One of those ‘cover your eyes and block your ears’ films.

Finally, someone made a movie set 53 days before my birthday!
In 1988, Archie and Mick are returning to Elizabeth Blair’s home to check in on the Paranormal goings-on. What follows is Case 13.

In 2023, the horror world was rocked by Talk To Me, the debut from South Australian writer-director brothers, Racka Racka. Well, we might have another Adelaide superpower on our hands, in the form of Myles McEwen & Ripley Stevens. The two filmmakers act and direct, with Myles also helming the screenplay and taking on the cinematography.

After a short cold open, we watch a clip montage of the many paranormal cases they have conducted. It seems like an obvious move, but I can’t recollect seeing this before, perhaps outside of a ‘freak of the week’ TV series. It was reinvigorating. It presents us with their body of work and thus, level of experience, whilst also building anticipation for the main event.

This isn’t your typical Found Footage film, but a hybridization of standard storytelling and mockumentary stylings, with splashes of more traditional found footage unveiled more and more as it goes along. There’s the in-camera Super 8 footage seen in the world of the film, and then the actual film – ‘Nightfall’ – we are watching. The held-for-a-little-too-long static shots and slow zooms into nothingness provide a sense of quiet dread whilst maintaining that home movie feel. Seeing the footage being filmed within the regular film puts us into the 80s era with more believability, because we’re watching the footage being created in real time. 
Shooting everything with the in-world Super 8 has limitations, but Stevens and McEwen make it cohesive enough to let slide under the umbrella of FF. If it were all traditional, you would lose many beautiful production elements. Shakycam is unpredictable and makes curated shots very difficult.

I must now take a moment to discuss the cinematography, because it is spectacular.
The talent in McEwen as a DP is beyond anything I would normally have to consider when watching a film of this genre, but even still, it leaves the look of most indie horror for dead. Oh, to be young and talented.
This camera work, paired with the meticulous lighting, favouring commonplace practicals, kept everything appropriately exposed or underexposed, giving the impression of a bigger budget.

McEwen uses his EMF reader to conjure tension by the pound, like a magic wand leading you straight into the mouth of hell. Stevens, as the ‘soundie’, plays more like a stand-in for the audience. Standing to the side of the potential dangers, yet close enough to be scathed.

McEwen and Stevens give rather grounded performances, with small quirks that feel quintessentially Australian. I probably won’t be the first person to mention the shared vibe with Specs and Tucker, the paranormal investigators from the Insidious films, played by fellow Australians, Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson. I am going to assume this was deliberate inspiration.
When thinking of Australian ghost stories and the FF genre, I am immediately reminded of Lake Mungo: an underseen gem that is genuinely terrifying and inspired. Nightfall contains just as many moments to write home about.

The sequences of Super 8 footage are chilling. Nothing screams nightmarish nostalgia like a reel of Super 8 film. The Blumhouse classic Sinister features home movies shot on Super 8, and that film is ranked as the scariest movie ever made (!) in a strange ‘heart rate’ monitor experiment they conducted.
It just feels so ripe for the genre. The Blair Witch Project made the handycam infamous, but in an ideal world where all FF is shot on film, Super 8 feels more authentic. The sound of the Super 8 motor ticking along is metronomically calming, but riddled with unease, like it is perpetually revving up to some haunted reveal. A loaded gun of spectres. By this stage, I had chewed my nails down to the bed.

Similar to Antrum, another FF mockumentary, Nightfall is full of these little glitches in the footage, hinting at something occult, like the film is being hijacked by the demonic. Interestingly, both films share a tangible nostalgia, like a cool breeze on a balmy summer night.
The nature of this suburban haunting also brought my attention to Argentinian film Terrified, which is hands-down one of the most impactful fear-mongering experiences I’ve had in front of my television. Similarly, in Nightfall, when “nothing is happening”, your psyche is going to town on your anxieties.

A classic camera technique, done to death in horror, is the whippan. Moving from point A to B so fast you don’t have time to brace yourself. Nightfall uses whippanning very effectively. As I was writing this very note, I quite literally threw my phone across the aisle. A good jumpscare is a great jumpscare, because I’ve seen ’em all, and this one in particular got me great!

I never imagined myself saying “Wow, that Found Footage film sure was gorgeous,” but here we are.
The daytime scenes are full of saturated pastels, and the night, dark and earthy. The colour grade and vintage aesthetic were wonderful. The use of grain and film destruction wasn’t overused or overproduced, which was refreshing because it seems to be a thin line to walk in the edit suite. Towards the end of the film, there is a strobing montage of matchcutting flowers (petunias if I’m correct) paired with the sound of tape being fast-forwarded, and I must say, it’s going in the pile of best filmic sequences I’ve ever seen. It’s simple in concept but just so damn entrancing. A spritzing of Art House never hurt anyone.

To get quite niche for a moment, the typography of the subtitling is gentle on the eyes. Filmmakers, take notes! Pick your fonts well, especially if they’re baked into the edit, not just the title card and credits. You want all the text to blend with the overall aesthetic. Small details like this further prove the team knows exactly what they’re doing!

I think the film’s subtitle, “a paranormal investigation,” undersells how different this foray into the genre is. Nightfall, too, feels somewhat unhelpful in capturing the potential audience. Fans of “ghost hunting schlock” will be lining up to watch this, then be pleasantly surprised to find an actual film.
Hopefully, word-of-mouth does the rest of the talking.
In conclusion, this film rocks and I can’t wait to watch their follow-up feature. I can’t imagine what they could achieve with a standard storytelling model.

“I must now take a moment to discuss the cinematography, because it is spectacular.
The talent in McEwen as a DP is beyond anything I would normally have to consider when watching a film of this genre, but even still, it leaves the look of most indie horror for dead”