Found (2012) review

Director: Scott Schirmer
Starring: Gavin Brown, Ethan Philbeck Louie Lawless and Phyllis Munroe
Duration: 103 minutes

This film has been on my radar since day one, and not only due to the fact that since it’s been doing the festival rounds I’ve heard nothing but absolute praise for Found. For me, one of the most terrifying things in life are serial killers; they’re real and could be living next door to you, or even under the same roof. We don’t know how their warped minds work, and we’ll never comprehend it. This film provides a very realistic and daunting view at the homemade serial killer.

Before we start, quick “fun” fact: Apparently, you’ll interact with a murderer approximately 36 times in your life. Remember that when you’re swiping right on Tinder.

Marty is your average, nerdy adolescent boy who happens to also be obsessed with horror films, as many young boys are at his age. He’s picked on by some of the other boys at school for being weird, but for Marty nothing too out of the ordinary. That is until he finds a severed human head stashed in a bowling bag in his older brother, Steve’s, room. As his life transforms into a horror film, Marty desperately tries to keep a brotherly bond as not to disrupt his brother’s usual victims.

Finding a film that is genuinely frightening and keeps you awake for a few nights afterwards is becoming more and more of a challenge. There have been brutal films that look real, films about very real and chilling scenarios, but nothing that made me question the motives of my own family. Found pushed me to that dark place, where I remembered that not all families know each other inside out… In terms of secrets, not skin. Witnessing Marty’s fall into despair as he goes from thinking his psychotic, murdering brother is pretty fucking awesome to realising that everyone he knows could end up as no more than a bowling ball imitation, made me want to crawl under my duvet.

Found also features some intensely gory and disturbing scenes, particularly those that feature in Headless, the film within the film that inspires the mental Steve to commit such heinous crimes. We’ve got some blood showers, decapitations and even a little bit of romancing that decapitated head… Yeah, you get the jist. As we near the climax of Found, the carnage ramps up, and although this film doesn’t explicitly show every detail, sometimes the sounds are enough. Especially when he’s committing an unsavoury act on his own mother – if I were her, I’d have been more than happy to have my fucking head chopped off.

I have longed for a film where I spent over ten minutes analysing it in my mind and thinking about the perturbed nature of what I just saw. Imagine being an 11 year old child and finding out your idol, your protector, ferociously beheads people whilst you’re tucked up in the next room? Horrific. But then coming to know your own flesh and blood has ingrained thoughts of slaughtering your Mum, Dad and yes, even you. To me, that single thought it more petrifying than any mentalist chopping women up for snuff films. The ending of this film is the epitome of horror for me; one of the most gut and heart-wrenching scenes to end upon.

Honestly, this film has secured its place in my top ten movies of ever. I absolutely lavished every single second of the ensuing uncomfortable, dark and haunting atmosphere that flowed throughout. I also really enjoyed seeing Ethan Philbeck drenched in blood, with a shit-hot impressive erection! Something about this film just grabbed me and asphyxiated me with panic and terror. Also, Headless has just been made into a real film so I bagged myself a signed copy. If you’re a horror hound, you’ll equally find this film entertaining yet horrible.

Verdict: 5 out of 5