Film Review: The Outwaters (2023)
The Outwaters is one of those rare films that grabbed me at the preview. While a certain big-name horror production company might be content to give away every decent scare and 90% of a film’s plot in their typical trailer, debut director Robbie Banfitch makes the smart decision to give us only vibes, a few landscape shots, some character clue-ins, and the promise of that wherever this movie goes, it will venture into some very dark territory along the way:
Can You Hear Me?
Fulfilling the promise of the trailer, The Outwaters opens with tragedy as a 9-1-1 call is played over the pictures of four missing thirty-somethings. It’s a familiar found footage setup, but what follows for the fifty-odd minutes of the film before the blood really starts to spill is anything but. Four millennials sojourn into the Mojave for several days to shoot a music video, but a series of strange encounters leads them on a bloody and bewildering journey from which they seemingly do not return.
The story is delivered through three “recovered” memory cards, each of which strikes a different note and details a particular thematic stretch of the film. Like actual recordings, these stories will be patchwork, built from moments intentionally and unexpectedly captured by the film crew, and viewers will ultimately come away with their own imperfect narrative of what exactly transpired.
Not Like Coachella
I’ve watched hundreds of found footage movies, and the setup engineered in The Outwaters is among the most memorable and unique because it’s shot with something that is increasingly ignored in the wider genre: patience. Banfitch isn’t rushing to hook you on something, letting his characters breathe and showcase their ambitions, worries, and concerns. He shoots them as though they are real people.
Wasn’t that the whole point of found footage once upon a time? Somewhere along the way a formula emerged, and, in the absence of no drive to be anything but scary, it became far too infrequent that a found footage filmmaker tried to sell us on their characters. So many horror movies are busy setting up the actors to be cut down, but The Outwaters initially treats its cast like they’re going to live forever. As an audience member, the brilliant, slowburn build that we are left to absorb may just pull off the trick of making us more scared when we see what happens in the latter half of the film.
Another point that I want to highlight is that we see a realistic depiction of working-world millennials. Their LA apartments still look much like college dorms, with their few belongings almost exclusively geared toward their professional ambitions. Laptop dance parties and drinks in the dark are the solace of many people grinding away at the base of the film industry, and this film actually shows it! These early scenes capture the distinctive Southern California sheen, but these people aren’t influencers; they’re portrayed as real world people grinding away at jobs and dreams.
It’s some wonderfully mindful filmmaking, and in the absence of big budget expenditures or a formulaic script, Banfitch manages to squeeze every last bit of intentionality out of the scene-setting side of his film. What follows is equally well-crafted, but far stranger to experience.
I’m Robbie
Once in the desert, the strangeness begins. The group finds a rusted ax embedded in a hilltop. Flashing lights fall from the night sky. Deep, yawning drones rumble up from the ground. Electric anomalies occur, and inexplicable noises echo through the darkness. The limited visuals and rolling soundscape carry a lot of water here, and the film is less watched as experienced.
When the terror emerges from the darkness to consume our now-beloved cast, it comes with many faces, unleashing a series of hellish visions that carry on through several iterations of a nightmare, piecing together small narratives of terror before ripping them to pieces and beginning anew. Lines and elements from the slowburn side of the film are recontextualized, born anew, and given new purpose in the lightless desert night.
The comparison I kept coming back to in the latter half of the film was the Dyatlov Pass incident, in which a group of hikers mysteriously died in the Ural Mountains in 1959. A multitude of theories have been put forth as to what killed them and why their remains were found in such inexplicable states, and the mystery continues to capture imaginations today. While I think viewers of The Outwaters who insist on formulating a clear story will find enough in the film’s runtime to support a similar range of explanations, the best way to digest this film may simply be to accept and appreciate the affecting nature of what it chooses to show the viewer.
More than celebrating The Outwaters itself, I can’t wait to see what Banfitch does in the future. He articulated an incredibly clear and impactful vision in this film, and the care he put into crafting the build to strangeness really stands out when compared to other modern found footage films (even good ones). Here’s hoping his next project meets even greater success, and resonates with audience members to an even greater degree.
Verdict: 8/10
Strengths:
Makes the most of its cinematographic elements and sound design
Fearless directing; Banfitch has a vision and he succeeds in showing it
Great setup and construction before a visceral, affecting second half
Weaknesses
Not everyone loves an acid trip; absence of a readily-digestible narrative will turn off some viewers (but who cares!)
The Outwaters is in theaters on February 9th and will be available on Screambox at a future date.
You may also like: David Lynch’s films, Skinamarink
