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Anacoreta Breakdown: Found Footage Horror & Act 3 landings
10 Plays4 days ago
This week on Streamin’ Demons, Jo and Amelie take a look at the 2022 indie horror film Anacoreta. The movie follows a group of filmmakers heading out to a remote cabin in the woods to shoot an experimental horror project, but as the cameras keep rolling the situation slowly starts to unravel.
The acting is surprisingly strong, especially considering the cast is often playing actors inside the film itself. Jo and Amelie talk about how that works in the movie’s favor early on, along with the solid atmosphere and setup. But once the story hits the third act, the logic starts to slip and the tension that was building begins to fall apart.
Along the way the hosts also get into a debate about how people react to danger in the woods. Amelie’s instinct is to call out to a stranger and figure out who they are. Jo’s instinct is much simpler: get in the truck and leave.
Is Anacoreta worth checking out? Jo and Amelie break down what works, what doesn’t, and why the film ends up being a mix of solid ideas and frustrating decisions.
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KEY MOMENTS
Opening riff – Jo kicks things off joking about reviewing a “new” movie from 2022 that they couldn’t talk about until now.
The premise – A group of filmmakers head to a remote cabin to shoot an experimental horror movie… and things slowly start unraveling.
Acting inside acting – The cast pulls off the tricky job of playing actors making a movie, shifting between intentionally bad acting and real performances.
Jo’s take – The first two acts work well, but once the movie hits Act 3 the internal logic falls apart and the tension drops.
Cultural clash moment – Jo and Amelie debate what they’d actually do if they saw a stranger who was stalking them in the dark in the woods. Amelie would call out and talk. Jo’s response: get in the truck and leave.
Location oddity – The “abandoned” cabin somehow has perfectly maintained flowers, which becomes one of the episode’s running jokes.
Final verdict – There’s real talent here from the filmmakers, but the third act keeps the movie from landing as well as it could.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Film Teaser
00:00:07
Jo
Hey everyone, Joe and Emily here. Today on Streaming Demons we have Anna Coretta. I think. Something like 2022 film.
00:00:14
Amelie
Yes. Yes.
00:00:16
Jo
We went back in time to snatch this one, but we can't talk about it until 2026, so you do the math on that motherfucker. All that and more on this Dreaming Demons. Hit it. Kidding, there's no music anymore. Or it probably was. Who knows?
Weekly Film Routine
00:00:29
Jo
Anyways, we just finished watching. You know this deal. We watch them and then we talk about them. We just finished watching this one. we were supposed to watch it last week, but difficulties ensued.
00:00:39
Amelie
yes
00:00:40
Jo
And so this was your pick from last week. And are you still thrilled about your pick from last week?
00:00:48
Amelie
It was... it's new! Something different from the different movies we usually watch! That's all!
00:00:54
Jo
Yeah, it's new. It's four years old. It's very new.
00:00:57
Amelie
Yeah. Yeah, so new.
00:00:59
Jo
Yeah, it's... Okay, I'll read the IMDb off.
Film Synopsis and Overview
00:01:04
Jo
The IMDb off... Db off, it sounds fucking dirty. Found footage horror, which is more or less found footage-ish.
00:01:13
Jo
Director is Jeremy Schultz. Schultz? Sorry, my bad. Also written with Matt Weiser. A group of friends travel for a weekend away to an isolated cabin in the woods to shoot an experimental horror movie.
00:01:26
Jo
Slowly, the film begins to unravel and we see the true monster appear from the shadows. The plot. up I'm sorry, the director. My bad, I misread that one. It actually said the director, not the plot. That's on me.
00:01:39
Jo
Starring Antonia Thomas, Jeremy Schultz,
Awards and Duration
00:01:41
Jo
Matt Weiss. So they're actually starring and writing and directing it. And sometimes it works. And Tom's, don't. hit And Jesse Stanley. I must just like say the last fucking person's name there.
00:01:52
Jo
It has one award. One win total, which is nice. More than my fucking book won last time. The Heartland International Festival, 2002 winner horror award, Jeremy Schultz, director. Good job, buddy. So it's an hour and a half.
