My quick rating – 3.3/10. Not only do we get the Shudder logo, which the poster already clued us in on, but we also get a stern warning: “March 23rd, 2023, authorities responded to an unknown disturbance call at the Wilshire Infirmary. Officers found two dead and are looking for persons of interest.” Apparently, a guard vanished on his first night at an old psych hospital, and his bodycam footage contains “unexplainable incidents” that continue to baffle investigators.
Oh good. Found footage. Bodycam footage. Yay, my favorite. NOT.
We start with rookie guard Edward (Paul Syre Lee) getting hazed by his superior, Lester (Mark Anthony Williams). Edward is given his bodycam and sent off to work, knowing that Ms. Downey (Danielle Kennedy) will be staying late to do some paperwork. Considering the cast list only has four people (3 we see), I may as well give everyone their credit before the ghosts inevitably start eating into the remaining payroll.
For the first half hour, we get the usual first-person shots. Doors creaking, empty hallways, Edward getting terrified by the slightest sound, and lots of walking around an abandoned mental hospital while the movie desperately tries to convince us something is about to happen. To be fair, the place is creepy. It is basically empty, looks suitably miserable, and has exactly the sort of atmosphere you’d expect from a building where absolutely nobody should be working the night shift.
While Edward and Lester are trying to locate an intruder, we also get the story about a scary hallway that Lester claims scared his dog to death. Apparently even the dog had the good sense to nope the fuck out of there. Edward starts wondering if the place might be haunted. I am actually impressed these two manage to stay together for as long as they do.
Until they split up, that is. I laughed a bit. I should’ve known better.
You would think after all the hazing and ridicule from Lester, Edward might try to prove himself by making sensible decisions. Nope. Knowing full well there are cameras everywhere, including the one strapped to his chest, he starts crawling around on the ground like he is storming Normandy. Why? Who knows. Maybe Edward has watched too many war movies. Maybe he simply forgot he was a security guard and not Rambo.
And that is only one example of his silliness.
Once the movie finally gets going, it settles into the usual found-footage greatest hits. Lots of running, plenty of static and artifacts, unexplained lights going off, camera glitches, and the obligatory “HOLY SHIT WHAT WAS THAT?” moments. Apparently this is the sort of footage that has investigators completely baffled. I’m not sure why. I was mostly baffled by how long it was taking to get anywhere.
The movie is insanely boring for much of its runtime and eventually delivers a mediocre payoff. Even worse, it wastes what should have been its biggest asset: the location. The abandoned hospital looks fantastic, and cinematographer Donald Nam does a good job framing it. The creepy old infirmary is easily the highlight.
Yes, I loathe this style of filmmaking, but there are good examples of how found footage can be used effectively. Infirmary just isn’t one of them. It takes a fantastic creepy location, straps a camera to someone’s chest, throws in some static, and somehow manages to make an abandoned psych hospital boring.
That might be the most baffling incident of all.
