Hunting Matthew Nichols’ Review: A Missing Brother’s Cold Case Heats Up In Canadian Found-Footage Horror

Though it wasn’t completely new, as it was inspired by the fake documentary style of horror films, few movies have been copied more than *The Blair Witch Project* from 1999. That’s mainly because its idea was so simple. You didn’t need big effects, expensive sets, famous actors, or stunts. Almost anyone could make a cheap copy, and almost everyone did. This made the genre too crowded, with mostly average or even hard to watch films, and only a few that were really good.

Markian Tarasiuk’s first film as a director, *Hunting Matthew Nichols*, is better than most, but still not great.

 It does a good job of being self-aware, referencing *Blair Witch* and showing how the story is connected to two teenage filmmakers who were into that movie and disappeared in the forests of Vancouver Island. The film follows the sister of one of the missing boys as she tries to solve the mystery years later, with Tarasiuk and Ryan Alexander McDonald playing themselves as filmmakers helping her make a documentary.

The story has some creepy moments, but it takes a long time to get there.

 The movie doesn’t start in the woods until near the end, and the slow build is filled with characters yelling and being scared, which can get annoying. The film is well made but forgettable, and the most impressive part is how it was made and distributed, opening on over 1000 screens across North America.

The film uses old TV clips and direct addresses from Tara Nichols (played by Miranda MacDougall) to tell the story.

 Twenty-two years earlier, her brother Matthew and his friend Jordan disappeared on Halloween night in 2001. They were last seen walking into a dense forest near town. The police found their camcorder in a cabin but no bodies. They thought it was an accident, but some people spread false rumors, blaming Jordan’s family, who are Indigenous, without any real reason.

Tara, now an adult, has been haunted by this loss and returns to the island for the first time since her father’s death to find a better answer.

 She starts a documentary with Tarasiuk and McDonald, interviewing people like her mother, Jordan’s father, a cop, and a former mayor. They talk about old stories and rumors, but nothing new is uncovered. Tara starts to think the police are hiding something, and when she finds the original evidence box, she becomes obsessed. She ignores her friends and heads into the woods, which ends up being a bad move.

The movie starts off slow, holding off on showing the forest until the end of the first hour.

 Some scenes are made to look like old footage, and there are some nice shots by the cinematographer, but the whole mock documentary style feels less convincing. The acting and music are okay, but the pacing makes the film feel boring for a long time. Tara's breakdown is intense, but it’s more exhausting than emotional. The supporting characters aren’t well developed, and the script doesn’t give them enough depth.

The final scenes are exciting and creepy, but they don’t make up for the first 80 minutes.

 Even so, they aren’t enough to make anyone want to see a sequel.