Hunting Matthew Nichols explicitly references The Blair Witch Project by name repeatedly throughout its 89-minute running time. However, the movie starts off by capturing the aesthetic and rhythms of true crime documentaries, specifically the ones that have become so popular and commonplace on Netflix and other streaming platforms.
The film is about the disappearance of two teen boys in Canada twenty years ago. And said boys may have had a wayward interest in the occult and perhaps even satanic rituals.
A true crime mockumentary is an interesting approach for a horror (or, actually, horror-adjacent) movie. But there's a huge challenge for the filmmakers here: those real true crime docs are often so compelling that a fictional true crime doc has to up the ante with some kind of crazy spin.
The spin here, I suppose, is that Hunting Matthew Nichols shifts into a found-footage horror movie in its last third. This is a welcome shift, because after a compelling start the movie unfortuntately sags in the middle.
The horror of it all is confined to the film's final minutes. And while that last sequence is creepy, scary, and delightfully unsettling, it doesn't quite make up for the slowly paced lead-up.
Pros: Great bloody climax, pretty good acting, unique mockumentary/found-footage mashup, and if you're into dudes then actor/director Markian Tarasiuk is very easy on the eyes.
Cons: Kind of boring in the middle.
Questions: Are there underlying themes about/metaphors for white/indigenous relations and history?
Final Note: Two boys are missing, so it should be titled Hunting Matthew Nichols and Jordan Reimer. Or Hunting Matthew and Jordan. #JusticeForJordan
Screenwriters: Sean Harris Oliver, Markian Tarasiuk
Director: Markian Tarasiuk
Cast: Miranda MacDougall, Markian Tarasiuk, Ryan Alexander McDonald, Christine Willes, James Ross, Issiah Bullbear
