Every found footage fan knows the genre shifted on its axis with 1999’s The Blair Witch Project. Borrowing foundational elements from The McPherson Tape (UFO Abduction) and Cannibal Holocaust, it set horror on a course for reinvention, unlike anything we’d ever seen. The marketing campaign surrounding the release made the indie film feel so hauntingly real and positioned the events as an actual disappearance. The actors vanished from public life during the film’s viral marketing cycle (they couldn’t even attend any red-carpet events) and largely convinced the public that the film was authentic, newly-discovered footage.
Decades later, the found footage genre is filled to the brim with entries of varying quality. Many have attempted to recapture the glory of The Blair Witch Project, but none feel as apt a spiritual successor as a title from last year. 2024’s #MissingCouple mines similar territory, both in the story and with its promotional materials, and offers a modern re-imagining of the classic found footage tale. Directors Oliver Mauldin and Jacques Edeline understood the assignment of reapplying a new coat of shiny paint to well-oiled genre conventions. Secluded location? Check. Limited cast? Double check. Evil presence in the woods? Triple check. Mauldin and Edeline honor genre tradition, update a few key aspects (such as using TikTok videos as cryptic breadcrumbs) and take marketing cues from its most obvious inspiration. If you like The Blair Witch Project, #MissingCouple lives up to its mysterious online campaign and will delight any found footage fan.
#MissingCouple tells the story of an influencer couple who leave behind the bright city lights for a secluded, quieter life in the country. Austin and Janna Jenkins (their real names) have rented out a cabin on the outskirts of a small town and plan on documenting their lives for their legion of loyal fans. An influencer’s work is never done, after all. But as they settle into their new home, someone (or something) lurks in the woods around them. Co-directors Mauldin and Edeline pack the film with thrills and chills, evoking a sense of suffocating doom as the figure draws closer to their front step. The fear sprouts from an excellent use of light and shadow, allowing the unknown presence to stay mostly hidden and only pop out into the light when you least expect it. Any distinguishing characteristics remain blurry, though, so the audience is only able to make out a vague outline.
On the surface, it sounds like your typical set-up for a found footage film, but the circumstances surrounding #MissingCouple boost its spooky approach even more. The “discovered” footage is made that much more frightening when presented as fact in the real world, in much the same way as The Blair Witch Project. As actual influencers, Austin and Janna even dedicated several videos on their TikTok page to their “renovation” project. Under a video captioned “Join the search,” many users began expressing their confusion and fear that the footage was real. “What are the odds I’m watching the documentary right now,” wrote one follower. “Have they ever been found?” asked another, with a third chiming in, “Why does this feel like advertising for a movie. I pray that’s all this is!”
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The forest can make anyone… snap.
A separate TikTok video featured plenty more viewers sharing their thoughts. “Why do I feel like I’m being Blair Witched,” wrote one viewer. Despite Austin and Janna uploading many more videos, including ones featuring their newborn, countless viewers haven’t been shy about sharing how they were hoodwinked into still falling for the gimmick. “I’m here from the movie I thought it was real,” confessed one viewer beneath a running video.
‘#MissingCouple’ Relies on Our Culture’s True Crime Obsession
A second TikTok account (called Found Persons Report) fanned the flames by asking for any leads on the couple’s whereabouts. In using social apps like TikTok, Austin and Janna created a hyper-realistic world in which they disappeared out in the woods. With true-crime documentaries and biopics being so popular – from Making a Murderer to Ryan Murphy‘s Monsters series – Austin and Janna rely on our collective obsession to trick you into believing the story is the cold, hard truth. During one of the film’s most unsettling scenes, the supposed killer breaks into their cabin and tip-toes through the rooms, even picking up a camera to film the couple asleep in bed. If the killer could so easily break in, what’s to say he couldn’t just slaughter them in their sleep? That would be too easy; it’s clear the killer likes to toy with its prey before the kill.
Most found footage films don’t go to such lengths to make the events of the film seem real. Many entries, such as The Den, Willow Creek, and The Tunnel function as pure entertainment and lack the real-life social component to further deceive audiences. In making the film interactive, the filmmakers encourage the general public to submit story tips and advice, as though they are vigilante investigators trying to solve a real-life crime.
Much like The Blair Witch Project before it, #MissingCouple hooks into the story with implications that the people involved desperately need to be found. Oliver Mauldin and Jacques Edeline built a series of intricate events and paired them with harrowing footage to create a story that feels eerily familiar. It’s a headline ripped from the internet, and that’s what makes it most shocking of all. With the gripping online presence and search for Austin and Janna Jenkins, the indie gem makes for the perfect companion piece to The Blair Witch Project.
#MissingCouple
- Release Date
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October 8, 2024
- Runtime
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93 Minutes
- Director
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Jacques Edeline, Oliver Mauldin
- Writers
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Jacques Edeline
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