The Lost Footage of Leah Sullivan (2018) Poster

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7/10
Don't watch found footage when you know you already dislike the conventions
jfgibson7324 November 2021
If you are not a fan of found footage films, this movie will not be the one to convert you. Many segments are shot with the camera on a tripod as the main character interviews locals for her documentary. But eventually, there are some handheld sequences that are blurry, dark, and swing too wildly to see anything. I think a lot of viewers will also feel like they didn't get enough scares, and not enough payoff. I wouldn't call it a slow burn, but there is a lot of setup before you get any scenes where some action might take place. I liked the lead actress a lot; I really thought she was Jennifer Morrison at first. Her performance carries the film. The other main character, the cop, didn't feel as believable to me. Pretty much everyone else seem like they are doing some mediocre improv. There isn't too much filler, but there are some shots that go on way too long. However, I did feel some genuine tension. I wish the movie was a little more balanced somehow; the characters spend a lot of time talking in safe places. But when it got to a creepy part, it kept me anxious for such an extended period, I had to take a break. I'm glad I gave this one a try, because I don't find many movies that can get a reaction from me.
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5/10
Not bad, until the end
zamboni-366337 December 2021
I thought it started out pretty good with a bunch of interviews to flesh out the story. There were some pretty creepy camera shots and then the whole thing fell apart at the end. It was so dark I had no idea what was going on. Then it just stopped. Such a shame.
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7/10
Well made, original found footage.
trvdeadu5 March 2021
This is a solid, fairly fast paced found footage that does a lot of things right. The first thing I noticed was that the characters are all (with the obvious endgame exception) nice people and you can truly invest in their welfare. All to often these movies are populated with knuckleheads you are glad to see die (movie world naturally). But in this one, I want them to survive and it's been a while since I've felt that for a character. The editing is kept to a minimum to help give the 'found on a memory stick" back story credence and even though some of the blank/long pause shorts are, well.......long, they are still part of the what would be expected of finding genuine footage and help with the scenario setup. Story wise, nothing too new here but not done to death supernatural foolishness that I'm sure most of have seen plenty of anyway and I really enjoyed what they did come up with. Short version, good stuff that gave me a few laughs and a tight chest moment several times.
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6/10
Worth a watch
samplethisars26 January 2021
This is actually pretty well done! Story was engaging and the premise was creepy!

I'd recommend for ff genre enthusiasts
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Worth watching? Like found footage? Then yes...very much yes
tobridges16 December 2021
Great little found footage gem. Not really horror so much as a creepy mystery with some horror elements. Does a nice job of building tension all the way to the end.

Ignore the reviews that say it left questions unanswered. All the clues are right there for everyone to see. No spoilers, but pay attention to the interviews that Leah does with people from the town. Those are not just filler...pay attention because they explain everything, especially in retrospect.

Loved the story and thought the acting from the two leads and most of the supporting cast was really solid.
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6/10
A Well Paced Slow Burn To Some Creepy Moments
wakezakzak-8919029 June 2023
Warning: Spoilers
**Plot**

In 1986, the town of Lutton, MA was rocked with the grizzly murder of the Mulcahy Family; consisting of the schizophrenic doomsday prepping father Joseph, mother Rebecca, teenaged daughter Jessica and the troublemaking 12 year old son Edward. The family were tied up in various areas in and outside of the house, and chopped up with what police reckoned was a hatchet. Certain limbs that were hacked were missing, including Joseph's legs, Rebecca's left arm, and Jessica's head. Edward's left arm was left tied to his bed, separated from his now missing body. The perpetrator of this crime was never apprehended, remaining a cold case for decades.

On the 30th anniversary of the murders in 2016, Seattle college student Leah Sullivan returns to her hometown of Lutton to shoot a documentary about the cold case for a class project due by the end of January. She meets local police officer Patrick Rooke, who aids her in filming her documentary. Over the course of her and Patrick filming, they begin to not only discover more about the Mulcahy family, but also begin to piece together supposed unrelated missing people reports that occurred over a decade after the house was abandoned. This 30 year old case file might just be solved by Leah and Patrick, but as the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. Or in this case, Leah's curiosity nearly killed a dog while she was driving her car. But it led to a funny exchange with the dog's owner, so it's fine.

**Review**

The writing and the performances by all of the leading and supporting actors were very good. I can't tell if some lines were improvised or were scripted, but regardless, all of the actors felt natural while simultaneously being awkward as they should be.

