Paul Owens’ feature debut Landlocked takes a very unique approach to the found footage style of making a horror film, as Owens used his own family’s home movies to build the story for the film. The end result has gotten some strong word of mouth from its festival screenings, and now Dark Sky Films is planning to give Landlocked a VOD, digital, and limited theatrical release on January 6th. To help you figure out whether or not Landlocked is a movie you’ll want to watch at the beginning of the new year, we have the trailer embedded above.
Here’s the story Owens tells with Landlocked: Summoned to his soon-to-be demolished childhood home, Mason discovers an old VHS camera that can see into the past, driving him to record as many memories as possible before the doomed house is destroyed. Utilizing the director’s own home movies, filming in the actual locations where he spent his youth and casting real-life family members to play fictionalized versions of themselves, Landlocked combines narrative and documentary with horror and sci-fi to create a movie unlike any other…
The writer/director/producer stars in the film as a character named Paul and is joined in the cast by family members Mason Owens as Mason, Jeffrey Owens as Dad, and Seth Owens as Seth. Jeffrey is the Owens who directed the archival VHS material.
A press release notes that it took Paul Owens ten years to complete his work on Landlocked, and in just one week we’ll have the chance to watch the 75 minute feature film all those years of work added up to.
What did you think of the Landlocked trailer? Will you be watching this movie next week / next year? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below. I’m not generally a fan of found footage movies, but every once in a while a really good one will come along. The unique way Landlocked was put together has me more interested in seeing this than I normally am when I hear another found footage movie is on the way.
Dark Sky Films will also be bring us the ’70s thriller throwback Night of the Bastard in January.