The Last Broadcast
USA 1998
Reviewed by Mark Kermode
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Boroake County, New Jersey, the present. Amateur documentary film-maker David Leigh revisits the case of the "Jersey Devil" murders of 1996. Through new interviews and old footage, Leigh discovers how cable-access television presenters Steven Avkast and Locus Wheeler were inspired by an anonymous caller to stage a live internet/cable show from a remote forest area called the Pine Barrens. They were accompanied by soundman Rein Clackin and alleged psychic Jim Suerd. At the Pines, Jim attempts to lead the group to the "correct" site for supernatural contact but storms off after being caught on camera pushing Locus who taunts him about being a "psychic or psycho?"
Steven, Locus and Rein set up camp and begin to broadcast while Jim sulks by the internet terminal. The next morning, Jim calls the emergency services, claiming to have lost his companions, the remains of whom are found by the police. Suerd's house is searched and spots of the victims' blood are found on his clothing. David receives an anonymous package of damaged videotape which data-recovery specialist Michelle Monarch begins to reconstruct. This shows Locus and Rein searching for Steven after the time Jim is alleged to have killed them. It also reveals a blurry image which Michelle reconstructs as the face of David. He kills Michelle and takes her to the Pine Barrens where he recounts his assurance of Jim's innocence.
Review
"The story and characters depicted in this movie are entirely fictional," announce the final credits to co-directors Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler's multimedia murder mystery. "But please don't tell anyone." It's a worthy gag, but ironically one which sums up the dilemma of a celluloid shaggy dog story to which everyone already knows the punchline. Doomed to live forever in the shadow of The Blair Witch Project - which it marginally predates and with which it may or may not share elements of inspiration and even personnel - this low-budget experiment is both an intriguing footnote to the surprise horror hit of last year and a flawed but fun work in its own right.
If it were being released straight to video it would be essential quirky viewing, but unlike its more famous relative, it's sorely in danger of looking rather lost out their among the wilds of the big-screen jungle. And unfortunately, despite the lively website which still leads the inquisitive into a labyrinth of conflicting information about the "Jersey Devil" murders, one cannot but log on to the legend of The Last Broadcast with an overpowering (if somewhat unjustified) sense of déjà vu.
Lacking the ruthless purity of Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez's shocker, The Last Broadcast actually bears a closer resemblance to The Curse of the Blair Witch, the half-hour "investigative special" comprising outtake interviews provided by Haxan Films to the Sci-Fi Channel to hype up the mythology of its faux docudrama. Similarly, The Last Broadcast blends elements of footage allegedly retrieved from the fatal mission to the Pine Barrens by the cable-access show Fact or Fiction with video interviews from a range of characters, including child-psychologist Dale Orstall who wonders convincingly on camera whether his former patient Suerd may indeed be a mass murderer.
Most interesting, however, are the contributions of the prosecution's video editor (known as "The Killer Cutter"), who is accused of specifically editing footage to make Suerd look both dangerous and guilty, and data-retrieval expert Michelle Monarch who promises to use new technology to find the face of the real killer. This is actually the heart of Avalos and Weiler's film, a bluntly unabashed dissection of the changing role of the media which in the digital age are increasingly becoming the message itself. Indeed, as narrator David Leigh leads us through the various recorded elements of the case, we come to believe there is not one but several versions of the truth, even if that truth is pure fiction.
All this would be a neat enough trick were it not for the film's final act which breaks out of the pseudo-documentary format and jumps suddenly and ill-advisedly into the realms of misjudged drama, replete with widescreen masking, smooth camera moves and even the occasional crane shot. Having reached a 'twist' which would have been best left ambiguous or even unrevealed, The Last Broadcast falls apart in its creators' hands trying to tie up its loose, raggedy ends and becomes something it was clearly never destined to be. It's a shame, because despite its artistic shortcomings, the film up to this point retains an eerie charm, if not exactly an icy grip. As it is, you're left with the comforting knowledge that it was all just a story told by amateurish actors, all of which makes that closing credit even more redundant and, sadly, slightly less funny.
Credits
- Directors
- Stefan Avalos
- Lance Weiler
- Producers
- Stefan Avalos
- Lance Weiler
- Screenplay
- Stefan Avalos
- Lance Weiler
- Director of Photography
- Lance Weiler
- Editor
- Stefan Avalos
- Music
- A.D. Roso
- Stefan Avalos
- ©/Production Company
- FFM Productions
- Additional Pine Barrens Photography
- Jennifer Nasal
- Camera Operators
- Fact or Fiction Crew:
- Jeremy Coleman
- Todd Weiler
- Additional Camera
- Fact or Fiction Crew:
- John Carpitella
- 3D Modelling
- Mark Rublee
- Soundtrack
- "Stranger" by A.D. Roso, performed by A.D. Roso, Stefan Avalos; "Little Sadie"performed by James Seward; "Barren Eden"by/performed by Marionette Eight
- Techn Engineer/Liaison
- Fact or Fiction:
- Holly Madison
- Studio Sound Engineer
- Rein Clabbers
- ADR
- Recordist:
- Anthony Roso
- Cast
- David Beard
- David Leigh, the filmmaker
- James Seward
- James 'Jim' L. Suerd, the accused
- Stefan Avalos
- Steven Avkast, 'Fact or Fiction' host
- Lance Weiler
- Locus Wheeler, 'Fact or Fiction' host
- Rein Clabbers
- Rein Clackin, paranormal sound man
- Michele Pulaski
- Michelle Monarch, data retrieval expert
- Tom Brunt
- Tom Branski, technical director of 'Fact or Fiction'
- Mark Rublee
- Clair Deforest, editor for the prosecution
- A.D. Roso
- Anthony Rosi, lead investigator of murders
- Dale Worstall
- Dr Dale Orstall, Jim's child psychologis
- Vann K. Weiler
- Dr Vann K. Waller, forensic expert
- Sam Wells
- Sam Woods, TV soap director
- Jay MacDonald
- Jay McDowell, web designer
- Faith Weiler
- Joyce Dryer, Jim's landlady
- Marianne Connor
- Mary Brenner, TV reporter
- Robert Weiler
- Barry Williams, editor of The Baroake County Record
- Jennifer Nasal
- 911 operator
- Brett Nielsen
- man struck by lightning three times
- Holly Madison
- Miss Lady Bright Eyes
- Jeremy Coleman
- Ray, 'Fact or Fiction' cameraman
- Todd Weiler
- Ricky, 'Fact or Fiction' cameraman
- Chadd Ritenbaugh
- man with guitar
- Certificate
- Distributor
- Metrodome Distribution Ltd
- tbc feet
- tbc minutes
- In Colour