#stefanavalos

Back in the late 1990s, when I was truly discovering how deep my love of film ran, a groundbreaking movie dropped : The Blair Witch Project.  Not only did this movie embrace the impending shift that reality television was leading the rest of the industry towards, it also opened many people up to the power and mystery of the internet.  Like many others, I found myself diving headlong into the internet to investigate the validity and truth of what was presented in the film.  It was not until many years later that I discovered a relatively unknown gem that covered much of the same ground as The Blair Witch Project, but a couple of years prior to its production.  This film is the modern day underground cult classic that is The Last Broadcast. 

Documentarian David Leigh (David Beard) is tasked with examining the case of the Fact or Fiction crews’ mysterious disappearance during their search for the Jersey Devil in the Pine Barrens region of New Jersey.  The crew, hosts Steven Avkast (Stefan Avalos) and Locus Wheeler (Lance Weller), are local celebrities due to the freak popularity of their paranormal access television show, but after a year and declining popularity, a last ditch attempt is made to regain their high ground in the form of a live television/internet stream simulcast from deep in the Pine Barrens.  Soundman Rein Clabbers (Rein Clackin) and psychic Jim Suerd (James Seward) are hired to assist, but as Jim leads the group deeper into the woods, tension rise between them.  Jim eventually emerges from the woods and calls 911, reporting that Steven, Locus and Rein never reported back to camp and have gone missing.  Police discover the bodies of Locus and Rein, and although a large portion of Steven’s blood is found, his body is never recovered.  As David presents information on the events and the subsequent case (and mysterious in-prison death) of Jim, he is presented with a box full of damaged video tape.  He hires data retrieval expert Shelly Monarch (Michele Pulaski) to recover the images from the film, leading to shocking revelations about what happened the Fact or Fiction crew disappeared.

The similarities to The Blair Witch Project are hard to ignore, which makes it interesting that this film was forgotten while Blair Witch broke box office records.  Found footage films weren’t necessarily a new genre, though they were in their popularity infancy at the time, so the presentation of the information as a true story is an instant point of comparison between the two.  Both productions did visit and feature real locations : Burkittsville, Maryland and the Pine Barrens of New Jersy, respectively.  Actual footage from the supposed true events serves as the fuel for viewer tension in both films.

Those commonalities end there, however, and it is in the differences that The Last Broadcast truly shines.  The usage of a real local legend (the Jersey Devil) immediately brings an obscure sense of validity to the claim that the events of the film are true, with decades of tales about the Jersey Devil circulating popular lore.  This film also takes a much more direct approach in the way it presents the power of the internet, with IRC chat playing a key factor in the advancement of the story.  This stands in stark contrast to the subversive promotional campaign from the Blair Witch camp, with the creation and falsification of the Blair Witch legend pre-planted on the internet to throw the curious off in their search for truth.  With trials like the O.J. Simpson murder case fresh on the minds of everyone, the inclusion of a media circus and troubled trial ring extremely true.  The personality profiles of Jim Suerd and others involved feels like a precursor to the public fascination with true crime that has rapidly grown in popularity.  The film even subverts our expectations in its presentation of the events as true by giving us a beautiful narrative swerve that lands like a punch out of nowhere the first time its experienced.  The film also serves as one of the first, if not the first, commercially released films shot and edited entirely on consumer-level equipment.

David Beard gives an incredible dual-level performance as narrator, coming off as impartial and observational initially, with sinister levels revealing themselves with repeat viewings.  Stefan Avalos nails the uptight creative with delusions of grandeur, while his foil Lance Weller has such a laid-back, unbothered attitude that he would have appealed to the fans of counter-culture, stoner entertainment immediately.  James Seward embraces his role as the misunderstood loner and social misfit, leaning heavily into hobbies that are now considered trope-level red flags for disturbed individuals.  Michele Pulaski displays an unchecked, uninfluenced search for the truth that mirrors the viewer experience, which makes her final moments hit incredibly hard as they unfold.  Other standout appearances and performances include Rein Clabbers, Dale Worstall, A.D. Roso, Tom Burnt, Mark Rublee and Sam Wells.