What Happened to Suzy - Review

I would never want to psychoanalyse why found footage attracts me so much, and you do not have my permission to do so on my behalf. I would like to live in bliss that it’s just built into my DNA, thank you. Every time I see a new trailer pop up for one I turn into Mr Burns clacking his little boney fingers together in excitement. What Happened to Suzy came across my proverbial desk recently and I was intrigued by the creative concept of a true crime documentary that went on more of a journey than just retelling the past. I was then pleasantly surprised watching it by the creativity of the found footage approach and the ever escalating stakes of the story.

The intro is a familiar interview setup, a dimly lit lamp giving depth to a chopped up interview of a victim’s family member where they show no emotion about the tragedy they're recounting. Andy (Dylan Nunez) is said family member, and his sister, Suzy is the victim. She went missing some time ago, with just enough time elapsed for the documentarians to ask the hard hitting questions for their hard hitting docuseries. Although in this film, we get a peek behind the curtain, seeing the predatory questioning to elicit a reaction from Andy and give them that juicy trailer material. After the shoot, Don (Paul Parducci) approaches Andy to invite him to make a different documentary, one that is about him and his experience. Andy agrees and so begins an unraveling of information about Suzy, Andy and their uncle, Richard (Alain Mora). Richard is currently in prison, so we only see snippets of his conspiracy theory web show, and a facetime where trickles of the mystery are revealed, widening the scope of exactly what’s going on here, and the question at the centre of it all, what happened to Suzy?

The poster for this film (which is excellent) would have you believe that this is a horror, and while horror is a broad genre, I don’t really think it slots itself into it. For me, this is much more of a thriller and a mystery. The mystery element in particular is what kept me interested while I was watching, as you get more and more information in each scene that ties so much of what questions you have together by the end. Speaking of the end, I do think that the climax of the mystery comes together quite dramatically, but also quite predictably. The found footage medium means that when the film ends, it feels a little like someone has just turned off the camera and we’re expected to fill in the rest, Blair Witch style. What The Blair Witch Project has is a continuous mystery that What Happened to Suzy lacks. We know most of the information by the final shot, so leaving us on a bit of a cliff hanger is bold, but also a little unsatisfying. There is nothing really to wonder once the credits roll. Some more confidence in the audience putting two and two together could have made the ending really impactful, but alas, it was not.

I was impressed by the acting in this, with lower budget films, I am often unfairly expecting some duds in the acting department, but I think Nunez and Parducci are both really great in their roles, with Parducci maintaining his odd sensibility of mysterious and open in his communication, a weird line to walk, but one walked quite well. I also want to shout out Kira Omans as Cynthia, who had every right to be a boring and forgettable third in the equation. She doesn’t get a lot to do in the film, while it focuses on Andy’s story, but when she is around, I feel like her presence is not wasted. Some of the other supporting cast don’t quite reach Cynthia’s level for me, with Alain Mora in particular having quite a lot of mystery surrounding him, and very little payoff in the scenes we see him in.

The plethora of found footage films out there have a tough job of telling their story without cheating the format. While I will give liberties to audio, What Happened to Suzy did a great job sticking to the rules of their in world cameras. We have a good variety too, with higher end and well lit interviews, to grainy and hidden CCTV cameras. I didn’t find myself bored by the lack of camera choice, or annoyed by the sheer variety, it’s well managed here.

The choice to set the film in Covid era is a little weird to me. The director, James Ersted mentioned writing this through Covid and then going into preproduction in 2021, when restrictions began lifting. I’m not sure when it was shot, but if there was no mask mandate at the time, I don’t think it really adds anything to the story to have it included. It just felt a little like they were writing it with that in mind because of the restrictions at the time, and then just kept it because of the odd lines here and there that reference masks or the lockdown. I thought it may tie in nicely with Uncle Richard’s conspiracy web series but nothing ever came of it. Even with social restrictions in place, Ersted managed to stretch an assumedly low budget to multiple locations, great set design and a sprawling film that never felt weighed down by its independent nature.

What Happened to Suzy is streaming now on FoundTV.com’s streaming service.