The economics of the film industry is a broad, fascinating universe. From trying to figure out how the studio system works, to understanding the different dynamics of indie cinema, it’s a constantly evolving piece of machinery that simply goes faster than we think.
Today, marketing a movie seems simple; releasing it, not so much. Until you can actually release it on social media (it’s uncanny how a major studio still hasn’t done this) by yourself, you will always depend on someone believing in your film. Fortunately, there are dreamers in the industry and because of them, we get the opportunity to see some films that wouldn’t have been released in times when Netflix was a thing of the future. It’s almost a miracle that some films, like those with the smallest of budgets, ever get released.
The Last Broadcast
Found footage filmsare always part of this conversation. Thehorrorsubgenre is extremely profitable and sometimes successful. It represents the jump from the weak 90s to a weird horror era where remakes were still a thing and studios felt a variation to the traditional style of cinema was cheap. Sure, it was cheap. Literally.The Blair Witch Projectcost $60 thousand, and it grossed $250 million. Found footage arrived, and it had to stay.
But the witch film wasn’t the only one. We don’t even have to go towards more obscure levels of cinema, just home video, where an unseen gem laid dormant for a while and then blew people’s minds with its simplicity. BeforeThe Blair Witch Project,The Last Broadcastwas released in seven cities in 1998. People started talking about it. Theater lobbies started getting full. VHS and DVD were next.
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Today, you can find it online, though the effect isn’t quite the same. We might sound like those annoying people who say, “you just had to be there,” but this time you actually had to. Despite being mostly forgotten,The Last Broadcastwas successful and very, very profitable in the context of its budget (grossing $4 million off of $900). However, beyond the commercial phenomenon, there is something much more valuable.
When Looking Cheap Works
Each of us had a different experience when we watchedThe Last Broadcast. It looked cheap even by the standards of that time, but the raw style of the film had a greatly disturbing effect. Editing and video effects add fuel to a film that has to rely on being realistic enough to make an imprint on the viewer. This was the early age of the internet. Things looked like that.
This was afound footage mockumentarythat felt made by an amateur director trying to tell an original story. It was authentic and actually scary. Curiously, it rarely relied on something like jump scares or questionable monster effects. Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler were one step ahead of Hollywood — they knew what would scare you during that moment.
The Presence of Urban Legends
The Last Broadcastis a dark, fake documentary about a series of murders that took place in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. When two cable TV hosts decide to make a live show involving a psychic who also seems to be pretty disturbed, they naturally record everything.
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Two bodies were found, one is missing. No culprits. But the mockumentary makes use ofthe urban legendabout the Jersey Devil to imply a bigger mystery, even though the possible killer looks disturbed enough. Adding testimonies by real people seems to be what validates the authenticity of the theories that say something supernatural was responsible for the killings.
The following contains spoilers for The Last Broadcast. You’ve been warned!
One Bold Decision, One Important Film
And then there’s the ending.
The Last Broadcastdares to do something that films didn’t require at the time. It’s this take on the creation of a monster whose virtual existence seems to be much more important than the absolute truth. This is not the work of the Jersey Devil. It’s something much more sinister.
What’s even more disturbing is how this is revealed in the third act. It’s a beautiful work of editing and sound effects that gave goosebumps to audiences as they realized they had been tricked by an insane man whose reasons are still to be explained.
The Last Broadcastwas profitable. It was based on a model that was thoroughly used for years and is still used today, helping to launch a veritable wave of independent horror productions. Its directors never capitalized on the genre again, and it holds as a great experiment that people loved,gaining cult statusover the years.
It’s unnecessary to discuss which came first. Was it the Blair Witch or the Jersey Devil? Who knows and who cares. What’s important is that, even if it made 4,444 times its budget,The Last Broadcastwas not seen by most people (it was never released in other countries), when it absolutely should have been. It’s a cousin to the one with the witch, and it makes for a great double feature program alongside that film, the one typically regarded as the most important independent film ever made. Yeah, there should be two.
The Last Broadcast is available to stream for free on Tubi.
