Bodycam takes the divisive stylistic choice of found footage horror and executes it in the most obvious way. Using police body-worn cameras to capture the action is a genius decision that immediately alleviates one of the genre’s most frequent gripes: “Why are they still holding the cameras?” Every year, we move further into the digital age, and at this point, body-worn cameras are standard practice for nearly every precinct. Unfortunately, this added level of believability is squandered on a paper-thin script comprised of dull characters, nonsensical choices, and generic plot beats.

Related: 10 Horror Shows on Shudder to Watch This Weekend

What’s Bodycam about?

Two police officers, Officer Jackson (Jaime M. Callica) and Officer Bryce (Sean Rogerson), respond to a domestic disturbance. The call quickly spirals from standard to tragic when Officer Bryce shoots and kills an unarmed assailant. Panicked, the officers attempt to cover their actions but find themselves involved in a conspiracy far darker than anything they could have imagined.

Bodycam review

Jaime M. Callica as Officer Jackson in Bodycam

Writer and director Brandon Christensen attempts to use the timely talking point of police shootings as the launching pad for the terror that unfolds. Controversial subject matter makes for great writing material, especially in horror. Still, the subject is handled with kid gloves, and the series of events that transpire are so generically constructed that the entire mystery falls apart at the foundational level. I could not understand a single decision made by either of our two leads, and the suspension of disbelief is strained before monsters and ghouls are even introduced.

A likely unjustified police shooting serves as the story’s catalyst. What should follow is a tense ticking clock scenario with spiraling outcomes, but instead, the story meanders. Despite being on duty, Officer Jackson and Officer Bryce move throughout the city without being dispatched, seemingly free to act and conspire without notice or interaction from dispatch or other officers.

As the story begins to unfold and both the audience and the officers realize that something darker and more occult-leaning is at play, the movie’s shortcomings become even more frustrating. Occult horror is among my favorite subgenres. I’m always excited to see witches, cults, and mysterious robed figures pop up in my scary movies, but Bodycam seems unsure of how to handle the subject matter. The movie treats the mere presence of an ominous cult as enough to be compelling, yet it never uses them to deepen the mystery or meaningfully progress the story.

Is Bodycam worth watching?

Bodycam is a movie built on a great concept that desperately needed stronger execution. It plays less like a finished screenplay and more like a rough first draft, with each sequence unfolding like a collection of bullet-point ideas rather than a fully developed story. Despite its brief runtime of only seventy-five minutes, the film somehow feels achingly long.

Last year, Netflix released The Perfect Neighbor, a documentary told entirely through police body-worn camera footage. The two films could not be more different; one chronicles a real-life tragedy in Central Florida, while the other attempts a fictionalized horror story, but comparing their use of the bodycam perspective only highlights Bodycam’s shortcomings. What should have been a tense and immersive storytelling device instead exposes just how thin the script really is. Unfortunately, this generic horror experiment arrives dead on arrival.

This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire