In short: Phoenix Forgotten (2017)

Sophie (Florence Hartigan) returns to her hometown of Phoenix, Arizona to make a documentary about the disappearance of her brother Josh (Luke Spencer Roberts) twenty years earlier. Fascinated by the Phoenix Lights, Josh (Luke Spencer Roberts), his friends Ashley (Chelsea Lopez) and Mark (Justin Matthews) took a camera and went off into the desert to film a possible return of the lights. Their camera and the car were easily found, untouched, but neither the kids nor their bodies were ever seen again.

Of course, Sophie’s documentary – this being a POV horror film of the fake personal documentary type – contains copious amounts of the footage Josh shot until his disappearance, together with various interviews. Her research will finally lead Sophie to discover a second camera with a second tape of rather disturbing footage.

Cynics and bitter people may want to Insert their own usual intro about the tiredness of the POV horror style here – or not – but I found myself rather taken with this one. Of course, director Justin Barber did have an actual budget to work with (the 2.8 million dollars the IMDB suggests aren’t getting you far in blockbuster land, but the sum is at this time a proper mainstream horror movie budget), so some of the film’s virtues are simply thanks to it not being shot by amateurs on their weekends. You can expect proper acting - the performances are generally good without feeling too polished for the POV style –, shots that are lined up professionally even when they are supposed to be made by amateurs (but not idiots), and a decent sense of pacing.

There’s a nice flow to the tale, too. The film is using the narrative form of a dramatic personal documentary effectively, and generally feels convincing enough as an actual artefact. I also rather enjoyed the way it slots the actual Phoenix Lights into its plot, giving the whole affair an added feeling of veracity or at least delights the friend of forteana. The plot itself doesn’t diverge terribly from typical UFO mythology – there’s a reason why Josh has a “I WANT TO BELIEVE” poster on his wall – but it does tell its tale well while evoking a friendly feeling of nostalgia for those of us who have lived through the late 90s.

The characterisations are also stronger than typical of the sub-genre, and even though they aren’t exactly deep, they are enabling enough of an emotional connection to the characters to make one care about their fates.


All in all, this is a neat little film that probably won’t make anyone‘s list of new genre classics but that does use its well-worn elements effectively enough to be worthy of one’s time.