Entry #6 The Outwaters (2023)

     The Outwaters is a found footage horror movie, directed by Robbie Banfitch. What did I watch....

   

    This indie horror movie was made with a small budget of just $15,000 is surprising. Although the film was released in 2023 its now on rent on digital. So I decided to check it out because it was supposedly disturbing. Yes this movie is disturbing, although its somewhat misleading, I have mixed views on this film. This is one of those experimental films that I can see why someone might not like it.

    The premise of this movie, is a couple of friends who go and camp out in the desert, (who the hell camps in the desert?) after taking a trip to the desert, insane things begin to happen that is hard to describe and make sense of. This movie derails in the last act, it is organized by digital SD cards because it was captured on digital video, there are 3 SD cards. When put together they make the entire movie. 

 

    The first 40 to 50 minutes of this movie is character development, honestly it was boring. The idea is that there are four friends who are making a music video, and they plan on filming this video in the desert. And this is where things get crazy:

Spoiler:

    The intro begins with disturbing audio from a 911 call, a women is screaming on the phone and we can hear something or someone else is there. The screams are believable, they feel like someone is actually dying. Although it doesn't sound human since the screams have a demonic pitch. The call cuts and the title card appears. We then have the four friends shown one by one, which were last seen in 2017. 

    The next 40 minutes is character development, this part has a lot of boring stuff happening. They could of just cut down like 15 minutes of it. It would have been still fine.

    The last 40 minutes contains bizarre imagery. While camping during the night, there are sounds of thunder and a mixture of explosions going off, of course they are scared. The film mostly relies on audio, this enhances the experience for me since it can be effective to not show the thing or the creature, or whatever the threat is. The imagination is what makes things more scary. It does the same exact thing like Skinamarink, its shot in the dark and you cant see anything except there is a lot of shaky camera effects. 

    But what I can make of it, there is some demonic force that possessed one of their friends, since there is a shadow of a man with an axe. And somehow, the killer is their friend from the future that is possessed. There is also snake monsters that appear up an attack them while inside their tents. And a demon creature that we cant see because of the shaky camera. There is also a lot of gore, surprisingly a lot, I did not think this was gonna be one of those movies that has a lot of blood. But it goes there, and its not afraid to show graphic imagery. There is also teleportation happening from another dimension to the future. One the characters is going insane as this movie goes insane. The last minutes of this movie are pretty graphic, lets say it contains self harm, the sound effects doesn't help and the movie ends.

    Given the last minutes of this movie and the absurd and bizarre nature of this movie I would recommend watching it for the experience. Probably skip like 15 minutes of the beginning. Its not bad, the acting is good, the shots are good, the screenplay is bad, the special effects are also good they look believable. The sound design is good, the audio is believable and disturbing. 

Moral of the story: Never camp in Arizona.

Overall I am giving this one a 3 out of 5 sparkling hearts: 💖💖💖❤❤