By Simon Thompson
Found-footage horror isn’t typically something that I actively seek out or enjoy, due to the post Blair Witch Project over-saturation of the sub-genre in the 2000s-2010s where every second horror movie featured a shaky camera and the running commentary of a borderline simpleton. This is why I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed What Is Buried Must Remain as much I did.
Set in present-day Lebanon, the movie follows three aspiring directors who decide to lock themselves in a dilapidated mansion once owned by a wealthy French industrialist in the 1930s who went Jack Torrance crazy and murdered his family. Going into minor spoilers of-course the place is haunted, and the three main characters have to put their differences aside and work together to survive.
What makes What Is Buried Must Remain work is the fact that the main characters are going into the house out of a sense of desperation so that their footage may propel them to a better life than ones they currently live in the post-war vacuum of modern day Lebanon. The way writers Elias Matar, Israa Samman, and Edward E. Romero subtly use the horror genre to explore the history and politics of the Middle East is engaging and fresh yet doesn’t obstruct their main goal of simply trying to make a horror film which scares and entertains you in equal measure.
The chemistry between the three leads is fantastic, you completely believe the characters as friends as you watch them joke and argue together at the start of the movie in a very naturalistic way, to instil a sense of false security in the audience. Overall, What Is Buried Must Remain is a well-executed and interesting take on the found footage sub-genre with a strong sense of atmosphere, a good script and excellent directing by Elias Matar that allows it to stand out from the rest of the found footage pack.
What is Buried Must Remain is available now on Blu-Ray from Bay View Entertainment.
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