by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $11.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
William Preat, Knight Mitchell
Intro:
… a solid premise, and enough of an understanding of the internet ecosystem to know where to aim its satire, but all the pretty shots in the world can’t cover up the lack of detail in who is being filmed and what they are being filmed doing.
The Mystery Moose, the debut short from directors William Preat and Knight Mitchell (known collectively as Acrozora), is an attempt to make a Blair Witch Project for the Mr. Beast generation. Determined (and entirely over his head) budding YouTuber William decides to travel to New Zealand, bringing along his friend Knight, in order to find the legendary Fiordland Moose so that he can make the best YouTube video evar.
Pretty much every aspect of production, from filming to editing to starring, is handled by these two guys (the opening credits literally ends with “We just did everything”), and for their first time out, they show a decent approach to the main idea. Their combined handheld and drone camera shots of the Aotearoan landscape taps into Blair Witch’s brand of enviro-horror, pitting two hapless humans against the wonder and horror of the natural world. The shaky-cam can get a bit much, slotting into the post-Paranormal Activity wave of found footage nausea at times (along with similar logistical issues about who exactly is filming certain scenes), but they still show an understanding of framing and shot length to sell the scenery as something to be wowed by and to be approached with caution.
The film clocks in at around 40 minutes, including credits, but it doesn’t really have enough material to stretch that far. Its initial premise is interesting, exploring the ramifications of the modern social media clout market and how easily it can content-pill younger creatives, but for a two-hander, we don’t get much insight into the characters involved. William fits as the guy so desperate for internet fame that he’d take on this journey with a worrying lack of preparation, and Knight kind of works as the frustrated enabler, but their dynamic and characterisation doesn’t transcend those statuses.
It also feels like this whole thing should come across a lot funnier. It gets into some decent psychological angst the further that William falls into the content rabbit hole (punctuated by a nice brain rot montage to kick the film off), but while it presents these two as not knowing what counts as proper food, shelter, and mapping to make it through this endeavour, it’s all weirdly underplayed. The scenery is what takes precedence here over anything else.
As satire, this would have to measure up to Logan Paul’s infamous trip to Aokigahara, or Johnny Somali’s Magical Incarceration Tour across Asia, or any number of TikTok cryptid obsessives that fuelled the story of the Fiordland Moose to begin with. In that vein, most of what is shown here feels like build-up to what is just an okay punchline.
The Mystery Moose feels a bit flat and stretched-out, even at 40 minutes, but there’s definitely potential here for the Melbourne lads behind it all. It has a solid premise, and enough of an understanding of the internet ecosystem to know where to aim its satire, but all the pretty shots in the world can’t cover up the lack of detail in who is being filmed and what they are being filmed doing. But hey, actually making something is the first big hurdle for filmmakers just starting out, and the last handful of years have seen some bloody amazing filmmakers emerge from the YouTube wilderness like Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw The TV Glow), Kyle Edward Ball (Skinamarink), and the Phillipou brothers (Talk To Me, Bring Her Back), so who knows? After some time to refine their cinematic approach, maybe we’ll see Acrozora make it to cinemas somewhere down the road.
