Found began circulating the festivals in 2012, but it wasn’t until 2014 the October People decided it was time to unleash this brutal film upon the public. The film is an extreme horror adaptation of Todd Rigney’s book. It has the minimal set design and lighting of a low budget movie, but it’s able to still deliver the excess of blood and extreme carnal violence.
The story begins with a coming of age protagonist explaining his older brother is a serial killer. However, the story pulls back from the horror and the first half of the movie is about a boy being bullied while living in a suburban and abusive household. Despite the setup, one should not be fooled into thinking this is a tale about brotherly bonds. Instead, the simple theme of the movie is about oppressing others through physical violence. This is evident when the father abuses the boys, the racial hate crimes, and the extreme forms of rape. Why not? This theme offers an ample opportunity for the filmmakers to give us many sickening scenes of death.
Regardless of its low budget and student film quality, there are two scenes which were combined to create the most disturbing aspect of the film. While the young brother is having a sleepover, the two boys decided to raid the older brother’s room for horror movies. The one they prophetically choose is Headless. In a movie within a movie style, this is where the audience will see the most gruesome scenes of death and torture. Headless offers no plot. It’s just a compilation snuff film made by the killer. The camera never shies away or pulls back from the brutality. Instead, the filmmakers let our eyes soak in every last drop of sadistic brutality.
The movie’s end progresses towards an Oedipus Rex confrontation between the older brother and the parents. However, this time we watch this from the perspective of the little brother who is gaged and bound to his bed. Although the depiction of violence is mostly auditory, the screams, blood gurgles, and heavy thumping combined with what we saw in Headless forces the audience’s mind to imagine and thereby enact the scenes themselves. That, combined with the last shot of the little brother gets the movie to creep under your skin long past when the credits stop rolling.