The Adirondack Footage
| The Adirondack Footage | |
|---|---|
 Still from the film | |
| Directed by | Unknown (credited to Alan Smithee) |
Release date |
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Running time | 116 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Adirondack Footage is a 2017 American found-footage horror film directed anonymously and credited to Alan Smithee. The film follows five backpackers who encounter supernatural phenomena while hiking in the Adirondack Mountains. The film was produced independently,[1] and no cast members or crew are credited.
Plot
[edit]In the summer of 2017, five backpackers are hiking in the Adirondack Mountains, recording and sharing videos via iCloud for their friend Todd. The group includes Brian, Todd's brother; Trish, Todd's girlfriend; Kayla, an art student; Jean-Marcus, who is asthmatic; and Steve, a drifter. The group discusses how Todd was unable to join them, as he volunteered to stay behind and edit the footage as it is uploaded for a last-minute video project.
After several hours of uneventful hiking, the group finds a black bear carcass that appears to have been violently dismembered. Though disturbed, they decide to continue walking. As sunset approaches, they find a small glade and decide to stay the night. While setting up, Kayla notices a hole in the ground that is extremely deep, but the group dismisses it as an animal burrow. That night, Brian's phone camera is inadvertently activated, and records sounds of Brian and Trish moaning together.
The next morning, the group finds that it has begun to rain overnight, causing the burrow to widen into a larger sinkhole. They pack up and resume hiking as the rain continues to worsen. Jean-Marcus' asthma slows their progress further, and Trish slips several times on the wet terrain. After she falls and cuts her hand on a rock, the group decides to return to the glade and wait for the weather to improve. When they arrive, the sinkhole has widened even further. The group debates their next course of action, with Steve noting that as a vagrant, nobody would notice if he disappeared. Eventually, they agree to stay in the glade another night.
Overnight, Brian uses the phone as a flashlight to find a spot to urinate, again accidentally activating the recording. He witnesses Kayla standing motionless at the edge of the sinkhole, and attempts to get her attention, but gives up and returns to bed after she remains unresponsive. Later that same night, sounds of crumbling and sliding are heard. Brian emerges from his tent, which has collapsed on him. He finds that the group is now in a rocky clearing, with no sign of the sinkhole or forest, and the sky is a deep red. Kayla is missing, and Jean-Marcus is dead, his body showing symptoms of barotrauma. Following another argument, Brian, Trish, and Steve decide to explore to find a way to return to familiar surroundings.
The group continues to record, asking Todd to send help if the footage is still being uploaded. They observe increasingly bizarre terrain and wildlife, including an aboveground kelp forest and a family of colugos with long, chitinous limbs. After some time, they are spotted and pursued by a secretarybird that is several stories tall. It crushes and kills Steve, but Brian and Trish escape.
The two continue to hike, progressing to a rockier area with less wildlife. Sounds of stone scraping in the distance can be heard, along with Kayla's voice, which Brian and Trish decide to pursue. They reach a large cavelike structure and enter. Inside, Kayla emerges from a pool of viscous yellow-green liquid, muttering unintelligibly. Trish approaches her to talk while Brian opts to stay back and hide. He watches via the phone camera as Kayla telekinetically lifts Trish and kills her via exsanguination through the wound on her hand. Brian exits the cave and flees.
The remainder of the film is short clips from Brian taking place over the next several days. He continues to plead for Todd to report their disappearance or come looking for them himself. At one point he speculates that even if Todd does not release the footage, it will be leaked online similarly to the 2014 leak of celebrity nudes from iCloud. In the final clip, Brian, now extremely disheveled, is addressing Todd when he is startled by a notification from his phone. Reading it, he reacts with shock, then anger, then finally grief. He silently shuts the phone off.
Release and reception
[edit]External links
[edit]The Adirondack Footage at IMDb
References
[edit]- ^ a Jimenez, Gideon (October 29, 2017). "Is This Indie Horror Film The Next Blair Witch?. Modern Horrors. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
- ^ a Witt, Amelia (October 3, 2017). "Screamfest 2017 Lineup Revealed. ComingSoon.net. Retrieved July 11, 2022.
- ^ a Blankenship, Bowen (October 17, 2017). "Why Don't We Know Who Made ScreamFest's Best Film?. Dread Central. Retrieved October 2, 2022.