00:02:07
Jo
And i will say this, for an hour and a half movie, it, well, you start feeling it.
00:02:19
Jo
You start feeling the hour and a half.
Critique of the Third Act
00:02:21
Jo
It starts out well.
00:02:21
Amelie
Yeah.
00:02:23
Jo
Middle's kind of cool. Towards Act 3, you're just like, fuck me, man.
00:02:25
Amelie
Yeah.
00:02:28
Amelie
Mm-hmm.
00:02:28
Jo
And i think it's once the logic exits, that's when the joy exits the movie.
00:02:40
Jo
Is that fair?
00:02:40
Amelie
Yeah.
00:02:41
Jo
Like Act 3, there's, without spoiling it, everything else is believable except for like, well, hold on.
00:02:42
Amelie
Yeah. Totally fair.
00:02:49
Jo
How do do this without spoiling it? Let's just say, but for instance, for instance, you and I go camping.
00:02:57
Amelie
Yes.
00:02:58
Jo
Just with a film crew. Why not?
00:03:01
Amelie
Mm-hmm.
00:03:02
Jo
And like, you go missing.
00:03:05
Amelie
Yeah.
00:03:06
Jo
I'm like, oh my God, oh my God, Amelie's missing. We should probably go look for you. And we'd look for you. And then we're like, you what?
00:03:11
Amelie
Yeah, I hope so.
00:03:12
Jo
Since we're all here, can we just like, make this like, sit in this graveyard for a while? I want to get the light. oh the light The sun's coming out.
00:03:18
Amelie
Oh.
00:03:20
Jo
want to get the light. No, she'll be fine. She'll be fine.
00:03:22
Amelie
Yeah.
00:03:22
Jo
Fuck her. It's like, what the fuck, Logic? That's when the film Logic just like hiccups completely off the fucking rails.
00:03:27
Amelie
He would look for me. I hope he would look for me.
00:03:29
Jo
Yeah.
00:03:31
Amelie
Like, oh, she would be fine. Worst case scenario, she would fall in a beat, you know. hu girl Who knows? Who knows?
00:03:40
Jo
Yeah. Although that does bring up two things. Without doing a lot of, mean, the first couple of taglines I read, I didn't see the part where it says the the you know the true monster appears in the shadows, the director. and That's not actually in the original PR I got.
00:03:58
Jo
So i'm like, oh, the director's just being a cunt. Like, the the the guy in the red shirt is just going be a fucking asshole the entire time. To the point where you're why is anyone still here?
00:04:10
Jo
And we did make fun of it, i mean, a little bit for location, like the ah dark abandoned cabin that's got immaculate fucking flowers. It's abandoned, except for the gardener comes out once in a while, you know, daily.
00:04:23
Amelie
I want my flat to be that abandoned. Like...
00:04:26
Jo
Yeah, right.
00:04:28
Amelie
It's so beautiful. It's really lovely.
00:04:29
Jo
Perfectly fucking maintained.
00:04:31
Amelie
Yeah.
00:04:32
Jo
Perfectly fucking maintained. And it's shot in, I'm guessing, Canada or some shit like that. We won't hold that against them. Oh, yeah. Origin country, Canada. BC, I was right.
00:04:42
Jo
Okay, motherfucker.
00:04:42
Amelie
Oh.
00:04:43
Jo
BC, driving on the bridge. So you you have all these things and the the good news and bad news, the acting is really well done.
Acting Performance
00:04:52
Jo
It really is. Like, this is Barry.
00:04:53
Amelie
Yes.
00:04:55
Jo
oh Remember when we were doing Barry and we're saying the acting is really good cause they're good at bad being bad actors?
00:04:59
Amelie
Yeah.
00:05:02
Amelie
Yeah.
00:05:03
Jo
Yeah, we get that here too, where acting's so good because they have to play a bad acting sometimes.
00:05:10
Amelie
Mm-hmm.
00:05:10
Jo
And it's like, holy shit, this is dreadful. Like, oh no, the guy's this really good actor. He's playing bad for a minute.
