#The Worst Person On Earth Screams Over Shaky Found Footage In This Grating Horror Movie [TIFF 2021]

When Annie arrives at the restaurant she was sent to (or rather, the restaurant that Stretch was sent to), she finds it closed, and seemingly empty. But then someone appears; a nervous woman who offers Annie extra money if she’ll transport her friend Angela (Angela Enahoro) to a second location. Angela is elderly, the lower half of her face covered in a mask. She seems dazed and uncommunicative, and possibly ill. In other words, the last person on Earth this woman should be with right now is Annie. 

Things go downhill fast. Angela’s condition begins to deteriorate, which results in some gross shots of unpleasant bodily fluid. But Angela’s sickness isn’t the typical type of illness. First, she begins to bleed from her mouth. Then she starts attacking people. And if that weren’t enough, she’s soon levitating, too. Eventually, Stretch shows up to reclaim his car, and he gets drawn into Annie’s misadventure. It’s here where “Dashcam” becomes unrelenting, throwing Annie and Stretch into one loud, jarring, painful situation after another. I’m not a sadist, but I suppose there’s some fun to be had in watching the horrendous Annie be terrorized. But she never comes across as if she’s really in peril. She keeps on cracking her jokes, and she is also seemingly indestructible, going through several violent car crashes and other harmful situations and walking away more or less unscathed. 

The back half of the film – which is mercifully short at 77 minutes, although it feels twice as long – is far more interesting than the first. Savage and company create a vague but interesting mythology surrounding some sort of supernatural force. The vagueness might frustrate some, but I liked the way that the film provides us with just enough information to take a guess at what’s going on, without ever really spelling things out. 

This half of the movie is the more horror-heavy, with Savage unleashing torrents of Sam Raimi-like gore, much of it flying directly at the camera (which holds up remarkably well; must have a great OtterBox case or something). But even this promising material wears thin. We can’t really see any of it, for one. And for another, it grows tedious and repetitive. Annie and Stretch run or drive to one location, encounter something scary, scream and run away, and then end up somewhere new where they do the same thing all over again. They eventually stumble into an empty amusement park, and while that makes for a great setting, it doesn’t add much. 

The abundance of gore and shock moments will probably be enough for midnight audiences (I saw the film with the TIFF Midnight Madness crowd, who seemed to be enjoying everything as I sat there stunned and wondering when this was going to end), but the entire experience is frustrating because I know Savage and company can do so much better. “Host” was something truly special, while “Dashcam” is the type of experience you regret. As social commentary, it’s weak. As a comedy, it’s unfunny. As a horror movie, it’s not very scary. 

/Film Rating: 2 out of 10