Demon of the Flats (2012) (USA)

⭐️⭐️

A monotone teenager unnecessarily reads the text stretched across the screen. It just sums up what we’ll be watching and it’s the standard issue found footage claims. The footage is not doctored, the footage was found in the damaged equipment owned by three teenagers, these teenagers are missing… you know the score. The trio of dopes set off into the American Flats of Good Hill, NV after a video of a strange encounter in the area is posted online. Intrigued and likely bored, they head out there to make a documentary about whatever the hell it is stalking The Flats. Our cameraman suspiciously sounds exactly like the unemotional narrator. So, three teens ramble around, ad-libbing and freezing their asses off in the scenic and dirty nothing of a Nevada winter. Unlike most discovered footage, this one has music stings. An abandoned mill and a whole lotta litter add to the visual aesthetic of urban decay and cold blandness. Eventually they wander into the underground tunnels and they hear some strange things. On they wander and make small talk that nobody sane would use for a documentary. Something big shows up on camera but our heroes/idiots are not deterred from their… I guess we can call it an investigation. I assume whatever pills are keeping them nice and calm after encountering some real weirdness is helping them manage any nerves that would be sending them running for the distant hills… could be the cold weather. Night falls and something indiscernible makes its move. Not like in the Lovecraftian “human mind cannot comprehend” but in the “sure is hard to make out anything in complete blackness with some janky night vision as my guide”. In a nice twist, the trio make it out and discuss shit in a messy bedroom. Defying logic (damn teenagers) they head back to the area the next day, sealing their fate. Three kids choose the cheapest option to make a horror film and I’ll always admire that. Hell, a few days after seeing Blair Witch Project in theaters me and a couple buddies journeyed out into the woods to try our hand at the same fucking thing. The only difference is we decided to not burden anyone with our pointless vision of shaky-cam terror. But ours was honestly much worse than this and didn’t have an atmospheric setting to utilize… unless you count a tiny garage. So, this is exactly what you’d expect from three teens making a found footage spooker in the middle of nowhere with no real budget but some slight talent.