Strawstalker finds its way into the recent wave of new found footage horror classics like The Ceremony Is About To Begin, Fresh Hell, Deadstream, The Christmas Tapes, and The Rebrand. It is that last title that Strawstalker shares a spiritual kinship with, as both are dead-on satires of influencer culture that pulses through smartphones everywhere. Even for a form that was born at the dawn of the new century, it has taken time to catch up with found footage. Thanks to the microprocessor pop-tarts we still laughingly refer to as phone, all the short-form content consumed now tastes like found footage. What you see when scrolling is just as raw-looking, and usually just as fake, as any handheld horror picture. Horton knows this, as he then twists the new culture of existence through perception and reaction upon itself.
“…a great movie that shows the found footage format is back with a vengeance.”
As one of the comments says, Strawstalker has some very good horror angles. Horton channels the same infernal core as the original Halloween, with flashes of the scarecrow, well played by Gary Kasper, walking past windows in the background, or popping up in corners. Like the John Carpenter classic, this makes it feel like the house is being circled by a great white. Also, the scenes where the monster attacks look a lot more frightening than they would have if the film had been shot regularly. I admired how well the creature looked when shot through a phone; it was genuinely horrifying-looking instead of being a giant curd of cheese. Using a more conventional shooting style, the attack scenes would have looked as silly as an old Batman TV episode. Here it looks like an unspeakable home invasion.
The comments that sometimes appear along the side are merciless, but they sometimes get it right. One instance is that Scott deserves an award for her acting. Scott sells the horror by showing everybody how s**t scared is done. Her emotional believability is off the charts, which keeps the viewer taking the whole thing seriously throughout. Scott also sells the superficiality of fronting for videos with flair, along with Horton. Horton embodies the spike-haired foreign eye-candy type so well that you could lick him on a stick. His comic timing is riotous, but that means the record scratch when things get serious has even more impact. Horton’s world-building in his script is impressive, developing the concept further than expected. With Strawstalker, you will be impressed with what is found in this found footage horror, both in reflection and revulsion.
"…channels the same infernal core as the original Halloween..."
