The best horror movies leave audiences scared. It’s not so often they leave them hungry too. A new release that manages to do both is The Andy Baker Tape, actor-turned-director Bret Lada’s first foray into filmmaking by means of found footage. The low-budget indie horror gem follows food blogger Jeff Blake, a Food Network host prospect, as he treks through the backroads of New Jersey to meet his long-lost half-brother (the titular Andy Baker) while stopping in at a few eye-catching food joints along the way. It is not long after their initial meeting that Jeff realizes his estranged sibling might be tagging along for more than just the average joy ride.
The Andy Baker Tape has the confidence of a studio feature and the nonchalance of a Sundance darling. Lada crafted his film using only the resources at his disposal, reverse engineering a plot around what was available to him at the time of filming in order to craft a tight two-man tour de force. The finished product ends up feeling like an answer to the mumblecore movement of the mid-aughts while simultaneously reclaiming some of the ground lost by the found footage genre in the past decade.
The film wears its influences on its sleeve, reworking the blueprints of new genre classics like Creep to deliver an experience at times as horrific as it is hilarious. On top of all this, Lada’s charismatic lead performance is as refined and high-energy as his filmmaking, and Dustin Fontaine as Andy Baker is always game to match it.
Lada’s DIY filmmaking instincts breathe fresh life into what could have been a derivative and fleeting found footage experience. Whenever the film feels like it is getting dangerously close to becoming a copy, Lada reveals another one of the tricks he has hidden up his sleeve. In this reviewer’s humble opinion, all budding filmmakers should follow the Lada model: make a riff on the movies you like using the resources and people available to you, and make it as soon as possible. Who knows? It could just be your launching pad for a career in film.