of movie is a tricky one. If you hate the format you’ve already made up your mind. If you don’t…give this one a shot. If only for the fun finish it builds itself up to.
Scare Value
If you’ve sworn off of the found footage/mockumentary format that’s so popular in independent horror these days…Hunting Matthew Nichols isn’t going to do anything to change your mind. But I find that this stubborn little subgenre has a surprising sustainability. It scratches a true crime itch while being able to completely control the narrative and deliver some effective spookiness for those willing to wade through the talking heads and slow drips of lore. Hunting Matthew Nichols isn’t unlike many of the similar styled films to come out the last several years…but it still works. And this concept isn’t going anywhere.
2.5/5
Hunting Matthew Nichols Link
In theaters April 10. Buy tickets on Fandango
