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Upon completion of his 2022 film, CHEST, Aaron Irons jumped into his next project concerning the actual Appalachian legends that inspired his found footage flick. He receives a cryptic email with coordinates leading him to a legendary cave deep in the Jeffrey’s Hell area of the Citico Wilderness in Tennessee. Aaron goes missing and a year on, a documentary crew is diving into the story of the missing man after coming across his case on some true crime message boards. Featuring interviews with friends and coworkers and Aaron’s personal footage, the team begin to uncover a deeper mystery as things get downright sinister the more the story spirals out of the realm of reason. A very interesting “sequel” to the unremarkable CHEST presents a narrative that diminishes any of the “reality” behind the prior outing but uses that to make for a familiar but still refreshing followup. At least the first half, that is. The solid establishment of a true crime interest piece shifts when the crew is sent Aaron’s caving footage (discovered in Switzerland and scrubbed from all non Darkweb sources by the FBI) and they present it in all its unexpected oddness. Aaron’s initial calm demeanor works because you get the sense that he may not be all that upset about not having to deal with his mundane life anymore and it’s a more complicated portrayal than I was expecting from a found footage flick. Of course, it kind of falls apart at the end thanks to denouement that doesn’t exactly work care of some exposition-dropping dialogue that is completely unnecessary and awkward as hell… but how great and naturally alien is the cave setting?
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