The Lost Footage of Leah Sullivan (2018)

Leah is doing a student project on the 1986 murders of a Massachusetts family. While filming herself driving, she almost hits a woman and then is approached by a cop named Patrick whose brother went to school with her.  Patrick asks her out for coffee and she tells him why she’s in town.

The plan is to interview people who could provide information into the family and the murders. Leah also wants to visit the location.  The house appears to be isolated and has been abandoned since the killings. No trespassing signs are everywhere, but Leah doesn’t cotton to following the rules when there is journalism at stake. 

Patrick is a voice of reason through the film, even though Leah pays him no mind.  Patrick is concerned that someone could be in the house. Also they are trespassing and filming it, which is essentially documenting their own criminal activity, which isn’t great since he’s a cop.  

Leah’s only concern is solving this murder mystery and doing whatever it takes to get the story.  Curtain moves? Ah it’s only the wind.  Someone walks by the window? Ah it’s only a trick of the light. Creepy trap door into the basement? Let’s go into the basement with only one flashlight between us and only one way out. Creepy noises in the basement and certain impending doom since our names are written below the names of the murdered family and others who it is assumed disappeared in the house? Ah let’s get more footage of the basement. I’m sure we don’t need to run as if our lives depended on it.

Oh Leah. Poor, sweet, brain stem lacking Leah.  It’s a bit annoying when characters are in bad situations and they want to stay just a little bit longer.  Patrick has good instincts but Leah puts him in bad situations.  Leah is one of those people where you tell them it’s a bad idea to do something bu they decide they’ll do it anyway. Because they know you’re responsible enough that you’ll tag along since it’s too risky for them to go on their own.  Thus Leah puts others in danger by being self absorbed and caring more about her story, than the safety of herself and Patrick.  That being said, while that aspect of Leah was annoying, overall she was pleasant and the movie was better than average for found footage movies.