Horror often picks up where true crime ends, and the genre makes the impossible possible. That’s the reality of Markian Tarasiuk’s Hunting Matthew Nichols, a movie that comes across as plausible until it’s really not. The setup here is one we’ve heard before; a person goes missing, and their loved one goes searching for them. Unfortunately, the backend of the story is no less familiar once the disappearance turns out to be anything but normal.
Tarasiuk didn’t quite break the mold when putting together his debut. It also doesn’t help that the similarly plotted Shelby Oaks hit theaters first. However, unlike the aforementioned movie, Hunting Matthew Nichols didn’t abandon the POV format following the outset. Here, the camera stays on as the characters follow their own trail of breadcrumbs.
Your mileage with found footage (that being an umbrella term for all first-person filmmaking) will make certain developments and directorial choices more tolerable, but overall, Tarasiuk makes the experience very watchable. Static lines and other stylistic signatures of typical found footage aren’t necessary in this mockumentary; it’s presented as something from the more professional-grade sector of the genre. For a while, it’s almost uncanny as to how much Hunting Matthew Nichols resembles a genuine true-crime doc.
This movie owes a debt to its cast, namely Miranda MacDougall as the missing person’s grieving sister. Tara Nichols is a persuasive protagonist whose objective is never unclear, yet MacDougall gives the role weight and precision. You never once doubt that she is really mourning the namesake. As for the director, who plays a fictionalized version of himself in the story, he smartly keeps the focus on the surviving next of kin; but his input as both a documenter and an ally is crucial to the dynamic. Without him, there is no control in the story. And for this movie to work as well as it does, it has to be somewhat grounded and restrained before all hell breaks loose.
Where others might perk up and enjoy this movie more, I actually found myself underwhelmed. Nothing so far had truly stood out as innovative, but at the very least, it was done well. The shift into unnatural horror, on the other hand, is technically competent, yet it’s too par for the course. Indeed, the movie telegraphed the outcome ahead of time; other interviewees laid the groundwork for a supernatural conclusion. The problem is how Tarasiuk delivered that sense of inevitability. By that I mean, he paid homage to one of the most well-known found-footage movies to exist. And in doing so, his movie ends without almost any original identity of its own.
Sometimes I wonder if maybe I’ve seen one too many horror movies. By that I mean, has my not-so-casual and decades-long experience with the genre made it difficult for me to enjoy anything new? After a long think, I’m inclined to say “yes”, I may be a bit hard to impress whenever it comes time to watch something recent. Having said that, though, a lot of releases coming out these days have the same issue as I do; they’ve also seen too many horror movies. That’s essentially the case with Hunting Matthew Nichols. It’s very obvious that the filmmaker did his homework.
But if you ask me, he may have overstudied.
Hunting Matthew Nichols opens in theaters on April 10.
Tales from the Paulside 
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