HorRHIFFic 2024: ‘Taped Up Families’ Review
Stars: Jackson Batchelor, Ross Alan Doney, Russell Churcher, Dan Rad, Omar Mahood Lagares, Rich Millyard | Written by Jackson Batchelor, Sam Mason-Bell | Directed by Steve ‘S.N’ Sibley
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.
Like its predecessor, Taped Up Families opens with a title card, this one states:
Following the “Taped Up Memories” killings another camera was found in a nearby woods, close to further 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 total rehash of Taped Up Memories, right down to the fact one of the group is heading off to join the military (this time the Air Force), set in the same “September 2033” timeline which that film ultimately focussed on. Though this film is actually set BEFORE Taped Up Memories‘ main storyline (Taped Up Families takes place on September 5th, …Memories on September 7th. This time round the killer hitchhiker from the first film finds himself amongst a group of veterans out in the woods filming a promotional video for their support group. The hitcher sees this as his opportunity to start his murder spree.
Hey, at least this time around we don’t get the ridiculous jump-cutting between timelines on the so-called “found” videotape. What we get instead is a very much more traditional found-footage movie – one that uses the cliches and tropes of that sub-genre to maximum effect: camera cuts galore, which allow scenes to change without explanation, locations to be changed in a click of the proverbial “off button” of the camera. And we get, in the latter stages of the film, plenty of shaky-cam. So far so familiar.
Unfortunately Taped Up Families doesn’t have even so much as a story to hang the found footage on. It feels even LESS of a film than your traditional found-footage movie. But I guess that’s what the Trash Arts folks were aiming for with these – to make films that literally feel like they are NOT films. Which, for me, is not a pleasant experience. Who wants to watch a bunch of ‘geezers’ sitting around in the woods chatting sh*t for an hour? Not me thanks!
On the plus side, Taped Up Families only runs 70 minutes – yes, it’s 10 minutes more than the original but still, it’s not 90 minutes of this almost unwatchable mess. I say almost, as the only watchable thing about the film is waiting for the hitchhiker (Jackson Batchelor) to kill the group of blowhards and to see how he does it!
½ 0.5/5
Taped Up Families screens today, March 1st, as part of this year’s Romford Horror Film Festival.