Some of the genuine awkward humor from Leah interviewing people without properly informing them what it's for led to some moments of laughter from me. Even the brief scene of the woman walking her dog scolding a driving Leah for nearly hitting the dog was hilarious.

Sound and Image Quality were fine, outside of moments where you get the usual shakiness from when a jumpscare happens or Patrick messes up the tripod or when scary things start to happen in the final act.

I think the film's detractors would be the last act, where Leah has been smart up until this point, but greed corrupts her thinking, for she now wants to forget the class project and make this her meal ticket to fame and enter the world of journalism. She wants to properly investigate the supposed condemned house, not considering the risk of getting injured or attacked by looking in the house. Even Patrick, the voice of reason, gets dragged into helping her because he wants to have a clean conscious if something happens to her. At the cost of your life, though, Patrick?

The lack of straight forward answers to the mystery will upset some people. Some may think the interviews leading up to the last act are pointless exposition, but they're actually clues that hint towards what to expect in the last act. To really understand what was going on, the film isn't going to give it to you on a spoon like a parent feeding a baby. You'd have to sit down, recollect the information the characters have gathered, jump to some conclusions, and roll with it. I had to look up what others who watched the film thought happened to see if I was close to solving it. I kind of was, but I missed some details to make it more clearer.

The big thing people want to see in found footage films is the big scary thing that's stalking or haunting in crystal clear images or video...which if you think about it, kind of destroys the ambiguous nature of found footage, so I'm glad this film opted to not go the Blair Witch 2016 route of being in your face with everything.

You or others might be disappointed just by the source of light in the last act, and not being able to see what the end credits call the Creature. I think it sells the realism of the found footage aspect a bit better when you're actually in pitch black, for it puts you right in Leah and Patrick's shoes.

Overall, the film is 84 minutes long, and it goes by quick. It's a decent watch for a Thursday night off from work if you have no plans that day. Or at all for life in general, so I'd say give it a shot, so long as your aim isn't like Patrick's.
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5/10
ok movie
The movie was ok, but the reporter was so annoying. She laughs throughout the whole movie,even while taking the dead woman's dresses out of the closet. I wanted the reporter to meet her end.
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4/10
This could have been really good but was ruined by cheap tricks, terrible camera work, and filler.
WisdomsHammer25 June 2021
I love found footage horror movies, including amateur productions, as long as they're even the least bit scary and sincere. This has a few good scares in it, but they were too few and far between to make this work.

The beginning of this movie hooked me. I thought, "Finally! A good one!" The lead actually sounded like a competent and talented newscaster and the footage felt real enough with outtakes, cover footage, and all.

The first two minutes show her in front of an abandoned house doing her spiel about what happened in it and we see a figure pass by a window. It's brief and in the distance, but unmistakable and creepy. I smiled and settled in eager to see more.

Then she gets stopped by a cop after she almost hits someone while driving and trying to film at the same time. He ends up asking her out for coffee and much of the rest of the movie is like watching them on terribly awkward dates. There are also several interviews with other people that aren't very entertaining and there just for exposition that we honestly don't need.

She and the cop go to the abandoned house again to explore and catch some obvious footage of weird stuff that neither of them sees but we do, even though she seems to have forgotten how to use and focus a camera all of a sudden so it's all blurry and shaky - and so lame. In every handheld camera scene she seems to have absolutely no idea what she's doing anymore. It's even aimed at the floor a lot of the time. I found myself wanting to shout at the screen, "What is wrong with you??"

And then, just as bad, for whatever reason she's obviously not reviewing her footage or she would have seen the scary blurry figure in the background just like we did - and just like we wanted to see way more of.

She seems so interested and invested while looking at crime scene photos and doing interviews but dismisses anything weird that happens at while the house and doesn't review her footage? Half the time she seems intelligent and serious and the other half she's clueless and it's just a big joke to her. It doesn't work.

This is a found footage movie that ignores anything it captures and over the course of an hour and a half only gives us about three and a half tiny glimpses of what we came to see. How did they possibly think that would be effective?

It's a damn shame because aside from the absolutely terrible handheld camera work they had some great scenes and decent tension and even decent acting and what looked to me like a decent "monster". I'm okay with it never being shown clearly, just don't ignore it.

