Raw: The Curse of Grete Müller (2013) (Germany)

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Three German women are working on a documentary about a convicted witch burnt at the stake and the curse that followed. This has the trio spending an overnight shoot in the woods where the legend comes from and filming everything. You don’t have to speak German to know where this is going. An internet video of a missing couple moments before something awful befell them in the location has been making its usual rounds, and the gals are looking to probe deep into the history and legends to uncover the truth and prove if the video was faked or actually captured the last seconds of the couple’s lives. The locals don’t need much convincing as every bit of unfortunate luck that hits the area is blamed on the spirits of Grete and her devilish son or the curse that was unleashed upon their tragic ends. The trio have a successful and uneventful first day of filming but when night hits, things begin to get a little creepy and the wailing of a baby is heard echoing through the woods. Animalistic howls soon follow and the heavy presence of something evil makes itself known. The next day, they’re down one crew member and ready to call it quits on their little expedition but we know it’s never that easy to leave a patch of woods haunted by the ghost of a 17th century executed witch and her monstrous son. There’s wandering in the woods, chit chat between the trio, B-roll, a well-realized impending sense of the inevitable doom awaiting our heroes, likable leads and an unexpected threat lurking in the dark. It’s got an atmosphere to it even though it doesn’t bring much new to the sub-genre but that may just be thanks to the beautiful and menacing German countryside location shooting. Also, it’s set up to play like a Blair Witch homage with an unseen menace but completely kicks that “your imagination is the scariest monster” bit to the curb once the horror begins. Sure it doesn’t always work, but I’ll never complain about actually getting a peek at the things that go bump in the night. There’s two sequels that I’ll eventually put effort into tracking down but I’m good for now. You could do a lot worse, especially when it comes to the sub-sub-subcategory of “found footage films found on Tubi”.