00:05:14
Amelie
Mm-hmm.
00:05:16
Jo
And then he's popping back into actual acting again.
00:05:16
Amelie
Yeah.
00:05:20
Jo
So it's really well done on that aspect of it.
00:05:20
Amelie
Mm-hmm.
00:05:22
Jo
And you know the the it was shot well and stuff like that. you You asked me a question... You asked me a question because early on they go off, they drive in the middle of the night because Jackass wants a shot of him at his grandfather's graveyard.
00:05:38
Amelie
Yes. Yes. So there is this shot in the graveyard and there is a man in the darkness and they're all in the car.
00:05:50
Amelie
And she's panicking, the main actress, she's panicking. Oh my God, oh my God. I'm like, very simple. You get out of the car and you're like, hey dude, what's up? My name is Amelie. What's your name?
00:06:01
Amelie
What's your story? What's going on? Or you turn on all your light, bright light, to just light the guy.
00:06:07
Jo
ye um Yeah, here it is.
00:06:08
Amelie
And then you open the door and you talk. And you say to me, oh, oh, oh, no, no, no. What would you do? What would you do?
00:06:19
Jo
They weren't actually out of the car. yeah They were out of the car. They weren't in the car. They were out of the car when she spots the guy in the woods.
00:06:24
Amelie
yeah yeah awesome
00:06:26
Jo
So they weren't in the car, like didn't they have like headlights and
00:06:26
Amelie
isn Correct. Yes.
00:06:29
Jo
yeah So you kind of like transported the fucking scenario at the point. But you you you said you would like call out say, hey man, what's up? And I'm like, okay, so country road, stranger in the dark who's been following us.
00:06:46
Jo
Yeah, fuck that. I'm getting in the truck and I'm driving away. Fuck all this shit. Do I have my gun? No. Okay. I don't know if he has
Cultural Differences Discussion
00:06:54
Jo
his gun. I don't want to find out.
00:06:57
Jo
If I have my gun, then we can see slightly different.
00:06:57
Amelie
And that's what is the difference between you and me. and it's so American of you because in me, for me, who is from the countryside, who lives this kind of situation when it's completely dark and there is a man there, I would speak, I would say, yes, I can see he has a shovel on his hand, but I don't think about a gun.
00:07:01
Jo
I have guns.
00:07:17
Amelie
I don't think fix the person has a gun. Like, it's really interesting. Maybe a knife, but not a gun. And you said, if I have a gun, I'm going to talk. I don't have in my French spirit, oh, I have a gun.
00:07:31
Amelie
Like, it's not natural for me. It's, I've got a car, I'm powerful. I can start the light of the car and light the guy.
00:07:37
Jo
Yeah, um you're not in the car though. That's what saying. You're transporting them into their fucking car.
00:07:42
Amelie
And he...
00:07:43
Jo
They were not in the car.
00:07:43
Amelie
Ah, yeah. And even if, even if I'm in the cemetery, like at the beginning of scene, cemetery, I would scream.
00:07:44
Jo
Do you understand?
00:07:49
Amelie
Hi. Hello. What's up? Because we are one, two, three. I think there were five people or four people. There are her, her boyfriend, the cameraman.
00:08:02
Jo
Three.
00:08:03
Amelie
Three versus one. Hey, hello. Two men and a woman.
00:08:08
Jo
Three versus one, a guy with a gun is still three versus one against a gun.
00:08:08
Amelie
Hey, hello. What's up? Why are you? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:08:14
Amelie
So for me in my head as a European, i would just raise my voice. Hi, hello. What's your name? Can I help you?
00:08:14
Jo
At distance.
00:08:24
Amelie
Can we help you? Because maybe he's a guardian of the cemetery. You see what I mean? Or maybe a farmer who passed who just checked who the fuck are these people who come in a lamp in the cemetery.
00:08:35
Amelie
You never know. That's what I imagined my in my in my mind. And you, you were like, ha ha ha, if I don't have a gun, I don't talk to that person. And that's so American to think about having a gun. Like I would never think of imagining Joe with a gun.
