Your Daily Horror Digest for June 25, 2025
“We are all Bigfoot.” – Chase in Found Footage: The Making of the Patterson Project
I’m excited to share today’s review/recommendation, so I’ll keep this intro brief. But do stick around after the review for some trivia and news!
What I Watched Last Night
Last night’s movie was one that I only found out about recently, but I was immediately dying to see it. I watched Found Footage: The Making of the Patterson Project, and I loved it!
The movie is presented as a pseudo-documentary about a crew following the production of a small independent film. The movie being made within the pseudo-doc is titled The Patterson Project, and it is a found-footage movie that is basically The Blair Witch Project but with Bigfoot (so, kind of like Willow Creek, but I digress). Chase is the micro-budget auteur in charge of the production, and the documentary crew follows him around as the movie runs into problem after problem. Many issues stem from “normal” roadblocks associated with indie filmmaking, but as the shoot goes on, an unnatural force is perhaps causing problems as well.
Having been a part of no-budget film shoots, including one Blair-Witch-style found footage feature, I might be biased when it comes to how much I enjoyed every part of this movie. Seeing Chase and his crew struggle with nearly every stage of production only to find creative (i.e. absurd) solutions brought back fond memories. I reflexively pointed at the screen during one scene in Found Footage because that exact thing I was watching happened to me (it involves someone being caught on camera and ruining a take accidentally). So yes, I think I’m predisposed to enjoy this film.
For people who don’t have a personal connection to the subject matter, Found Footage is still a lot of fun. The writing is clever, and the comedy all lands. It might get a little too silly at times, but it never fully strays over the line into parody, except in the script of the movie within the movie. Of the cast, I have to commend Brennan Keel Cook as Chase, the stressed out director who begins with hopeful enthusiasm only to have his aspirations in danger of being slowly crushed. Also, Erika Vetter is fantastic as Natalie, the movie’s first assistant director and Chase’s girlfriend. There are many great lines in the movie, but Natalie’s awkward and nervous delivery (there’s a good reason why the character feels that way) made just about all of her lines hilariously memorable.
As for the horror, Found Footage is never scary, but it is effective as a horror-comedy. Since it’s a movie about making a movie, it’s natural that the story would utilize well-worn tropes as a way to generate comedy. It’s all handled well, and the buildup to the final scenes of chaos are effective. I particularly enjoy how the tropey nature of the movie being made bleeds into the “real” footage captured by the documentary crew. Found Footage is funny and smart. It’s a movie made for people who love found footage movies.
I highly recommend you check it out. Found Footage: The Making of the Patterson Project is currently available on TVOD platforms including Amazon Prime Video.
Events on This Day
With 28 Years Later in theaters now, it’s fitting that we celebrate Megan Burns’ birthday today, born in the year 1986. Her filmography is short, but Megan famously appeared in 28 Days Later as Hannah, the young girl who joins Jim and Selena along with her father Frank. I don’t have any other movies to recommend from Megan, but you should check out her music. She released an album in 2006 titled Hear Lies under the pseudonym Betty Curse. She currently works in the music industry as an artist manager.
Also born on June 25th is McKenna Grace, born in 2006. Her horror highlights include Annabelle Comes Home (2019) as the Warrens’ daughter Judy, The Haunting of Hill House (2018) as the younger version of Theo, and the newest Ghostbuster movies as Phoebe Spengler.
We’re also celebrating the birthdays of a couple of filmmakers who work behind the camera. Born on this day in 1961 is Timur Bekmambetov, director of Night Watch (2004) and Day Watch (2006), and producer of many horror films like Apollo 18 (2011) and the Unfriended movies. And born today in 1932 is George Sluizer, director of The Vanishing (1988).
The Thing, one of the greatest sci-fi horror movies of all time, was released in the United States on June 25th, 1982. It’s always been amazing to me that the movie was received so poorly during its original release. Another eminently influential horror film released on June 25th, in 1976, was The Omen.
In the News
There is a new adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand on the way, and Deadline reports that it will be directed by Doug Liman. A few of Liman’s best movies as a director are The Bourne Identity (2002), Go (1999), Swingers (1996), and Edge of Tomorrow (2014). His version of The Stand will be a film, as opposed to the two series previously produced in 1994 and 2020. There is no word about a release date.
A new psychological horror movie titled Don’t Look Inside has named its principal cast members. Deadline reports that Brice Davison, Missi Pyle, Britt Robertson, Rachel Nichols, and Nelson Lee will star in the movie that is described as being in the style of Talk to Me and Smile.
New/updated trailers were released for the following movies yesterday, all of which you can find on our New and Upcoming Horror Movies tracker.
- Bone Lake
- Strange Harvest
- Witchboard
- Et Tu
- The Strangers: Chapter 2
There were also a lot of new horror movies released on streaming yesterday. Thirteen of them. If you missed them, take a look at our announcement article. I need to keep watching more new horror if I’m ever going to catch up, so I gotta go.
