An aspiring documentarian films her investigation into the two-decades old disappearance of her brother.
Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Markian Tarasiuk
Starring: Miranda MacDougall, Markian Tarasiuk, Ryan Alexander McDonald, Christine Willes, Susinn McFarlen
The shadow of 1999's The Blair Witch Project has loomed over every found footage horror movie to come our way in the subsequent century. With his directorial debut, Hunting Matthew Nichols, actor Markian Tarasiuk doesn't shy away from acknowledging that pivotal movie's influence. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez's micro-budget blockbuster is explicitly referenced as possibly motivating the plot of Hunting Matthew Nichols. Access to the stunning but foreboding forests of Vancouver Island was likely another motivating factor for Tarasiuk.
It's in those woods that teenagers Matthew Nichols (James Ross) and Jordan Reimer (Issiah Bullbear) disappeared on Halloween Night, 2001. Budding filmmakers, it has long been rumoured that the boys entered the woods with the intention of making their own Blair Witch knockoff. Matthew's younger sister Tara (Miranda MacDougall) has never been convinced by the official police theory that the boys fell into a ravine and were swept out to sea, and has spent the past two decades obsessing over the tragedy. Deciding to launch her own investigation, Tara enlists the aid of documentary filmmaker Tarasiuk (the director playing himself) and his cinematographer Ryan (Ryan Alexander McDonald).
As various figures are interviewed and evidence is examined, all roads point to any possible answers lying within the woods. Unlike Blair Witch, Hunting Matthew Nichols doesn't send its protagonists into the woods from the off. That's delayed until the movie's final 30 minutes. Before then we get a combination of footage edited into a typical true crime doc and behind the scenes snippets of Tara growing increasingly unhinged and freaking out Markian (who seems to be in some sort of romantic relationship with Tara; it's a muddy detail that is largely kept offscreen) and Ryan in the process. A local myth concerning an occult commune said to have once lived in the woods may or may not be a red herring, but it becomes clear that the authorities have been hiding some details from the local populace.
Hunting Matthew Nichols is at its most gripping when it's imitating true crime docs, nailing the aesthetics of that increasingly popular grisly sub-genre. A curious quirk of modern true crime docs is how despite largely residing on streaming services, they're structured like traditional TV shows, often fading to black on key revelations as if eager for the viewer to return after a non-existent commercial break. It's a technique that Tarasiuk utilises to good effect here, keeping us interested as various twists and turns are introduced.
If you showed the early scenes of Hunting Matthew Nichols to someone with no prior awareness of Tarasiuk's film, they would likely believe they were watching an actual true crime doc. Along with Tarasiuk's clever mimicry, the quality of the supporting cast is so strong that they're thoroughly convincing as real life talking heads. Veteran Canadian TV star Christine Willes is especially great as the lead investigator, convincing as a woman who has been left scarred by the experience while also being shifty enough to make us wonder what she's hiding. Susinn McFarlen adds some pathos as Tara and Matthew's grieving mother.
Once the movie enters the woods it's something of an anti-climax. There is an unsettling final reveal but the closing act can't shake off the comparisons to Blair Witch that it has willingly set up for itself. When the screen is handed over to Tara and Markian, MacDougall and Tarasiuk aren't nearly as convincing as the excellent supporting cast. Hunting Matthew Nichols is an initially gripping true crime mockumentary that ultimately gets a bit lost in the woods.
Hunting Matthew Nichols is on Shudder from October 31st.
