The Last Broadcast

Plot synopsis:
The film deals with a documentary film-maker named David Leigh, and his investigation of the Fact or Fiction murders, where a pair of public-access television cable TV hosts were murdered in mysterious circumstances. Leigh sets out to find the truth behind these killings while making his documentary.
Fact or Fiction is a show dealing with unsolved mysteries and the paranormal. Its two hosts are Steven "Johnny" Avkast and Locus Wheeler. Initially a success, we find out through Leigh's investigations that the show is failing and is threatened with imminent cancellation. It is at this point that Avkast comes up with the idea of a live Internet Relay Chat section of the show.
It is during one such chat that a caller gives Avkast the idea of searching for the Jersey Devil in the Pine Barrens (the film only mentions the Jersey Devil, however, and gives absolutely no background details of the legend). Leaping on this idea, Avkast and Wheeler recruit Rein Clackin, a sound-man who allegedly can record the paranormal, and Jim Suerd, a psychic; Leigh later claims that Suerd is emotionally disturbed. The plan is for the four of them to enter the Pine Barrens, where Suerd will lead them to the location of the Jersey Devil. During the hunt, they will broadcast a live show simultaneously via television, Internet, and amateur radio.
They enter the Barrens, but only Suerd emerges alive; the others are horribly murdered. Avkast's body is never found, though it is made clear during Suerd's murder trial that he could not have survived considering the amount of blood lost at the crime scene. Leigh then summarizes the trial. Suerd, the only survivor, is also the only suspect. To aid the prosecution case they employ a video engineer (nicknamed "The Killer Cutter") to compile a portrait of the group's trip using the surviving film footage found at the crime scene. Suerd is found guilty and imprisoned, though there is doubt over his guilt as his clothes were not drenched in blood and there is evidence he was engaged in an IRC room at the times of the murders.
Before anything can be proven, Suerd dies in prison of unknown causes, and the case is considered closed by the authorities. However, Leigh has a box sent to him containing a damaged videotape reel, which Leigh assumes is tape from the Fact or Fiction team thought not to exist. A data retrieval expert named Shelly Monarch is called in to reconstruct the images on the tape. She finds that not only have Wheeler and Clacklin's deaths been caught on tape, but that Suerd could not have committed the murders. What is also caught is a blurred image of the real killer. As Leigh videotapes her, Monarch uses an image editor to re-construct the image of the killer's face. She completes the reconstructing of the image before Leigh's next visit, but she is shocked to discover that the killer is Leigh himself.
The camera then 'shifts' to a third person perspective, whereas all previous footage had been shot by Leigh. From this perspective we observe Leigh attack Monarch and suffocating her to death with a piece of plastic sheeting. He loads Monarch's corpse into his car and drives it out to the woods, where he dumps it in a clearing and then begins awkwardly videotaping himself narrating the next segment of his documentary.

Tags: dark, murder, violence

Review:
Both films rest on a similar gimmick of claiming to be partially a composed "documentary" and partially a collection of videotaped images by a group of young adults who are about to get killed in the woods, and we're watching them as "evidence" of what happened to them.
There are finer-grained similarities as well, but I mainly bring it up to give you an idea of what The Last Broadcast is like if you haven't seen it but you've seen The Blair Witch Project.The first problem with The Last Broadcast is that it doesn't play like a documentary.
Again, it looks more like an amateur filmmaker who has never seen cable access programming imagining what it would be like based on a description only.Like The Blair Witch Project, another big problem with The Last Broadcast is that for some strange reason directors Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler decided to use purposefully bad camera-work for much of the material, especially any footage shot by the Fact or Fiction guys, and footage by the documentary host, David Beard.
It is another aspect that does not help sell the film as a documentary.Finally, the attempt at becoming more philosophical about media's influence on reality perception is very sophomoric, and the big "twist" at the end was fairly inexplicable to me.
The movie has some similarities to the Blair Witch Project, but doesn't even come close.
Years later a documentary maker receives video tape not included in the trial and sets out to find what really happened.I don't care which film was made first and I don't care if `last broadcast' and `Blair witch' are similar or not.