00:08:50
Jo
You don't know me too well. So i grew up in the middle of North woods. We had more than a few parties in the middle of the woods.
00:08:57
Amelie
Mm-hmm.
00:09:00
Jo
If there's someone while we were partying that came by, will probably do it that, but you know, group in mass. If you're walking around and you see another hunter, sure, I get it.
00:09:12
Jo
Kind of weird, but no one's actually physically following you with truck and then trying to cause menace because that point is not random. Especially a place we've never been before. and an area that you don't actually know after dark, which he didn't have to go there. and like the guys By the way, the guy's going to the the graveyard after dark because he wants the shot.
00:09:33
Jo
It's all douchebag 101. It's basically a Zach Ryan. And then, yeah, if it was me and two other people, you're one of them, and like and one other the person, if I was already out of the, and everyone's out of the fucking truck, whatever, say, that's interesting. You two get in the fucking, that at most, you two get in the fucking vehicle.
00:09:59
Jo
Let me see what this person wants from a fucking distance, at most.
00:10:02
Amelie
Yeah.
00:10:04
Amelie
Mm-hmm.
00:10:05
Jo
But honestly, I don't think I'll be traveling in the middle of fucking woods in the middle nowhere without something on me.
00:10:13
Amelie
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
00:10:16
Jo
Because you're like, oh, I made you have a knife. Like, yeah, a guy with a knife in the middle of fucking woods is still a guy with a fucking knife in the dark.
00:10:24
Amelie
Uh-huh.
00:10:26
Jo
And you don't get to guess, like, what their fucking thing. And this is not going back where you'd rather have a bear or a guy meeting whomever.
00:10:30
Amelie
Yeah.
00:10:35
Amelie
Yeah.
00:10:35
Jo
It's a matter of you can say hello.
00:10:36
Jo
Absolutely. a it just seems some so much fucking trouble, man. Get in the car. Jet. If they were calling out after you for help, let them do that.
00:10:48
Jo
Then you can talk. If they're approaching you and saying something, let them talk. But theyre the guy is like creeping up and trying to fucking hunt them. Then that's no longer a friendly thing.
00:11:00
Jo
It's not even neutral.
00:11:01
Amelie
yeah
00:11:01
Jo
If the guy's like wandering around, then yeah, you can talk to him. The guy's hiding behind fucking trees and shit. No, that's not neutral behavior. That's aggressive behavior. That's hunting predator. My fucking light just went out.
00:11:14
Jo
So yeah, no, I was like, first rule of fight club, fucking safety. If you can't be safe, you don't get to fucking do it.
00:11:26
Jo
And that's like, sorry, took my fucking thing out. And
00:11:33
Amelie
is really interesting to see your point of view, you know. Because since we're beginning the podcast, like for many series, movies, scenarios, scenes, etc.
00:11:44
Amelie
I tend to forget you're an American. And the gun is really inside your culture. Like I was talking to my friend, AJ, who is a vet from Afghanistan and I'm like, oh my God, like going to the army and stuff is like, you know, it's encouraged in America to go to to special places to learn how to shoot with a gun and, you know, In some countryside, people tend to hunt a lot, etc. So the culture of gun in France instance is more for hunting.
00:12:16
Amelie
I know a lot of hunters, you need really special certification to hunt deers, you know, rabbits, this kind of thing. And for me, someone who has a gun is a hunter. And in France, we all have a knife.
00:12:29
Amelie
We do have sometimes pepper spray. And when I was a receptionist, I remember getting pepper spray from Belgium and I had a baseball bat. And when I bought the baseball bat, some people were like, you need to hide your baseball bat when you're in the shopping mall center because I bought it in a shopping mall, in a sports shop, because it's considered as not to like a weapon.
00:12:53
Amelie
And I was like, okay.
00:12:54
Jo
Yeah, baseball bat is a weapon.
00:12:56
Amelie
A baseball bat. A baseball bat, it's a weapon.
00:13:02
Jo
Yeah.
