Horror Movie Review: The Mitchin Murders (2024)

A found footage horror with heavy mystery elements, The Mitchin Murders doesn’t try to tread any new ground with its story, but manages to be fairly interesting thanks to its ‘mockumentary’ approach.

Directed by Jamie B-Debbage, the film stars Georgie McGuigan, Kate Winter, Robert Metson, Philippa Dawson, Alistair Findlay, and Paul Coster. Set in 1994, the story surrounds the small town of Mitchin, Iowa, where two young journalists have set out to make a documentary surrounding a string of mysterious murders that occurred a few years ago. The aim of the documentary is to shine a light on the mystery and show how it has impacted the town.

Unfortunately, there is little closure to be found here for the townspeople as the killer was never caught and now it seems as though their murderous ways have started up again. Is the timing just a coincidence or is the killer all too aware of the documentary makers and how they are slowly uncovering the truth behind the mystery?

It’s this aspect, the mystery around the events (such as why some survived their encounter with the killer) and how it has affected so many people, in so many different ways, that makes The Mitchin Murders a fairly compelling watch. While finding out the identity of the killer might never feel important, the motivation does, and this is expressed through a series of clever interviews. The mockumentary portion of the film delivers, and is when the film is at its best. The story being slowly drip fed to the watcher via a strong set of actors revealing their personal involvement and how it fits into the overall picture.

Alas, whereas the first half of the film is strong, the second half lets it down with a half-hearted attempt to ramp up the horror and make it seem like something bigger is going on, when that’s really not the case at all. It’s at this stage, the ramping up to reveal the killer’s identity and motivations, where the film grinds to a halt and plods along to a finale that is downright disappointing. This is a film that would have benefited from more ambiguity at the end, but instead we get everything being pointed out in laughable style.

Oddly, this would be a much better film overall if it dropped any pretence of being a horror film. Instead focusing on being a murder-mystery with true-crime inspiration and just small touches of thriller elements. It’s not like we’re all missing out on much as the horror is very light, and even when some ‘stabbing’ does occur, the filming style and low quality footage means very little bloodiness is actually seen.

As far as found footage/mockumentary films go, The Mitchin Murders isn’t the worst thing you’ll see and for at least half its runtime, it will keep you entertained. However, the drop off and lack of tangible horror is extremely notable. Some many struggle to finish this one in the end.