A group of friends travels to an isolated cabin in the woods for a weekend to shoot an experimental horror movie. The film begins to unravel slowly, and we see the true monster appear from the shadows.
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Anacoreta is a vastly different take on horror from what someone might expect. Viewers hoping for a traditional horror movie consisting of spooky ghosts or monsters might be disappointed as the paranormal doesn’t quite come into play until after the 30-minute mark, and plays a relatively small role in the movie compared to the actual antagonist: A very shitty boyfriend and the director Jeremy Schuetze.
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The movie calls into question what is ‘movie’ and what is ‘real’, not just by all the actors using their actual names, but going as far as the director being cast as well…The director, along with their camera and sound guy, apparently have their actual names listed as well, along with the writer Matt Visser.
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The movie is certainly appropriately critical of Jeremy Schuetze as a director, as he is written as the main antagonist, putting his friends through harrowing and frightening situations that he orchestrated in pursuit of complex shots for the experimental movie being shot. Antonia Thomas as the main protagonist, does a fantastic job and is incredibly sympathetic, along with co-star Jesse Stanley (All playing characters by the same first name).
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While I can understand why some viewers might have a dislike with the movie, I saw what they were going for, and to me it worked. It works as a locked-in-a-cabin-in-the-woods movie and works as a metaphor for a toxic and abusive relationship. But I will say I have a lot of love for found footage movies.
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What I particularly like about found footage movies isn’t so much trying to parse blurry monsters from a shaking camera; it’s exactly what this movie did: the implication that you’re watching a movie comprised of, as the name implies, footage that has been found. It’s Blair Witch Project done right and Marble Hornets without hours of watching. There is a good smattering of lore, but the main tension remains on point and appropriate.
It’s definitely a more artful approach to found footage and horror, but very impressive as an indie movie, and it doesn’t get more indie than Anacoreta. Anacoreta went live on streaming platforms on February 24th. The trailer and poster are below.