When I watched this alone, my reaction was: 'is that it?'  When I watched it a second time with my mates, after it ended, their reaction was: 'hey, where were the scary moments?'Forget this and go for the Blair Witch Project.
I had a wonderful time watching The Last Broadcast and wish more people would check out the movie that The Blair Witch Project ripped off.
"Star Wars" had "Battlestar Galactica"."The Abyss" had "Leviathan" and "Deep Star Six"."Babylon 5" had "Deep Space Nine.""Last Broadcast" has "Blair Witch."All the above were films or TV shows with original ideas that were used and/or usurped by other studios.
Some of the spin-off ripoffs were better, some were not."Blair Witch" fans defend their film, made and released nearly a full year after "Broadcast", by saying that their film is only identical on a surface level...teens travel into the woods to make a documentary and are killed.
"Blair Witch" is more frightening, more eerie, where "Broadcast" doesn't get really creepy until the end, where you realize where the story has taken you.
Eventually the product developed from that idea was an independent, documentary-style horror film with plenty of home-video shots of camp-sites, and people running around the woods at night.
It had a one week run at the International House in Philadelphia when it was first released, right before it went to Belgium and the Cannes Film Festival among other places.In terms of whether or not the makers of The Blair Witch Project stole their idea, it is known that those directors did see The Last Broadcast in Florida over a year ago.
Avalos and Weller, whom I had the chance to speak with when I saw the movie during its special run in Doylestown recently, said they have gotten many calls from lawyers encouraging them to sue but "are working on current projects and in general have better things to do." They were very down-to-earth, and even showed my friend and me  the projection room where the small digital projector, which resembled your typical CPU and contained the movie on its hard drive, stood next to the giant movie reels used to show regular films.The basic plot of The Last Broadcast involves four men (two of whom are Avalos and Weller), from a cable access television show called Fact or Fiction, going into the Pine Barrens of New Jersey hoping to catch a glimpse of the infamous Jersey Devil on camera.
Throughout the movie, the familiar Pine Barrens provide a grim backdrop.As opposed to the very simplistic Blair Witch Project, The Last Broadcast is a very complex jigsaw puzzle with finely drawn characters, an excellent and wholly believable mystery, and an equally shocking, if not more satisfying, conclusion.
Broadcast is also provocative in that it serves as a mind-opening commentary on the news media's manipulation of the facts (usually to create an agreed upon truth for the public to accept) as well as the ludicrousness of the tabloid media.Destined for cult status with its nine hundred dollar budget, The Last Broadcast is excellent, and certainly one of the most original and well structured films I've seen.
THE LAST BROADCAST is a fake documentary executed in a similar style to THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, a very famous movie that it is often compared to whether in a positive or negative context.The plot of the documentary is actually very interesting.
And as already mentioned, the narration is monotone.The only positive comment I can make about this excuse for a movie is the twist ending where there is actually a scene that is interesting to watch.
Unfortunately it is not worth sitting through the remaining 80+ minutes to reach.If you want to see a truly great fake documentary, I highly recommend GHOSTWATCH - an excellent piece of work that is carefully scripted, genuinely puts you on the edge of your seat, contains great scares and still makes you question what you've seen even when you know it's a phony.If you want to see a great horror movie done in the style of a camcorder home video, I highly recommend REC, a fast-paced thrill ride from beginning to end that is genuinely scary and tense.Finally, I advise everyone to avoid THE LAST BROADCAST like the plague!.
And it showed.Compare this video against truly creative independent works such as "Corn Dog Man" and you gain a quick perspective on the differences between new wave home-video and traditional independent film.On the positive side, I think the sound work for "The Last Broadcast" was excellent and most effective.
It gave me goosebumps for a few hours, and the only thing i regretted was that i didn't record it for repeated viewing.Luckily a few years later i got my hands on a copy of the DVD (because i saw it at a mates and he didn't like it, so he gave it to me for free) and i watched it a few times, over and over and the film is still as good as it was the first time i saw it.
(this is coming from friends that enjoyed 'The Grudge' and 'Chainsaw Massacre' remake and the rest of the crappy Hollywood horror movies made) One of the best horror / mystery films i've ever seen, i saw it in a local DVD store for less than £3 so its a better buy than most stuff thats 5 times dearer - 10 out of 10.
