Full of suspense, Bruce Wemple’s Capture is an excellent horror film that keeps its audience guessing. With a fantastic lead performance from Kaitlyn Lunardi, Capture is a film that you need to check out.

After inheriting her parents’ long-abandoned house, Abby uncovers a mysterious thirty-year-old camcorder hidden among a collection of videotapes. As she reviews the footage, she begins to unravel horrifying secrets tied to her family’s past—and a terrifying truth about the camera itself: anyone it records doesn’t just relive the past, they die. What begins as a disturbing discovery soon becomes a desperate fight for survival as the camcorder’s supernatural power refuses to stay buried.

In all honesty, Capture is a very welcome surprise of a film. Wemple has smartly tiptoed around typical horror tropes, ensuring we are always guessing where the film is heading. Add to this the fun use of a camera that seemingly sees into the past as it is taken around a room and how, in fact, the victims are killed because of the camera, and you find yourself easily and immediately hooked to the story.

By leaving some things up in the air, the story’s ominous nature always shines, with us just wanting Abby to leave and, hopefully, be okay. There are simple techniques thrown in, like amping up what we are seeing on the tapes and cutting back to Abby in a darkened room. But because of how well structured and performed the scenes are, it still works on you, as any excellent horror should.

As good as the story is with Capture, it lives and dies on the performance of lead Kaitlyn Lunardi. From their introduction onwards, you buy their character; you see the trauma she’s endured, not knowing the truth about her parents, so when she should run the hell out of that house, you understand why she needs to stay. The early scenes of Abby seeing her parents in the first tapes are what clue you in that she is going to be excellent here; there is so much unsaid emotion on her face, from the joy of seeing her parents in love to the sadness of never seeing it firsthand. From then on, you know you are in safe hands with them as a performer.

In truth, this is the case with the rest of the cast, especially Cedric Gegel, as Abby’s foster brother Steve, while he isn’t given a lot of screen time (this is very much Lunardi’s show), he is highly effective as a brother who wants the best for his troubled sibling.

Wemple, who also directs and shoots Capture, keeps the film in a constant, dark, shadowy aesthetic. He wants us to wonder what is going on in the background, so the film, especially the interior shots, is constantly in low light. Again, it’s effective and keeps us searching for whatever is following or haunting Abby. By introducing this early on, far from the main house, we get the sense of a darkness clouding our protagonist, which is great.

With decent scares, a strong script and a terrific lead performance, it is very easy to appreciate Capture as the excellent horror that it is. Does it pull off everything? Not quite, but what we do get is something far better than expected and a horror that is well worth your time.

Capture is available on Digital and On Demand March 17th

★★★★

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