I've never called a movie "dumb" before. This one is dumb. So dumb. I don't think it's worth your time, unfortunately. I'm giving this a very generous 4/10 for the potential it had, the talent involved, and the few effective scares.
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4/10
Had potential lol who am I kidding
chstad2716 July 2020
This found footage film fell flat the jumpscares where very weak surprisingly cause FF films usually have great jumpscares. All in all I was excited to see this and as I watched it it started out good then went down hill w every scene after. Definitely not worth the 3$ I spent to watch it. I would say skip this one
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10/10
Great Found Footage Horror Movie
ladymidath11 June 2021
I don't understand the bad reviews this movie got, I watched it on Tubi and found myself really enjoying it. It's a found-footage horror but don't let that put you off, it's excellent. The acting and the cast are engaging and the editing is very tight. It takes time to build to the climax and it is very atmospheric. The snowy wintery scenes and the sound of wind moaning just adds that extra layer of tension. Even though some of the things that the lead actors do may make you roll your eyes at their stupidity, it is still a great little horror movie that will keep you on the edge of your seats. I highly recommend this to anyone that likes a tautly made horror film with a great atmosphere and minimal blood shed.
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4/10
Well it tried.
jmbovan-47-16017320 February 2021
Standard plot of a found footage film. It looks decent. Acting is okay if a bit clunky at times. Nothing new to the film, and the same boring ending that shows only a little bit and leaves with all questions still unanswered. Nothing to see here really.
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1/10
Boring!
klabadie_200216 March 2020
You spend most the movie listening to this girl doing her irritatingly irrelevant interviews which she is clearly annoyed by or fighting back and forth with the cop. When you finally get to a part that might be creepy.... the screen is black for it. This was just horrible!
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4/10
Was Cheering for the Leah to Die
mistywater-397952 July 2021
Really??? I love found footage and the acting and story here is pretty good but by the end of the movie I was cheering for Leah to die. She had absolutely no common sense and wouldn't listen to anything the cop had to say. Making her seem like a smart put together person with some common sense at the beginning of the movie, to a complete and total idiot at the end just makes this movie not worth it. This movie had me until the end and the last 15 minutes it almost all dark you can see anything.
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4/10
Waste of my Time
momster000527 February 2021
It was a good enough movie, but I prefer an Outcome, Good or Bad. The movie didn't leave me wanting more, it made me feel like I should have watched something else!
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9/10
Top 10-15 all time found footage film for me
brandonlewissmu11 March 2021
I'm a huge found footage fan. I'll give anything a shot. It's about 70/20/10 usually. 70% are below average and easily forgotten. 20% are good. 10% are excellent. I'm talking Blair Witch, Grave Encounters, The Last Broadcast, VHS, Paranormal Activity, Open Water, Houses October Built, Megan Is Missing, etc. I'm throwing this movie somewhere behind those. The actress who played Leah made the difference for me. Maybe the most likable character I've ever seen in a found footage film. I also loved the snowy, chilly atmosphere. It is bizarre that the rating is nearly a 6 but the written reviews are so bad. If you Google actual reviews from horror sites, they are almost all very positive. Give it a watch if you can find it. I saw it on some streaming platform, think it was Netflix or Prime.
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2/10
Found footage
BandSAboutMovies28 December 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Starring Anna Stromberg and directed by Burt Grinstead (who was in The Car: Road to Revenge, this found footage film concerns the contents of a memory card that belonged to a journalism student named Leah Sullivan who has gone back to her hometown to investigate the thirty-year-old Mulcahy Murders.

As the facts unravel, she begins to realize that this cold case murder may not be all that cold. And she's also falling for a police officer from town, Patrick Rooke. However, as she gets closer to the truth, she gets closer to her potential death. Can she escape or will curiosity and her ambition be the end of her?

If you like found footage films or are interested in cold case style crimes, this could be the movie for you. It just had its theatrical premiere on December 11. so look for it to be released soon.
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1/10
History ok, protagonist ok, Police Man too much didn't need! There is no growing tension, too many useless words for too long, not good for a 2nd vision like The Blair Witch P
fabiofrost14 February 2024
The problems of this quite good film are many, to begin with there is no growing tension as it should be in this kind of movies as in the classic number 1 The Blair Witch Project, which has grossed 245 million dollars in the face of 60 thousand dollars of production, here there are many words stories that are useless do not create the slightest interest or fear, then there is almost the whole film the annoying presence of the policeman who know that he is the producer and perhaps also the protagonist companion, But unfortunately the cumbersome always remains an annoying presence, in my opinion she should have conducted the investigations alone for at least meta film and then spend the night in the house finding the way between noise and others so of growing tension in the final epilogue.
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5/10
A Solid Found Footage Film But They Did Take the Lazy Way Out...
kaiaduvall4 April 2024
Horror fan here. I love all things dark and spooky, and the found footage subgenre is actually one of my favorites. I know, I don't get it either lol, but there's something about the way these films are crafted and play out that draws me to them over and over. A handful of these movies are some of my favorite horror films of all time, but yes *most* of them tend to be heavier on the tease than the payoff, but I guess I like a good tease!

