Howard's Mill

A found footage mockumentary that's so well done it appears to be a documentary. Also the disappearance stories are interesting. They're like Absentia the movie meets Skinwalker Ranch the movie. A nice tension is built up that's engrossing. A couple just bought a house and the wife goes missing. The husband is befuddled because she appeared to vanish in the blink of an eye. Turns out she's not the only one.

HOWARD'S MILL is a mockumentary (fake documentary) which starts off as being about the mysterious disappearance of a woman whose husband police initially suspect of having murdered, and then goes down the rabbit's hole of a series of disappearances spanning decades but all associated with the eponymous property.

Plotwise, this film treads similar ground as the mockumentaries LAKE MUNGO (2008) and SAVAGELAND (2015), where every so often a new twist throws the entire story line into a new direction. However, what the film ends up suggesting is the ultimate explanation for these disappearances can be inferred fairly early on. Also, HOWARD'S MILL is unfortunately not as entertaining as its spiritual predecessors.

The production values for this kind of film were okay, there were some nice drone shots and a fairly large cast, but the proceedings just humdrum. Because we can guess early on where the story is going, and the characters are never in any kind of real danger, there is practically no tension.

The convoluted plot ends up being complicated by some extra dead-end plot lines which seem fairly obviously just devices to confuse the audience further, and comparatively little is definitely resolved by the end of the movie.

I think fans of mystery mockumentaries will still like this, but the movie is probably too unexciting and anticlimactic for a wider mass appeal.

I found it very enjoyable. I thought some of the acting was a bit stilted, but much of it as fine and some downright entertaining. If you go in with the mindset that it is a real documentary you will soon realize that it is only written and filmed to capture that feeling. I may watch it again in a couple of weeks if I can find the time...

Great story the acting by the ancillary characters was strong but the leads were not believable, which helps to blow the illusion. The lead male did not act like a man under very real and ongoing suspicion of his wife's disappearance which took place less than a month earlier. It was creepy and if the story was adapted to a full on horror movie it could be entertaining.

It's not a scary found footage but it was still amazing. They did such a good job.