Synopsis (from IMDb): A documentary about conspiracy theories takes a horrific turn after the filmmakers uncover an ancient and dangerous secret society.
My Quick Review: Finally a found footage movie that makes a smart use of its format.
Too often using handheld cameras and shooting everything like a retarded kid who has a seizure is enough to get a movie green lighted with a “based on a real story” stamp of approval.
The Conspiracy starts out as a documentary and what we see on the screen is actual footage of the documentary (interviews, news broadcasts, hidden camera footage…). At no point in the movie have I been asking myself why they were using a camera or shooting anything with it.
For me the found footage style works the best when its use is actually justified: security cameras, documentary/tv crew or through a smart use of the medium (like some of the stories in V/H/S 2). This is what makes The Conspiracy efficient: it just looks real enough.
I did enjoy the documentary part of the movie, based on the conspiracy theorists and how some people in governments around the world are controlling every major world’s events. 9/11 surely has given us much to discuss and to be paranoid about. Recent news events have also reminded us that Big Brother is definitively among us, now more than ever.
In that aspect, the first hour of The Conspiracy could work well as a standalone documentary, one I’d love to watch. And when our 2 filmmakers infiltrate a secret society wearing hidden micro-cams, things start to turn creepy fast.
The conspiracy is not the scariest or the most impressive Found footage movie out there, but it’s most certainly one of the better one. It’s well made, well acted and has a strong plot that should give you some hope for the found footage genre.
My Rating: 6/10
Director: Christopher MacBride
Origin: Canada
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