ARROW FRIGHTFEST (digital): They're Outside
They’re Outside is a British found-footage folk horror featuring cameo appearances from horror regulars Nicholas Vince and Emily Booth. Directed by newcomers Airell Anthony Hayles and Sam Casserly, They’re Outside attempts to evoke a familiar aura to the obvious The Blair Witch Project, with a modern social influencer twist on the metatextual elements of production. When the ‘YouTube psychologist’ Max Spencer (Tom Wheatley) takes a trip to Hastings in an attempt to cure the agoraphobic Sarah (Chrissy Randall), the source of her fear, the fabled monster ‘Green Eyes’ appears to be a threat that is not simply within Sarah’s imagination.
While The Blair Witch Project remains one of the greatest twists on form within horror storytelling, it is also responsible sadly, for films such as They’re Outside. The directors both referred to the use of the found-footage genre as a stylistic narrative choice, as opposed to simply a way of cutting costs. The cutting of costs was always a practical benefit for The Blair Witch Project. It was never that cheap either. $60,000 (eventually rising to between $250,000 - $750,000 after post-production) for a first film, and considering Myrick and Sánchez were also film graduates: so many have since attempted to emulate a film that is so lightning-in-the-bottle, with an even smaller budget, less to say, and without the incredible intense improvised performances The Blair Witch Project provided. They’re Outside immediately presents itself about 10 notches below the level of everything that came before it. If you’re going to make a found-footage film, you’d better separate yourself from the obvious comparisons if you want it to be taken seriously.
It doesn’t exactly help, that They’re Outside is so flung together either. Another element of what made The Blair Witch Project so good, was how believable the cast and production felt. It really was a group of people going into a forest with a camera, getting themselves scared, and freaking out. It all happened, and we saw it on the screen. They’re Outside is plagued with terrible decisions. Nicholas Vince was added to the film after the edit was finished, essentially to provide a massive lore-dump, as a kind of Ghostwatch Michael Parkinson role. There are moments within the film, that the dialogue from behind the camera has been recorded in a separate room with totally different acoustics to what is on set. It is so bad in sections, that you can literally hear the echo of them recording in their room whilst they’re supposedly wandering through a forest.
When push comes to shove, you could at least refer to They’re Outside as a film built for a festival audience. While it is clearly made on the cheap, with little value cinematically. It at least emits an atmosphere that feels celebratory towards the horror genre. The casting of Nicholas Vince and Emily Booth is certainly a confirmation of that hypothesis. It would be unfair to say it has nothing of value, but in a digital festival environment, it sadly comes across as uneventful and amateurish.