Review: The Outwaters is a total mind trip -

Since its early days, found footage has been about making the viewer uncomfortable. Its scattershot approach and shaky cam give the audience a front row seat to the demented thrill ride of a lifetime. As with any genre, there are inevitable tropes that creep in and create a sense that all found footage films are the same. Well, let’s clear up that misconception before we even get started. Found footage films are not created equal, and there are as many good ones as there are bad. That’s just the way of things. With the release of The Outwaters, director Robbie Banfitch plants his flag in the genre and screams, “What are you waiting for, huh?!” Jennifer Love Hewitt would be proud. And I’ll tell you right now, throw out every expectation you have. The Outwaters flips the entire found footage genre right on its head.

The story follows a young woman and folk artist named Michelle (Michelle August) as she heads out into the Mojave Desert to film a music video for her latest song. She enlists filmmaker Robbie (Banfitch), his brother Scott (Scott Schamell), and makeup artist Ange (Angela Basolis) to capture the beauty of the song. The expansive landscape could not be a more perfect location. The quartet park their car and head out into the sweltering heat, venturing far across the desert to a ridge where they set up camp. When Robbie discovers a random ax lodged into the earth, he shrugs it off — and that was just his first mistake. During that first night, the group hears the sharp crack of what is presumably heat thunder; a deep-throated rumble practically tears the sky right in half. It rattles the group, but there seems to be a reasonable explanation, so they head back to bed.. That’s the beginning of their trouble. And they won’t even know what hit ’em next.

The following morning, Robbie sets about filming Michelle in various locations surrounding their camp. The sheer magnitude of the land feels limitless yet claustrophobic, as though it’s inching closer and closer. The group ventures back out onto the smoldering plateau of the desert, with he sun beating down upon their shoulders. After a successful shoot, they head back to camp fulfilled and replenished from the day’s creative endeavors.

The sun soon crests the horizon, and night quickly sets in. What transpires next is nothing short of mayhem — beginning as your typical hack ‘n slash found footage flick before devolving into something else entirely. The Outwaters yanks the rug out from under your feet, and as Robbie loses a grip on his sanity, the film makes you question what is real and what isn’t and how it really all started to begin with. It’s utter chaos and leaves you both chilled to the bone and hypnotized by its graphic imagery.

The Outwaters doesn’t play it safe. In fact, it goes big and bold with its conceit in such a way that makes it nothing short of a vital entry in the genre. His first feature film since 2007’s White Light, Robbie Banfitch masterfully balances found footage frights with our collective fear of the unknown. He leans into conventions and then throws them in the trash. What could be lurking in the wilderness has long been explored in countless films, such as other genre delights like Horror in the High Desert, but there’s something special about Banfitch’s work that feels fresh and new and exciting. It’s a truly horrifying experience that’ll leave your jaw gnarled and eaten on the ground, and that’s a guarantee.

The Outwaters hits theaters February 9 and will make its streaming debut on Screambox at a later date.