Anyway, this was a stronger entry in this subgenre. If you don't know, this film is supposed to be the found video recordings of a young woman named Leah Sullivan, who is returning back home to her New England hometown to do a documentary on a well-known local family annihilation murder.

I mostly enjoyed this film and they were working with a lot - a good premise, a strong cast, a solid crew that did really well - but for some reason I think that they kind of lazed out and set the bar low for themselves. The result is something that could have been much better than it was. This film is just shy of 90 minutes I believe, and I think they reeeaaalllly stretched this one out to get it to that point, which is a shame. I'm glad its "just" 90 minutes and not longer, but I personally feel this film would've benefited by being even shorter. One of my fave mainstream found footage horror films is a super tight and perfect 70 minutes, wasting no one's time and leaving you wanting more, not wearing out their welcome. And another of my fave very indie found footage horror films is like 50 minutes, and that is one of the creepiest and most effective examples of this genre I have ever seen.

One of the ways they eeked this thing out to almost 90 minutes was during the increasingly excruciating interviews. The first time our heroine interviews someone, we see the whole pre-interview banter, the mic-ing up or whatever, and - oddly - the interviewee staring unblinkingly like a psycho into the camera for like 10 whole seconds for some reason, waiting for her to start. It's fine the 1st time because its found footage, and it sets up the process and shows her behind the scenes and its charming and lighthearted and kind of funny. But by the 3rd, 5th time we are put through this and she does an interview and we have to sit through all of this AGAIN and AGAIN, it becomes irritating and clear that the fillmmakers are just trying to eat up time and Draw. This. Out. As much as possible. It's just cheap, lazy and not nearly as charming or funny as they want it to be.

The film is very well acted, I will absolutely give it that. But the characters and the writing...Our two main characters are very smiley and All-American Abercrombie good-looking...and that's about it lol There's not really a whole to them and their chemistry is not that convincing, which is fine most of the time, but when the filmmakers choose to fill out a LOT of the run time with flirty, silly banter between these two characters...it gets a bit much to endure sometimes. There just was a bit too much of it. And in fact, at several points, our two characters essentially switch personalities in their banter, which is interesting. The writers clearly don't care who says what as long as it advances the plot. They completely forget who's supposed to be the skeptical one and who's supposed to be the believer. They're just two interchangeable, talking stock characters.

As far as the ending goes, I actually didn't mind it. It wasn't great and definitely forgettable, but I thought it was satisfactory.

Even though this movie is not perfect and has a lot of flaws, I absolutely believe that it is one of the better FF horror entries out there. I think I would consider it to be included in the Top 60 FF Horror Films I've ever seen, and even though that may not sound like much, considering how many of these films are out there, I think it says its generally pretty solid. Again the crew did a really good job and this seems very competently made. There was one point in fact that took place in a restaurant, and even though I suspect it wasn't actually a restaurant but just a room, all the sound effects were there and little touches were done perfectly and the angle was set up right as to not reveal too much. I could absolutely pretend it was a restaurant and I really appreciated that (because so many other super low budget films have done a terrible job at things like that).

I recommend this ONLY if you really enjoy FF horror in particular.
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3/10
Nope
killercharm23 December 2021
This movie didn't have much going for it. A journalism student leaves her footage behind when she tries to solve a cold case of a murdered family. She strikes up a relationship with a local cop who helps her in her project. The flick has some endearment but little to no suspense. The best part is the stories of the different people who go missing.
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8/10
Great Horror Film
Jchavez54847 January 2020
Definitely creeped me out. Does a great job of creating an unsettling atmosphere. The story is vague, in a good way leaving you mystified, but terrified.
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10/10
Awesome.
ericgrinstead2 December 2019
Very real experience. I thought I was there. I had never seen Lost Footage films before. The actors were so believable.
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