It’s The Blair Witch Project meets Wrong Turn as Anthony Leroy writes, directs, and stars in a found footage horror that builds innocuously until it erupts with a plentiful detonation of violence and gore, which you don’t really see coming. This is BUM.
Leroy plays Girth Brooks, a man who is out to hit the big time as he teams up with hot-shot, reporter-on-the-rise Valerie Charles (Leigha Stiles) and his impromptu crew, comprised of a sound person, Bev (Reens), and a camera operator named Guy (Josh Murphy).
After failing to track down a vagrant who likes to leave fecal and urinal calling cards at random locations, Brooks leads the ragtag crew to a location known to him through urban legend. The story tells of a bunch of deformed hobos and bridge-dwellers banded together in an abandoned structure where they have carved out a grizzly reputation, which includes dark savagery and cannibalism. Before they know it, the group crosses an invisible line from myth into reality. The situation becomes grave as it soon becomes clear that this homeless camp is one place you don’t want to roam around at night.
“… found footage horror that builds innocuously until it erupts …”
Coincidentally, evil land developer Jim Lackey (Grant Moore), while searching for the culprits who stole his baby, brings the cops to the same location, and all hell is unleashed as the hunted turn the tables on the hunters, with no quarter asked nor given.
I thought of Christopher Smith’s Severance as the story unfolded. Leroy, with his cast and crew, takes the tried and tested elements of the found footage genre and turns them up to eleven, whilst at the same time potentially creating a new slasher icon or franchise. BUM is an authentic trip into the realms of brutal terror as those rejected by mainstream society take bloody satisfaction in dragging those who would spit on them down to their level.
"…an authentic trip into the realms of brutal terror"