00:13:02
Amelie
Mm-hmm.
00:13:02
Jo
A baseball bat is a weapon.
00:13:05
Jo
I'm more surprised you didn't think a baseball bat would be a weapon. but Maybe that's just American to me. Yeah, maybe so. So, yeah, we had that one, and then there was another one... Oh, man. Like if later on they have a fight in the middle was, of course I do. And in the dark, of course I do.
00:13:20
Jo
And she's like, fuck this. I'm out. I'm like, hell yeah, you go, girl. You get the fuck out of there right now. You don't want to give the car keys. Take a fucking hike. Road's this way.
00:13:31
Jo
Like, no no, wait for the summer. Like, wait, wait for the sun. i'm like, the sun? gets hot out and shit, man.
00:13:37
Amelie
fifty
00:13:38
Jo
I'm gonna go now. Let's cool out. Fuck this shit. Yeah, I get those predators that actually awake during the fucking night.
00:13:44
Amelie
yeah
00:13:44
Jo
But you know what, man? I don't want to be around the toxic asshole either. I'm getting the fuck out.
00:13:49
Amelie
move
00:13:51
Jo
And then you discover something about me. That you would actually look for me. But you said you said you would use a dog.
00:14:00
Jo
And soon as you said that, I'm like, motherfucker, you think i'm gonna leave you with a dog? No, I'm picking a dog with me. I like dogs. It's coming with me. You guys can stay in the fucking middle of woods by yourselves.
00:14:12
Jo
Me and the dog or going this way. So you think that's bad, but you think yelling out to a fucking guy stalking you is good.
00:14:22
Amelie
What do you mean?
00:14:22
Jo
That's my question to you.
00:14:24
Jo
okay You think me saying yes, leave in the middle of night. If you fed up with that fucking, how you know, if you fed up your camp party, just fucking leave. It's not like it's dense forest. It's a goddamn road.
00:14:38
Jo
Just walk up the fucking road. Go back to wherever you just fucking walked to and go to sleep there. And you say, though no, that's bad. You know, is it's nighttime. Wait until daytime. But you at the same time would say like, oh, a guy stalking us in the middle of the woods. Let's call out.
00:14:55
Jo
Maybe he's friendly.
00:14:58
Jo
So how do those two, like, mentalities, you know, equate?
00:15:05
Jo
Oh, the guy's clapping. That's how they equate. Okay. No, really. How do they equate for you? I'm curious.
00:15:10
Jo
Today's part of Streaming Demons where Joe asks questions and nothing else happens. So we'll just...
00:15:14
Amelie
It's.
00:15:16
Jo
We'll fuck off with that one. ah Overall, movie-wise, if you at home have an answer, write as write us. I'll read off in the air next time.
00:15:27
Jo
But it's it's
Overall Film Assessment
00:15:29
Jo
it's a movie. like The acting is good. 3 is shit. I see what they try to do, and they don't really quite pull it off.
00:15:40
Jo
Would I watch this in a theater? No. Was I disappointed in watching this? No. Do I want to watch it again? Not really. Do I want to see something from the same team again? Probably. Because again, the talent's there.
00:15:53
Jo
it just wasn't my cuppa it almost wasn't my cup of tea, man. I think there'd be better movie if they changed... Easy as said, right? If they kept with what we're doing for the first act, second act, and third act continued that trajectory without trying to do something formulaic, I think it would have been brilliant.
00:16:11
Jo
But Act 3 being Act 3, it's just like, I don wanna don't know. Who fucking cares? Is that fair like so assessment?
00:16:19
Jo
All right. If it's a fair assessment, if you're being held hostage, blink twice.
00:16:25
Amelie
which
00:16:26
Jo
Kidding. I guess that's... But is that a fair assessment or no? All
00:16:30
Jo
right. I'm... Getting nothing? All So on behalf of myself and Amelie, we bid you watch it or not. It's ah Anna Carada, 2022, Jeremy Schultz, and Matt Weiser.
00:16:44
Jo
Until next time, we bid you good day. Bye, everyone.