Table of Contents
What is Wilderness Tapes: Volume One About?
Wilderness Tapes: Volume One is a found footage movie that follows a man as he explores an old gold mine with a deadly history.
More than a decade ago, “Prospector” Pete Burke disappeared while making a YouTube video about an abandoned mine known as the “Warlock Mine.” After explaining the mine’s history including the occult practices of its former owner and a blasting accident that killed 75 miners, Pete enters the mine to see if he can find some gold for himself. However, the people who died in these dark tunnels do not rest quietly.
Wilderness Tapes: Volume One was written and directed by Brandon Walker. Thomas Burke plays Pete, Nathan Church is credited as Shadow, and Eliot plays the Host of the movie.
Wilderness Tapes: Volume One Review
Wilderness Tapes: Volume One is pretty much exactly what you’d expect, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s a straightforward found footage movie with a lot of footage of Pete talking to the camera, some ghostly happenings that increase towards the end, and a fittingly bleak finale. It’s a decently entertaining found footage movie for fans of the genre who enjoy the tropes found in these kinds of films.
The acting can feel somewhat stilted, but it’s also a movie about an amateur video-maker trying to be entertaining and charismatic while recording himself with a camcorder. It should feel stilted, at least up until the time when the fear of the situation takes over.
That said, Wilderness Tapes: Volume One isn’t particularly scary. But I’m not so sure that it’s supposed to be overly frightening. It feels more like a campfire ghost story, or an episode of The Twilight Zone. Like something that is supposed to intrigue you with some light spookiness, provide a simple story with a possible twist, and then end before it overstays its welcome. With a run time of about 51 minutes, I think the movie accomplishes those goals well.
One of the most fun aspects of the movie is that it sets itself up as the beginning of a series of movies that follow a similar format. Before the main story begins, we’re greeted by a nameless host who appears to be channeling Rod Serling as he introduces what we’re about to watch. The host tells us that recording devices are lost in the wilderness all the time, and they contain countless stories of fear and the unexplained. He’s been on a mission to collect these devices, and he plans to show us some of the footage he is now in possession of. Pete’s story is just one of many.
I hope there are more Wilderness Tapes movies in our future. This one is a quick and entertaining watch, and I’d love to see what they could do with an anthology series like this.
Rating & Recommendation
Star Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Wilderness Tapes: Volume One doesn’t break any new ground in the supernatural found-footage genre, but the setting is good, and the story is simple and entertaining. Some of the execution is a little underwhelming in important moments, but it’s a nice start for a potentially interesting series.
Wilderness Tapes: Volume One is currently streaming on Found.You can watch with ads on FoundTV.com right now, or you can go ad-free with a subscription.
