The Last Broadcast [Blu-ray]

Director: Stefan Avalos, Lance Weiler Stefan Avalos

Overview

The producers of a television documentary discover all-too-real terror in this mock-documentary horror film. Steven Avkast (Stefan Avalos) and Locus Wheeler (Lance Weiler) were the hosts of a public access TV show called Fact or Fiction? dealing in unsolved mysteries and the paranormal. For their first live broadcast, Steven and Locus headed into the Pine Barrens of New Jersey in search of the Jersey Devil, a Yeti-like creature long-rumored to haunt the area. Steven and Locus were joined for the expedition by two fans they "met" on the internet, sound recordist Rein Clackin (Rein Clabbers) and psychologist Jim Suerd (Jim Seward). However, only Suerd came back, and the other three were found brutally murdered, as local documentary filmmaker David Leigh (David Beard) tries to put together the pieces of what happened and who is responsible. Shot on digital videotape for a reported $900 and edited using a personal computer, The Last Broadcast was widely compared to The Blair Witch Project. The directors of The Last Broadcast, Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler, alleged that their film was made first and that the makers of The Blair Witch Project borrowed their basic premise, though Blair Witch was released first.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/12/2022
UPC:	0760137100881
Original Release:	1998
Source:	101 Films
Language:	English
Time:	1:26:00
Sales rank:	40,355

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

David Beard	David Leigh
James Seward	Jim Suerd
Stefan Avalos	Steven Avkast
Lance Weiler	Locus Wheeler,Joyce Dryer, Jim's Land Lady,Barry Williams, Editor of the Baroake County Recor,Ricky, `Fact or Fiction' Cameraman
Rein Clabbers	Rein Clackin
Michele Pulaski	Michelle Monarch,Actor
Tom Brunt	Tom Branski, Technical Director of `Fact or Fictio
Mark Rublee	Video Engineer
Clair Deforest	Editor for the Prosecution
A.D. Roso	Anthony Rosi, Lead Investigator of Murders
Dale Worstall	Dr. Dale Orstall, Jim's Child Psychologist
Vann K. Weller	Dr. Vann Waller, Forensic Pathologist
Sam Wells	Sam Woods, Television Soap Director
Jay MacDonald	Jay McDowell, Web Designer
Marianne Connor	Mary Brenner, TV Reporter
Jennifer Nasal	911 Operator
Brett Nielsen	Man Struck by Lightening Three Times
Holly Madison	Miss Lady Bright Eyes
Jeremy Coleman	Ray, `Fact or Fiction' Cameraman
Chadd Ritenbaugh	Man with Guitar

Technical Credits

Stefan Avalos

Lance Weiler

Stefan Avalos	Director,Producer,Screenwriter
Lance Weiler	Director,Producer,Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Internet chat rooms buzzed with the idea that Daniel Myrick and Ed Sanchez, the directors of the groundbreaking indie horror flick The Blair Witch Project, stole their idea from a rough draft of The Last Broadcast, publicized years before that film materialized. Whether this is true or not is almost irrelevant, given Blair's vastly different approach: It prefers unexplained recovered footage, rather than the documentary-style re-creation that Broadcast favors. Blair's technique ends up being far more ominous and chilling, but Broadcast certainly posits some intriguing ideas of its own in the missing filmmaker department. Most impressive is that it comes across as far more polished than the kind of amateurish pet project one might expect from a film with the unspeakably tiny budget of 900 dollars. It also weaves a complex story line involving a handful of shady characters, and does a believable job of creating back stories for them -- like Blair, it tries to assert that these events really happened. But the documentary approach remains too hermetic to convey real terror, too after-the-fact to suggest the ongoing presence of danger. The droning documentarist lulls his viewers to sleep with his dispassionate sleuth work, leaving them without any sense of the lost characters and only a limited inclination to keep out of the woods.

All Movie Guide