The “horror comedy” subgenre of filmmaking is a tough act to pull off; indeed, I’ve said in the past there are only two truly successful examples of the idea. Usually, what we get is a comedy film with some light horror elements, or a horror movie with a few well-landed jokes. Rarely do we get a film that is equally funny and scary. Max Tzannes’ Found Footage: The Making Of The Patterson Project doesn’t quite stick the landing in that regard, but it manages to throw a rather tired aspect of horror filmmaking into the mix (found footage) and ultimately succeeds in being quite entertaining and enjoyably self-effacing.
FF is the story of Chase, a loveably manic independent filmmaker hellbent on making the world greatest found footage film. His inspiration is the Patterson-Gimlin film, the infamous 1967 footage that supposedly captures a Bigfoot striding through the northern California woods. Throughout the film, we see Chase’s entire creative process: casting, securing funding for his vision through a series of increasingly absurd promises to investors, location scouting, dealing with clueless actors, and working through setback after increasingly ominous setback.
Filming all this, and providing the foundation of the technique of found footage, is a French film crew that documents independent filmmakers in their debut feature project. Obviously, since this a found footage film, things don’t go well for Chase and his crew; but not in the way that most of the movie would lead you to believe.
Part of what makes this movie so enjoyable is the naivete of all the players being mined as a source of comedy and relatability. From Chase’s ceaseless drive to get the movie made, to his executive producer (or “chief financier”) as a tragically unhip fish out of water, every single person we see in the movie seems hopelessly in over their heads without realizing it, and it’s their continued belief that they themselves have it under control that becomes endearing and hilarious. Brennan Keel Cook plays Chase so earnest and serious that it’s impossible to not only not laugh at his antics, but also to not fall in love with the dedication the character has to creating something, even if it’s not what he originally set out to create. There’s an element of rooting for the underdog in this film, almost a modern version of American Movie.
Often in “horror comedy,” filmmakers will try and be in on the joke when it comes to self-effacing, and it almost always comes off as wholly insincere and insufferably cheesy. In the case of FF, however, the sheer flatness of the delivery of such lines as, “they don’t make a lot of Sasquatch movies,” in a found footage movie about Sasquatch is delightful, given the fact that there is an absolute glut of not just mediocre horror films about the subject, but found footage films on it as well. Indeed, next to aliens and ghosts, Bigfoot is probably the most trope-y of spooky creatures when it comes to the subgenre. However, it doesn’t feel cheap in this movie.
For one, Tzannes is a talented enough filmmaker to critique this phenomenon in a way that is effective and funny, but never mean-spirited; one gets the feeling that he is in on the joke the movie is telling. And secondly, by the time shit hits the fan in this movie, you’ve forgotten all about Bigfoot. Tzannes has earned the right to dunk on bandwagon-hopping found footage movies about badly behaving Bigfoot by taking the movie successfully in an entirely different direction in the last act.
If you’re expecting another found footage jawn in the tradition of stalwarts such as The Blair Witch Project, or the V/H/S franchise, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Found Footage: The Making Of The Patterson Project doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s a fun movie that takes a few well-placed jabs at a subgenre that really ought to not exist at this point.
