We live in a world where everyone has a true crime podcast and indie horror movies are being made at record speed. Places where violent deaths once occurred are now open to becoming retreats for fans of the genre to visit and find little bits of the mysteries themselves. But the world of dark tourism isn’t all fun and games; Confessions in Static is a found footage story about a group of friends who despise those feeding off of others’ grief.
When a real-life house of horror is reopened as a tourist attraction, four friends decide to teach the inhabitants a lesson. But nothing is what it seems, and nobody is telling the truth in this darkly comic twist on the found footage movie.
Confessions in Static
Told through home video and police interrogation footage, Jason (Scott Dowd), Al (Matt Tanzosh), Lisa (Mackenzie Keyes), and Danny (Jimmy Donohue) reminisce about their time together in college — and how they were definitely not involved in the deaths of another group of YouTubers at Long Island’s infamous Dekker Murder House. Confessions in Static is exactly as the title implies: confessions on everything from their feelings on true crime and friendship to what really went down in the house.
Confessions in Static was a nice change of pace from normal found footage, interweaving the group’s videos with clips from the interrogation, making sure that the videos coincided and matched what part of the story we were at. Scare-wise, Confessions in Static was lacking. There are no jumpscares, no supernatural phenomena, no real frightening situations, and any violence was mostly away from the camera. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing — contrary to popular belief, horror doesn’t always have to show something scary on screen — I think this was just more of as holistic scare, something more akin to a general look at true crime. As a viewer, we’re kind of doing the same thing with found footage… are we not?
But what I really wanted to talk more about is the relationship between the friends. Confessions in Static sets up the group to feel like they hate each other. But I don’t think it’s actually hate, it may just be that Millennial “I’m in my 30s and the world is shit” mentality that they have all fell into. From unfulfilling jobs to possible depression and their overall want to be accepted, they can’t help but feign mutual love and respect while piling on the insults and saving their own asses once shit hits the fan. Pair this with their rose-colored glasses view of one now-incarcerated college professor and their extreme dislike for dark tourists, it’s clear they want to do more in the world — to be more, whatever that more is.
Confessions in Static was a lot of things. Its found footage nature was a solid story delivery method. The theming around true crime was fit for today. Each character, while not exactly likeable, had something the audience could attach to. And some of the jokes actually were funny. Plus, there’s an unexpected twist in the last few minutes. While it deviates somewhat from the normal found footage tropes, Confessions in Static was a refreshing take on the subgenre with end ending that packs a punch.
Confessions in Static is streaming now on Relay. A VHS edition is available from cult movie label Janice.click.