Just a bunch of random video clips and interviews.I must admit, Blair Witch Project is hell of a LOT better this P.O.S.Okay, so why does this movie suck?
I rented this movie after hearing all the comparisons with "Blair Witch Project." The idea was interesting, but that's about it.
Not only is it ineffective, it destroys everything the film has set up and leaves so many unanswered questions.My advice: skip this movie and watch "Blair Witch" instead..
Obviously, this sounds a lot like "The Blair Witch Project," but really the only thing the two films have in common is the basic premise: local legends and disappearances in the woods.
The makers of BWP may have taken the concept of this movie to create their effectively scary psychological horror film.
I had heard so much about this film, particularly when all the discussions about the Blair Witch Project came out, that when the opportunity came to watch it I seized the day and sat down.Two producers of a failing cable show Fact Or Fiction go on a hike into the woods with a soundman and a local boy to search for the famed Jersey Devil.
Shot on a budget usually reserved for lunch money, and using video as opposed to film, "Broadcast" seems more like a reality-based TV show than a movie, and that works to it's advantage.
While you're ignoring the lack of budget, the movie sneaks up on you with it's real story.Presented as a documentary, it's easy to forget that the film is actually a dramatic presentation - a "whodunnit" as told from the point of view of a documentary filmmaker with a "unique" perspective of the chilling murders of three public-access show crew members in the lonely Pine Barrens of New Jersey.Shot nearly entirely on video, with the exception of a short piece at the end shot on film, "Broadcast" is gritty and darkly entertaining.
Just watched it...a Blair Witch Project ripoff...How could anyone believe that modern video equipment would produce such poor quality...like shoving a guy and the video goes bananas...carrying a monitor around the woods, what a joke, these guys could not carry a monitor across the room...ATF investigating, not a chance in the real world.
People don't seem to understand this, and it is why THE LAST BROADCAST gets so much negative feedback.In order to understand the sheer genius of the movie, you need to watch it multiple times and catch the many, MANY clues about the events that occur at the ending.
As opposed to it's spin-off, Blair Witch, The Last Broadcast never lets down the image of being a real life documentary.
Also, rather than having the "documentary" look like a real movie put together after the fact, The Last Broadcast uses interviews, and directors commentary to give the real feeling of an actual occurrence.
'The Last Broadcast' has a few things in common with 'The Blair Witch Project' but the most important similarity is this: Both films had incredible potential and neither one paid off very well.
I think 'The Last Broadcast' has a WAY better, more original plot than the 'The Blair Witch Project', but it looks/feels more amateur than 'Blair'.
This movie did like feel like a found footage movie at all, it felt like was watching a real documentary.I did not like this movie at all, most of the time people were just talking about case after the murders, the person who got set down, did he it do or not.There are only number of scenes that were in the woods, which was really disappointing.I don't why but thought it be a lot more similar too The Blair Witch Project but it was far from it.
I think those who like twisted dark endings with a sense of explanation will like this better than The Blair Witch Project (ie...you won't be left feeling like "What the hell was that?????") You will actually get to see the Jersey Devil in action (cleverly done I might add).
To me "The Blair Witch" was kind of weak on horror but I DID find it really entertaining to watch 3 people lose it in the woods; especially seeing that incredibly annoying "Heather" finally bite it in the end.
Preceding the thematically and stylistically similar The Blair Witch Project by a year, the film proves even more tedious than its more famous (and highly over-rated) counterpart, with numerous dry interviews with people associated with the case, and lots of grainy, wobbly video footage, none of which I found the slightest bit scary.If The Last Broadcast had shed just a little bit of light on the legend of The Jersey Devil itself (a horrifying creature that is supposed to live in the Pine Barrens), then it might have been more interesting, but the monster is merely a McGuffin, rarely mentioned and certainly never seen.After lots of admittedly convincing interrogation and analysis, the film completely drops the ball by abandoning the documentary format for a more traditional approach in which the identity of the killer is finally revealed.
This abrupt change in style totally ruins the authenticity of the movie and smacks of a film-maker who couldn't think of any other way to wrap things up..
Although I liked the plot of this movie, I was really disappointed in the makers of it wanting the viewers to believe that all a 1995 high tech film lab uses to edit videos were a pair of scissors and some glue.
