Found footage horror has been around for quite a long time, most notably coming into the spotlight with The Blair Witch Project in 1999, but dating all the way back to 1980âs Cannibal Holocaust.
Itâs easy to feel that nothing new can possibly be under the sun in the genre, but somehow exciting and unique entries seem to keep being cranked out, mostly by indie, moderately budgeted creators.
Enter Mind Body Spirit, a fresh release from just a few days ago about an aspiring yoga influencer who inherits her estranged grandmotherâs home and finds an old ritual in a secret room and, in an effort to connect with her heritage, decides to document the 30-day ritual for her channel. You may be able to foresee that being a very bad idea.
I was pretty excited about this one for a few reasons. One, it seemed relatively unknown which for me specifically is exciting because I like covering things which arenât being covered by everyone else. Two, the idea of following a familial ritual in a horror movie isnât exactly NEW, but the setting of a yoga influencer IS fairly unique, which again is exciting. Three, it had 100% on Rotten Tomatoes when I watched it which is a site I think gets a ton of things wrong, but 100% is SUPER rare so I had to see what was going on there.
I spent the six bucks on Apple TV and let me tell you, it started out VERY promisingly⌠which isnât exactly a promising way to begin a review.
Yes, I wasnât deeply impressed, but WHY I wasnât impressed is really frustrating.
THE MOST important question found footage horror films have to answer is why the protagonist or protagonists keep filming. There has to be a reason and in Mind Body Spirit there IS a reason, and itâs really goodâAnya is an influencer documenting a ritual.
What DOESNâT make sense is the camera work. Anya is the only person in the house and she uses a tripod, easy low budget found footage stuff! So why the **** does the camera move to catch her every action in a cinematic way when she otherwise would have moved out of frame?
WHY when she's meditating and has her eyes closed does the camera spin in a circle to show creepy things happening in the various hallways to the sides and behind the tripod? Since when are the SPIRITS interested in cinematography and art direction?
So, Mind Body Spirit did a stellar job explaining why the camera is rolling, but then they just handed it to the ghosts and were like âyou got this, right?â The immersion-breaking aspects of this were a lot more powerful than I thought they could be. Found footage has always taken liberties in making sure the action is MOSTLY in-frame.
The camera is the thing with the light, they need the night vision, in a few cases the camera was the only thing they had resembling a weapon. They didnât even try in this film and it spoiled what could have been a truly unique experience.
Now, if you know me, I donât end on the negative. There are almost always good things even in disappointing films so here they are.
The acting is VERY compelling and one scene in particular between Anya and another actually made me go YIKES. While I donât agree with how it was shot, if you ignore the GLARING camera work problems⌠and one really weirdly janky bit of CGI⌠itâs a good story to watch.
The lead is the only person on screen for the overwhelming majority of the runtime and thatâs a heavy cross to bear, but Anyaâs actress Sarah J. Bartholomew carries it well.
After watching Mind Body Spirit I looked up her filmography and it looks like sheâs exclusively done horror films for at least a few years, none of which Iâve seen. It says something that even though I didnât like THIS movie Iâve added her others to my watchlist because I think she did a great job.
So, is Mind Body Spirit worth a six-dollar rental? I donât think so⌠but if youâre super into found footage, keep an eye out for it to go down in price or possibly come to another streaming service.
The only place its available to buy or rent is on Apple TV, but I canât find any indication itâs an Apple ORIGINAL, so it will possibly come to other platforms eventually.
Alex Sinclair Iâm here continuing a now months long dialogue on found footage horror lol.
Created at . Page last updated at .
