The Last Broadcast

USA 1998
produced by
Stefan Avalos, Lance Weiler for FFM Productions
directed by Stefan Avalos, Lance Weiler
starring David Beard, Jim Seward, Stefan Avalos, Lance Weiler, Rein Clabbers, Michele Pulaski, Tom Brunt, Mark Rublee, A.D. Roso, Dale Worstall, Vann K. Weller, Sam Wells, Jay MacDonald, Faith Weiler, Marianne Connor, Robert Weiler, Jennifer Nasal, Brett Nielsen, Holly Madison, Jeremy Coleman, Todd Weiler, Chadd Ritenbaugh
written by Stefan Avalos, Lance Weiler, music by Steven Avalos, A.D. Roso

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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Four people set out to make a documentary about the Jersey Devil - but three of them (Stefan Avalos, Lance Weiler, Rein Clabbers) are killed in the forest they are filming at, while only one, Jim (Jim Seward), returns, and he seems to be a tailormade suspect for the murders. He is tried and convicted, and later dies in prison under mysterious circumstances. The case is pretty much closed, but another documentary filmmaker, David (David Beard), has doubts about Jim's guilt and sets out to make a documentary destined to determine what has really been going on - and especially a video tape that has been sent to David by a person unknown that had never been available to the police promises to uncover the truth. Unfortunately, the tape is gravely didstorted, and thus David hires data retrieval expert Michelle (Michele Pulaski) to clean it up again to ultimately try and find the killer on tape - and after months of restoration, the killer turns out to be ... David himself, who is now quick to get rid of Michelle ...

3 people being killed in the woods while shooting a documentary about some local legend - why that sounds an awful lot like Blair Witch Project - and yet The Last Broadcast was made a year prior to that movie. But while Blair Witch Project succeeded in doing the next to impossible - make a stroll through the woods scary and exciting -, The Last Broadcast takes the more traditiional route of using the mock documentary approach as a cost-cutting measure, which includes using cheap video material for authencity purposes, replacing the more elaborate and dramatic scenes with talking heads merely talking about these scenes, and - thanks to the many interview-sequences - keeping the sets to a minimum. Also, the documentary approach is used as an excuse to not necessarily tie up all of the film's narrative threads and not presenting the viewer with fully developed characters. Interestingly, the film breaks away from its mock documentary-mode in the finale (when the filmmaker himself is revealed to be the killer) - a finale that is about as stupid as it seems rushed though.

In all, The Last Broadcast is a rather weak effort in both the horror and the fake documentary genre, and not worth your time and money. And by the way, there is no indication that the makers of Blair Witch Project have even seen this film (much less used it as a template), which makes the film not even interesting in that respect.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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