If the people at Haxan watched The Last Broadcast before making the Blair Witch flick, then they did it to see what NOT to do when making their film.In fact, these boys ought to get on their knees and thank Haxan for giving their stupid little film some out-of-festival legs.Not that the Blair Witch was a great movie, it annoyed me too with its stupid, whiney characters, but at least it spooked me a little with a sense of impending dread.
After reading some the of the reviews, I am definitely going to revisit this film, as I first saw this when it was released to VHS in 1999 (?)Obviously there are a lot of comparisons to this and Blair witch - due to the similarities to the supernatural, the hand-held footage, and being a mockumentary, but I would ask people who have yet to see this to remove the 2 completely.Unlike Blair witch, this comes across more as a documentary and has more eerie moments rather than a lot of shock and scare scenes of other similar horror/thrillers.
Like the Blair Witch Project, the Last Broadcast is marketed as a horror movie.
The difference between this film and The Blair Witch Project is simply, this one gives us the 'horror of what happened to the filmmakers' from a different perspective.
I only just saw the last broadcast.A friend suggested it to me knowing how much I like INDY suspense movies.I noticed that it came out before the blair witch project but had striking similarities to it.
I would imagine the last broadcast "inspired" the makers of blair witch.I was on the edge of my chair the whole time and the suffocation scene scared the hell out of me because it looked VERY realistic.I must say I kind of wished I would actually see a "jersey devil" but I suppose that would have been a very hard view to provide.I have seen many "fear" type shows about the devil and no one has ever actually showed it so why I was expecting it here I wouldn't know.I think the last broadcast is more realistic that the blair witch project and I have to admit if I had just run across this movie on some random channel, I would have truly believed I was watching a documentary.This movie is a "must see" for all INDY fans and suspense lovers everywhere..
I knew about this movie (precursor to the Blair Witch Project, etc.), but I didn't know what to expect from it.
In fact-if you watch the last stages closely or a few times you can quite clearly work-out what's happened & what's going to - which makes it all the more disturbing+horrific in my book.A Good film 7.5/8 out of 10 - much better than another one I can think of right now...
A lot of people have compared this movie to "The Blair Witch Project," but in many ways it is much better.
There isn't a single scary or exciting moment in the whole thing, and you are left thinking this: Imagine if 'The Curse of the Blair Witch', Sci-Fi Channel documentary that accompanied the first film, had been all BWP's producers made.
Well, we will come to that on a minute!Firstly the rumour that the makers of the BLAIR WITCH may have seen this at the Sundance festival, and then proceeded to make their version of a "mockumentary" style horror movie, is all too believable.
With all of the hype over the Blair Witch Project being 'the most original piece of film ever created' it's a wonder that so few people remembered the Last Broadcast.
If you want to see a good movie, rent the Blair Witch Project..
It was finished by the time "Last Broadcast" was out, which also looks like a very good film which I would love to see.
For those of you who can't see past THE BLAIR WITCH BLANKET, its  time to burn the mattress and see the film that started it all, THE LAST BROADCAST.
If you have a chance to show it to others without knowledge that this is a movie (not a documentary filmed in real time), I would HIGHLY recommend you do so.
unique film, worth a look..certainly not like Blair Witch.
yes, Blair Witch and Broadcast have the same overall theme(teens go into the woods)but if you look passed that you will know each film had a different approach to it.
However If you are looking for something like Blair Witch, i wouldn't automatically assume this is the film for you..
However, a quick internet search should result in many purchasing opportunities.Many people believe this film influenced "The Blair Witch Project." Whether or not this is true, "The Last Broadcast" is certainly the better of two movies.
At the start of this film the first thing we see is caption that says " None of the people seen are actors" and although this statement does make you think that The Last Broadcast is maybe a real documentary ,in the end you feel let down because this statement is a blatant lie only said for affect.
"The Last Broadcast" is superior to "The Blair Witch Project" in most ways--not the least of which is that its makers originated the "documentarians die in the woods while making a documentary about a legendary monster" concept a year before "BWP" existed.But there are some major differences.
Basically, put "The Blair Witch Project" and "The Last Broadcast" together, and you've got one rocking movie.