Found (film)

Plot

Through narration, 12-year-old Marty tells the story of discovering his brother Steve is a serial killer when he took Steve’s bowling ball bag without asking and discovered a human head inside. Each week, Marty finds a new head, usually of a black woman, inside the bag hidden in Steve’s closet. Marty keeps the confusing discovery to himself, and immerses himself in a world of watching horror movies and drawing comic books with his best friend David.

A black classmate named Marcus bullies Marty at school. Marty refuses to fight back, which indirectly leads to a rumor that Marty tried to kiss Marcus. Marcus is given detention and Marty is sent home.

Marty sneaks into his brother’s room again but finds that the bowling bag is empty. He turns on Steve’s stereo and looks at himself in the mirror while wearing Steve’s rubber gasmask. Steve enters unexpectedly and yells at his brother for being in his room. He then asks why Marty is home from school and learns that his brother did not stick up for himself during his fight with Marcus.

Marty’s mom takes Marty to the video store to rent movies for a sleepover with David. Marty rents “Death Rattlers” and “Deep Dwellers,” but when he tries to rent an empty box for a strange movie titled “Headless,” the clerk informs him that the tape was either lost or stolen.

While going through his brother’s VHS collection later, Marty finds the tape of “Headless” that was stolen from the store. Inside is a slip of paper noting certain times from the film. Marty and David watch the unrated movie, which turns out to be so graphic that it makes Marty uncomfortable knowing his brother uses it for inspiration. David criticizes Marty for being a baby and says that he no longer wants to be Marty’s friend because no one likes him. Upset, Marty forces David to look inside Steve’s bowling bag, where they find Marcus’ severed head. Marty tells David that if he tells anyone, Steve will kill him. Horrified, David gets sick in the bathroom and his mother comes to take him home. Steve comes home and realizes that his brother knows his secret.

Marty and his father go to the movies. Marty goes to the bathroom where Steve barges in demanding that his brother reveal how much he knows. Steve threatens Marty to keep quiet. Marty has another confrontation with his brother later. Steve confesses that he only kills blacks out of hatred for their race, and pledges that he would never harm his little brother. Marty continues struggling with how to handle himself and his brother’s true nature.

Marty attends a church service with his mother and ends up beating a classmate named Trevor after Trevor bullies him. Marty refuses to apologize, claiming that he is only sticking up for himself when no one else will.

When Marty returns home, his father begins striking him over the altercation at church. Steve interrupts and starts beating his father and pushing his mother before his father kicks him out of the house.

At night, Marty secretly meets with his brother outside. Steve asks for Marty’s help with an unspecified plan, but Marty refuses. As they argue, their father comes outside and Steve hits him with a shovel. Steve runs inside after his mother. Marty follows and sees his brother preparing to rape their mother. Marty tries to stop him, but he is knocked unconscious.

Marty awakens tied to a bed with a gag in his mouth. He hears the cries of his parents coming from another room. Steve enters naked, wearing his gas mask, and covered in blood. Steve tries telling his brother that he will understand, but Marty only cries. Marty’s reaction drives Steve mad.

In the morning, Steve walks out of the house still covered in blood. Marty wakes still in his restraints to find himself surrounded by the mutilated bodies of his dead parents.

Cast

Reception

The film received mixed to positive reviews. Patrick Dolan of Rue Morgue wrote that "[a]lthough this coming-of-age tale starts off as a morbid love letter to horror's past (like a 1990s version of Joe Dante’s Matinee), it cleverly turns into an honest-to-goodness horror film part-way through and unleashes some serious scares." Bloody Disgusting also praised the film, which they felt made the most of its low budget and "impresses on a variety of levels".

Censorship

Found was banned in Australia by the Australian Classification Board for "prolonged and detailed depictions of sexualised violence". The film was later released on DVD but some two minutes are cut. The United Kingdom DVD release has 98 seconds cut. So far only the US “Unrated” DVD release and the Austrian “Limited Uncut Collector’s Edition” containing both DVD and Blu-ray are uncut.

Headless

It was announced in July 2014 that Headless, the film within a film from Found, was being made into a full-length film. Arthur Cullipher, the special effects supervisor and associate producer on Found, is set to direct. The film was funded by donors from Kickstarter, and the first festival screening was in February 2015 in Indianapolis.