The Fear Footage 2: Curse of the Tape (2020)-A Smart and Intense Sequel That Brings the Scares!-Fitz of Horror Review

Bryan Fitzgerald (Fitz of Horror) January 12, 2020

Synopsis: On April 19th, 2019, Deputy Leo Cole’s body camera footage from the night he disappeared was leaked. On that footage he watched a mysterious VHS tape labeled “The Fear Footage.” On September 22nd, 2019, a camera was found in Darkbluff, Maryland with footage of two missing men who were searching for that same VHS tape. This is their footage. 

The Fear Footage 2 begins with a clip from the previous film featuring Daniel who was hearing strange sounds coming from the woods behind his apatrment building and the scene cuts to a very surprised and confused Daniel who is viewing this footage but has no idea how he came to be in the film. He sets out find other people that were also in the film that had no idea they were in it so he can travel to Darkbluff Mayland, the scene of the origins of the tape, and get to the bottom of this twisted mystery.

After some convincing only one person agrees to make the journey so Daniel and a reluctant James hit the road to Darkbluff to solve the case of the missing deputy Leo Cole and the infamous Fear Footage tape. Once they arrive in Darkbluff, each clue seemingly leads to more questions and eventually plummets them further down the frightening rabbit hole and into the terrifying conclusion.

The original The Fear Footage was a found footage anthology horror movie and easily one of my favorite indie horror movies of all time. The Fear Footage 2 sticks with the found footage approach but scraps the anthology theme for a straight up horror mystery movie that is centered on the premise that the first film was real. I know a lot of people don’t care for the found footage sub genre but this film and it’s predeccesor work beautifully within this format.

The pacing, story, acting and editing are all on point in this earily effective film, putting you right in the thick of things with the increasingly fear weary main characters. There is no nudity and little to no gore to move this film along, just brilliant story telling and great camera work to keep the viewer completely involved from start to frightening finish.

Writer/director Ricky Umberger has an amazing talent of expertly building suspense and creating an atmosphere of terror with camera angles and crisp audio that reminds me of James Wan film styles like in The Conjuring or Insidious. The Fear Footage 2 is just as good as the original, if not a little better due to the director’s more polished approach and experience from the first film.

As with the first film (my review HERE), The Fear Footage 2 is horror in it’s purist form-Dark, unrelenting, and extremely clever with it’s scares. I don’t often jump during horror movies but both of these films had me feeling like a horror rookie and I loved it. 

I urge you to head over to thefearfootage.com and grab a copy of the original and stay tuned for the limited The Fear Footage 2 blu ray release coming March 13th, 2020.