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Found
USA 2012
produced by Leya Taylor, Damien Wesner, Scott Schirmer (executive), Shane Beasley (associate), Arthur Cullipher (associate) for Cooper Coil Productions, Xander Knight Entertainment, Clockwerk Pictures, Chameleon Arts Entertainment
directed by Scott Schirmer
starring Gavin Brown, Ethan Philbeck, Phyllis Munro, Louie Lawless, Alex Kogin, Andy Alphonse, Kitsie Duncan, Kate Braun, Edward Jackson, Adrian Cox-Thurmond, Brigid Macauly, Shane Beasley, Dane Irwin, Christopher Hunt, Austin Rawlins, Russell McGee, Todd Rigney, Nathan Erdel, Izabella Brown-Sparks, David DeMoss, Brandon Howell, Traci Ford Howell, Amy Stout
screenplay by Todd Rigney, Scott Schirmer, based on the novel by Todd Rigney, music by Magician Johnson, Greg Wright, Aaron Marshall, Bing Satellites, special effects by Arthur Cullipher/Clockwerk Creature Company, illustrations by Shane Beasley
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Marty (Gavin Brown) is a nerdish circa 12 year-old who loves nothing
more than watching horror movies and making up/designing a graphic novel
with his best friend Dave (Alex Kogin) ... so of course he's bullied at
school, to a point that even Dave turns away from him. Then Marty finds
a severed head in his big brother Steve's (Ethan Philbeck) closet, later
another one, then another one. Marty is deeply disturbed, that's for sure,
but he doesn't squeal on his brother, he even romantisizes him, actually,
as if he was one of these supernatural killers out of the slasher movies
he loves to watch ... as a matter of fact, Marty is too young to see that
all of Steve's victims are the results of racist hate crimes he has
committed to compensate for the bullying he himself had to endure. But as
dangerous as Steve may be, he looks after his young brother, and when
Marty is bullied - and by a black kid (Edward Jackson) too -, the bully's
head ends up in the closet before long. Of course, Steve finds out that
Marty has found out about his "hobby" eventually ... but even
though he now poses a threat to him, Steve could never hurt his young
brother, everyone but him. Eventually, Marty takes idolizing his brother
too far when he fights back against a boy (Adrian Cox-Thurmond) only
verbally, and he actually almost kills him. Marty is severely punished by
his parents (Phyllis Munro, Louie Lawless), who are too blind to see the
real roots of all evil, for it ... and now Steve's hatred gets really
unhinged, and the terror hits home ... At first, this
coming-of-age story looks like your typical bitter-sweet genre fodder, but
it quickly takes a turn for the worse (and I mean that in a good way):
Basically, Found is a film that gets more disturbing by the minute,
and while in the beginning you still think you can figure out what's going
on, you'll probably never guess the downward spiral you've gotten yourself
onto. It probably totally helps that the director really knows his horror
(including trash horror, as evidenced in the [fake] movies Marty watches)
but also knows restraint, and that he's versatile enough to never fall
into the trap of glamourizing the innocence of youth and the like, instead
he's trying to tell a real story. In all, pretty disturbing - but in a
good way!
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