The Conspiracy – Review

21st October 2013

Eyes Wide Shut sans boob.

Not so much found-footage horror as faux-documentary horror. The films main conceit is that two documentary film makers; Aaron and Jim (played by Aaron Poole and James Gilbert) are creating a film based around a conspiracy theorist they found on YouTube. We’re shown talking heads with people clearly acting at ‘being natural’ and some people who appear to be the genuine-article. We see clips of the conspiracy theorist haranguing members of the public with a microphone which the actor clearly enjoyed doing behind the protective guise of character. Suddenly the focus of their film vanishes. Picking up his work Aaron and Jim are drawn into the world of conspiracy theories, becoming paranoid theorists themselves. Or are they paranoid? After a few more talking heads mixed in with some melodramatic docudrama scenes our directors end up at a pagan-esque meeting in a swanky mansion filled with masks. So it’s a bit like Eyes Wide Shut as mentioned without the nudity.

With all the found-footage horrors rushing our way to spoil Halloween it’s refreshing to find a film that takes a different approach. The documentary portions of the film are genuinely interesting and present compelling, if far fetched theories on some of the worlds hidden hierarchies. Whilst never mentioned by name it seems that writer/director Christopher MacBride has the Illuminati very much in mind – the notion of a powerful few controlling billions. Where the film begins to come apart is when acting and plot begin to take things over. The jump that the directors take from film-makers to full blown conspiracy theorists, jabbering about connected events, pinning photos to boards seems a leap too soon as though there were a few scenes deleted between.

Whilst the film holds interest in the first half, it slows to a crawl in the second half which should be the most tense. We watch through tie-pin cameras as the pair infiltrate a mass meeting of the powerful group. What should be unbearably tense as we wait for the two to be discovered becomes an insufferable 30 mins filled with candles lit rooms and heavy breathing. You know that at any moment they will be discovered. Perhaps something nasty will happen. Cut off a hand? A head? Maybe a hanging? But yeah I wasn’t really bothered. I never felt the threat and therefore there wasn’t much to be frightened of.

So whilst being an intriguing concept, The Conspiracy becomes a disappointingly lame seen-it-done-it.

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