Carnifex is built from the ground up as found footage, with a documentary filmmaker lead, a healthy serving of GoPros and interviews used as exposition. But instead it’s a behind the scenes dramatisation of a found footage film, like we’re watching the protagonists of Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, it even has the YouTube vlog grade from that and drone footage. It just must have been written as found footage, there are too many moments that they could use it, but don’t.

The result is a film at odds with itself. One that seems above the genre, like it’s a snobby comment on trashy footage and paper thin framing narratives. It’s very competently made, stretching its limited budget while maintaining a slick look, but that isn’t really what horror is about, there’s no scrappyness or passion. The aesthetic is more Audi advert or high end music video than horror and I really dislike that, it can work but it’s in conflict with being a film about filmmaking. It just feels weird, uncomfortable and I kept expecting them to use it, for us to see the GoPro footage or fragments of the doc she’s making, it never happens, a narrative dead end.

Environmentalists in film, especially horror, are always shown as naive and I liked how this subverted that. It was single minded and consistent with this portrayal, using it well for character development. These characters believe in their passions and don’t abandon them, they don’t get taught a lesson or chastised for their beliefs. At its core the idea is great too, I’d have thought a drop bear movie would quickly devolve into unintended comedy, but it has its scares. It could do with better CGI but it’s forgivable, again if it was found footage and not so well manicured I think it would look a lot better.

Horror should always work best late at night with the lights out, after drop bears the movie I should be scanning the ceiling, I shouldn’t be able to rest easy. Carnifex just can’t deliver on that, it has moments, but the whole picture doesn’t come together.