The Last Broadcast (1998)

Dir: Stefan Avalos / Lance Weiler

Ah. The infamous micro-budget film that "The Blair Witch Project" allegedly stole its ideas from. There are obvious similarities - a film crew heading out into the woods to investigate a supernatural being of local yore - but the presentation of the 'found footage' is very different. In this one, the conceit is that of a documentary being made about the filmmakers and their premature demise. It's well-structured and engaging for the most part as it leads up to the exciting discovery of a damaged videotape that may or may not contain the actual murders. However, "The Last Broadcast" blows it with a catastrophically stupid, gratuitous twist that's way over-complicated and renders most of what we've already seen either meaningless, confusing or just plain incoherent. Amazing how 75 minutes of excellent low-budget filmmaking can be let down so heavily by just 5 really dumb ones but this is an example of just that. You'll feel cheated so don't say I didn't warn you. **1/2