The Upper Footage (2013) follows socialites Blake Pennington, Will Erixon, Taylor Green and Devon Petrovsky on a quest to embrace everything the New York night life has to offer. Nothing is off limits to the quartet- and after scoring a generous amount of cocaine and picking up a woman known only as “Jackie”- they retreat back to Blake’s apartment, where the real party gets underway. The stage is quickly set for the audience to genuinely dislike the majority of the characters, as the dark nature of both Blake Pennington and Devon Petrovsky take over from the get-go, and the viewer is overcome with a sense of dread and uneasiness.
Back at the apartment we witness the group snorting copious amounts of drugs, and the more they consume, the more everything seems to spiral out of control. The sights are set on Jackie (whose face is pixilated throughout the feature to “protect the identity of the victim”), and she is reluctantly convinced to expose herself to the camera. The accompanying scene was omitted from the picture under the pretenses of respecting Jackie’s family, but the viewer is led to believe that either consensual or nonconsensual sexual acts began to transpire between Jackie and two of the three men.
After the footage picks back up, we see a very different scene beginning to unfold. Jackie is hunched over the toilet, vomiting and convulsing as a result of a cocaine overdose. This is laughed off at first, but as the group discovers she is no longer moving, panic sets in, and Blake, Will, Taylor, and Devon are left deciding what to do next.
Back at the apartment we witness the group snorting copious amounts of drugs, and the more they consume, the more everything seems to spiral out of control. The sights are set on Jackie (whose face is pixilated throughout the feature to “protect the identity of the victim”), and she is reluctantly convinced to expose herself to the camera. The accompanying scene was omitted from the picture under the pretenses of respecting Jackie’s family, but the viewer is led to believe that either consensual or nonconsensual sexual acts began to transpire between Jackie and two of the three men.
After the footage picks back up, we see a very different scene beginning to unfold. Jackie is hunched over the toilet, vomiting and convulsing as a result of a cocaine overdose. This is laughed off at first, but as the group discovers she is no longer moving, panic sets in, and Blake, Will, Taylor, and Devon are left deciding what to do next.
The Upper Footage is perfection in the found footage genre. The lines between fact and fiction are not only blurred, they are discarded entirely, as the audience is led to believe that what is transpiring on screen is truly “found footage”. Okay, so maybe this isn’t an original sentiment, but it is the first time it has truly worked since The Blair Witch Project. By using an array of real world news segments (such as Entertainment Tonight) to introduce the story, the believability is a thousand times more than what we have seen theatrically in over a decade. Throw in the mix a smorgasbord of celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato and Quentin Tarantino, and what we end up with is a unique story that is so perfectly constructed that it is impossible to determine the contrived from reality -until the movie is over and you do a quick google search, that is.
What pushed this movie over the top for me was the amazing acting. Many times throughout the picture the camera will be focused (or out of focus, rather) on something totally arbitrary, such as a blank wall, a glass coffee table, or in the stand out and pivotal scene of the entire film, a dead woman’s head. Hair, specifically. What we are left with is audio only---and it is truly unsettling. As the panic rises, the actors sell the shock of what they are experiencing with ease. This isn’t a word I throw around loosely, especially in the horror world, but the characters reactions to the turn of events is truly bloodcurdling.
The integrity of this film is left completely intact. The dialogue is believable, and Justin Cole spares no punches to the face of political correctness. Racial slurs and derogatory terms towards homosexuals, women, and the mentally impaired are abundant, and though I am not saying I agree with this, it was crucial for the effect of The Upper Footage. If anything, it made that feeling of dread and uneasiness we talked about earlier increase the more we got to know the characters.
In conclusion, The Upper Footage is the film that everyone who is tired of the found footage genre should needs to see. While not horror in the traditional sense, what we experience while watching the picture is truly horrifying. We feel like we are part of the party, the fun, the nightlife, and ultimate tragedy that befalls this group of friends. It’s been years since I have seen a movie like this actually work, and the fact that I had to google the character names in the story to confirm or deny their authenticity is a testament to what Justin Cole has achieved.
What pushed this movie over the top for me was the amazing acting. Many times throughout the picture the camera will be focused (or out of focus, rather) on something totally arbitrary, such as a blank wall, a glass coffee table, or in the stand out and pivotal scene of the entire film, a dead woman’s head. Hair, specifically. What we are left with is audio only---and it is truly unsettling. As the panic rises, the actors sell the shock of what they are experiencing with ease. This isn’t a word I throw around loosely, especially in the horror world, but the characters reactions to the turn of events is truly bloodcurdling.
The integrity of this film is left completely intact. The dialogue is believable, and Justin Cole spares no punches to the face of political correctness. Racial slurs and derogatory terms towards homosexuals, women, and the mentally impaired are abundant, and though I am not saying I agree with this, it was crucial for the effect of The Upper Footage. If anything, it made that feeling of dread and uneasiness we talked about earlier increase the more we got to know the characters.
In conclusion, The Upper Footage is the film that everyone who is tired of the found footage genre should needs to see. While not horror in the traditional sense, what we experience while watching the picture is truly horrifying. We feel like we are part of the party, the fun, the nightlife, and ultimate tragedy that befalls this group of friends. It’s been years since I have seen a movie like this actually work, and the fact that I had to google the character names in the story to confirm or deny their authenticity is a testament to what Justin Cole has achieved.
UPPER FOOTAGE IS AVAILABLE NOW IN SELECT THEATERS AND STREAMING ON VOD!
L.A. Gore has been writing professionally for many years, with his articles appearing in numerous publications including Bibliotheca Alexandria, Waters of Life, Pangaia, Witches and Pagans, Playgrounds and The Circle. He has spent most of his life studying ancient and modern religion, and most of his work thus far represents his findings. He is a self-proclaimed horror movie fanatic, with over four hundred in his personal collection. A few of his personal favorites are Hellraiser, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Phantasm, Suspiria, Return of the Living Dead and Dead Alive. |