Nerdly » HorRHIFFic 2024: ‘Taped Up Memories’ Review

29th Feb2024

HorRHIFFic 2024: ‘Taped Up Memories’ Review

by Phil Wheat

Stars: Jackson Batchelor, Simon Berry, Sam Mason-Bell, Chris Mills, Rich Millyard, Ella Palmer, Peter Tilley, Chris Wrein | Written and Directed by Jackson Batchelor, Sam Mason-Bell

Taped Up Memories and Taped Up Families come from the TRASH ARTS collective based out of Plymouth. A gathering of creative minds with the “ambition to explore the art of filmmaking in all its forms.” They have produced numerous films, shorts and web series and these two, screening as part of this year’s Romford Horror Film Festival, are their two latest productions. This film opens with a title card that states:

The following footage was recovered from a damaged camera found at the side of a main road in the south of England in 2003. The camera was found close to the scene of multiple murders. What you are about to see is this tape in its entirety. The footage has not been edited or altered in any way.

What follows is a found footage-style tape “recording” that jumps back and forth between three timelines in 2003 – telling three stories that ultimately intertwine as the film progresses. One set of footage follows four friends having their last day together before one of them flies off to join the infamous Iraq war. The second is an interview with military types talking about their experiences in war and their opinions on the forthcoming conflict (again the Iraq war of 2003 that cost Blair his government), and the last is footage of a group taking a trip overseas together.

I’ll be honest, the found footage format, and the jumping back and forth between “stories” in this film REALLY put me off. Filmed like the kind of crappy home video tapes you’d expect to find hidden in the back of a cupboard – taped by someone who’s no idea what they’re doing but wants to tape everything because they’ve got a swanky video camera… Boring! But I stuck with the film, mainly to see how things would come together into a cohesive story. I was intrigued by the opening crawl – the idea that “the camera was found close to the scene of multiple murders” kept me watching much longer than the terrible format and weak storytelling did.

Eventually the film focuses its attention more on the foursome having a send-off for the friend headed off to war, as they pick up a hitchhiker (played by the film’s co-writer/director Jackson Batchelor) who, from the get-go seems unhinged. Something which becomes more apparent the more we see of him. He gets offended at nearly everything, argues with his hosts and ultimately snaps, killing the lot of them with a maniacal grin on his face. Why? Who the f**k knows?!

And that’s the problem. There is not only no explanation for the hitchhiker’s actions other than his mental instability. Are we supposed to surmise that, given he mentions being a soldier, he’s suffering from extreme PTSD? Is that why we hear from the two military men in the film’s other segments/cutaways? And what of the third group? They take the piss out of an old drunken man early doors and seemingly are forgotten. Was that a decoy storyline? Or supposed to be some kind of padding on the tape?

Speaking of which. The whole premise of this film is that it’s ONE TAPE. Found at the site of some murders. So how can the timeline be so cut up? We jump from April 2003 to May/June 2003 and the majority of the films is made up of footage supposedly from September 2003, Yet the film cuts back and forward between them all. Yet we were promised the “footage has not been edited or altered in any way.” It’s a gaping plot hole and one that, for me, took me out of the film from the beginning, meaning I could never really believe what I was seeing and never really engage with the film’s format or story.