Hunting Matthew Nichols (2024) Film Review

I love good old-fashioned mockumentaries, especially when they’re done right. Lake Mungo, Ghostwatch, Hell House LLC. and Savageland are just some of my personal favorite mockumentaries—these films manage to create a sense of reality while delivering some pretty effective scares. I still feel creeped out even after seeing these films multiple times. So when I heard about this feature film debut from Markian Tarasiuk, I was intrigued.

In Hunting Matthew Nichols, Tarasiuk plays himself, following Tara Nichols, a documentary filmmaker, as she sets out to solve her brother’s missing person case in Vancouver Island from two decades ago. “The thing that you have to understand is that this wasn’t a missing person’s case where anyone was accused of a kidnapping or murder even, as she tells them. “Two kids disappeared, and nobody has ever been able to explain how or why.”

On the night of October 31, 2001, her brother, 17-year-old Matthew Nichols, and his friend Jordan Reimer went to the Black Bear Forest and were never seen again. The official police reports state that the two boys may have lost their way into the woods, fell off a cliff, and drowned in the sea. However, as Tara and her film crew investigate the disturbing circumstances surrounding the case, they uncover an unsettling piece of evidence that may lead to uncovering the truth about her brother’s disappearance.

It is soon revealed that the two boys were both obsessed with the 1999 found footage film The Blair Witch Project and possibly went to the woods to come up with their own film, featuring a local legend surrounding a man named Roy Mackenzie, who was believed to have led a commune of hunters and their families in the forest, only for him to go berserk one night and eat all of the people in their community. At one point in the film, we even have the characters discussing among themselves how silly and preposterous it is to even suggest that what happened to the two boys was of a supernatural cause since they suspect that the piece of evidence they found might be staged by Matthew and Jeremy themselves.

Much like other mockumentaries, the film is filled with numerous talking head interviews from family members of the two boys and even the lead investigator at the time of the disappearances. The film takes time to create this sense of authenticity in the mystery. Tarasiuk and writer Sean Harris Oliver try and succeed in keeping things grounded, at least during the first two acts. It is also well-acted, with convincing performances from its cast, led by Tarasiuk, Miranda Macdougall as Tara, and Christine Willes as Pam Hamilton, which adds to the overall believability of the film.

Actor-turned-director Markian Tarasiuk is no stranger to the horror genre (he played one of the victims in Netflix’s There’s Someone Inside Your House). However, for those looking for some quick scares, you might be disappointed as the film only gets some action during its last ten to fifteen minutes, where the characters finally come face to face with whatever the two missing boys encounter in the woods before they disappear. Still, this final act is the film’s biggest highlight thanks to its brilliantly creepy execution.

While Hunting Matthew Nichols takes some time to get to its meatier parts and requires some level of patience, this slow-burn mockumentary from Markian Tarasiuk is sure to reward viewers with a chilling finale that is sure to leave a mark on your mind long after the credits roll.