Official synopsis
Fall, 1999. In the town of Erie, Pennsylvania, a string of bizarre suicides has quietly unsettled the community. Stella and her brother, Oscar, return to their childhood home armed with nothing but an old camcorder, a few leads, and a desperate need to understand what’s happened to their town . . . and to their sister. What begins as a personal investigation quickly spirals into something dark and unhinged, as they dig deeper into a pattern no one else seems willing to acknowledge. As the investigation twists through conspiracy theories, personal secrets, and local lore, what began as a search for answers becomes a descent into paranoia, grief, and something possibly far more sinister.
Review
Director Alison-Eve Hammersley’s 1999-set Erie plays with found footage film expectations and boasts some unusual choices. Though a few elements are likely to have some viewers scratching their heads, overall it is an interesting fear-fare feature.
Stella (Carly Stewart) and her brother Oscar (Grant Crater) are each grieving in their own ways the mysterious on-camera death of their sister Iris Scott (Aimee Paxton), who apparently committed suicide while hiking. Stella wants to make a documentary to get to the bottom of things, while Oscar is only reluctantly behind the idea. Enter Red (Ryan W. Garcia), a strange local character who gives off serial killer vibes but claims that the death of his girlfriend also has puzzling elements behind it.
Stewart and Crater share solid onscreen chemistry as a sister and brother who have their share of sibling arguments, but thankfully the actors know when to pull back on that to make their characters still likable. Credit for this also goes to cowriters Hammersley and Jess Kohs. Garcia also gives great supporting work as an unnerving character.
Hammersley makes an intriguing choice for the third act of Erie — more than one, actually. I don’t want to give spoilers away so suffice it to say that filming presentation and a strange but interesting reveal take place. The latter factor should be no surprise to seasoned found footage aficionados, as that is where the biggest impact of films in the subgenre occur. But Hammersley has much more in mind and in store than the usual found footage fare.
Potential viewers leery of shaky camera work as characters run in fear need not be overly concerned, as Hammersley and Cinematographer Lauren Guiteras avoid those trappings in favor of more original approaches to the found footage subgenre. This is just one of the reasons why Erie stands out from the subgenre’s pack, and is well worth a watch.
Erie screened as part of Beyond Fest, which runs September 23–October 6, 2026 in Los Angeles.
You can view a clip here.
