I knew absolutely zero about Landlocked before last week. Someone in r/horror on Reddit recommended it as a unique horror (maybe they didn’t recommend it so much as say they watched it) so I checked out the trailer. The premise seemed very unique indeed and it seemed like it would be a good creeper that is maybe a haunting story. I was convinced to watch it! (that’s probably obvious given the title of this post) Let’s get into it, shall we?
Mason, Paul, and Seth get a notice that their childhood home is to be demolished. Their father recently passed and the home hasn’t been fully emptied so they’re collecting whatever they don’t want destroyed. Mason decides to stay at the home for a few days and finds an old VHS camcorder. He discovers that it inexplicably records whatever was happening on the date that the time/date burn-in is set to. He becomes obsessed with recording the past, digging up what may have been best left buried.
The real-life Owens family play fictionalized versions of themselves here and the director, Paul Owens, uses real home video footage. It’s an extremely clever use of old family footage. And the dynamic among the brothers is believable and possibly true-to-life. Every family has those “remember when” conversations – good or bad. But Mason’s nostalgia quickly turns obsessive. The tone of the film starts at mildly unsettling and shifts to downright eerie so gradually that it catches the viewer off guard. This is slow burn, quiet horror through and through. It would probably have been an arthouse darling with just a little more polish. It feels a little DIY, but that is certainly not a dealbreaker. And it doesn’t take away from the impact of the film. It is a very convincing cautionary tale of becoming too focused on the past. It genuinely feels like a competent filmmaker with a creative idea spun gold from zero budget flax. (that metaphor probably doesn’t work here but you get the point)
The Final Cut: Landlocked is a microbudget creeper that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Paul Owens brilliantly uses real family and real home movies to maximize the eerie vibes.
