CONJURING TAPES

Stars: Samantha Laurenti, Brenda Yanez, Norah DeMello, Robert Felsted Jr., Jeff Dean, Phoenix Brewer, Romulo Reyes, Ian Hopps, Doug Walker, Daniel Outlaw and Greg Sestero.
Writers: Ben Groves, Robert Livings, Rob Macfarlane, Randy Nundlall Jr. and Peter Paskulich.
Directors: Robert Livings, Randy Nundlall Jr.

Rating: ★ ★ ★

 Exhibiting the inventive found footage flourishes that they previously displayed in their fun 2022 pic Infrared, co-directors Robert Livings and Randy Nundlall Jr. have added anthology storytelling to their bag of tricks with the enjoyably creepy Conjuring Tapes. Nobody's out to reinvent the filmmaking wheel here, that’s for sure, but the pair fulfil the brief of finding convincing frights within the short-film form and binding it all together with a wrap-around narrative logic.

Before firing up the shaky-cam, Livings and Nundlall stage a polished dream-sequence opening that introduces the premise. Brenda Yanez and Samantha Laurenti (pictured, left-right) play grieving friends (just two of the roles they front-up for) who, while sorting through the belongings of their late bestie, discover VHS tapes spine-labelled with ominous titles. 

‘Ouija’ chronicles a spirit-calling fun night that goes bad; ‘Possession’ is a humorous take on influencer content creation (featuring a Go-Pro toilet sequence not easily forgotten); and, ‘Grief’ puts us in the confines of a counsellor’s office, where her latest patient may know something about her missing son. The back-end of the film then pivots into a cult takedown plot, taking the hand-held aesthetic behind-the-scenes of a congregation of brain-washers.

There is just enough gore and icky make-up effects for the film to earn its ‘horror/thriller’ tag, though none so disturbing as to push it into the surreal realm of the ‘V/H/S’ franchise, the film series with which it shares its DNA. The production punches well above its low-budget limitations, ensuring that those who find it amongst their streamer’s ‘You Might Also Like’ recommendations won’t be disappointed. Sestero completists, don’t blink.