Erie // Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2026 Review

Alison-Eve Hammersely’s feature debut, Erie, just had its East Coast premiere at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival on October 20th. Hammersely is an award-winning shorts filmmaker who is bringing her voice to the found-footage horror subgenre with Erie. Found footage has found another resurgence in the past few years, so it is nice to see new filmmakers taking shots at this polarizing subgenre.

Erie follows siblings Stella (Carly Stewart) and Oscar (Grant Crater) as they return to their Pennsylvania hometown of Erie to investigate their sister Iris’ (Aimee Paxton) unexplained death, following a mysterious rise in suicides within the county. Along the way, they meet Red (Ryan W. Garcia), who has also lost a loved one in a similar way to Stella (Stewart) and Oscar (Crater). From there, they go down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. Also, strange occurrences begin to happen once they make their way to the forest where their sister Iris (Paxton) supposedly killed herself.

Found Footage

Found footage fans will absolutely enjoy the initial set up to Erie as it wears its homages to the genre on its sleeve, with the main homage being this movie takes place in 1999. Yes, that year is extremely significant to found footage: The Blair Witch Project, HELLO! It also follows the simple but effective found footage formula to a T, until it doesn’t. We spend a lot of time with not much happening, focusing on character development and backstory, and then in the third act, chaos hits us. However, once we get to the third act, Erie makes a hard shift that could be extremely effective, depending on the viewer.

Character Performances

First and foremost, the characters and performances are without a doubt Erie’s strongest attributes. In Stella (Stewart), we have a strong, career-driven woman who will take any opportunity to advance her career. Some would say she has striking similarities to Heather Donahue of The Blair Witch Project. And just like Heather, Stella will be severely misunderstood and face scrutiny in the form of misogyny. A thorn in Stella’s side throughout Erie is her brother Oscar (Crater). Respectfully, Crater plays the annoying brother way too well, as he consistently bothers not only Stella, but the viewers as well. The sibling chemistry between Stewart and Crater is just off the charts.

Not to be outdone, conspiracy theorist Red (Garcia) is who really steers this movie in the right direction. With his awkward introduction and consistently erratic behavior, he provides the level of tension Erie needs as we wait to figure out what is going on.

A Switch

Throughout the first two-thirds of Erie, we have an intriguing mystery to solve, a good reason to keep watching, and characters we care about or find interesting enough to stay invested in. Only in the third act do we get a mixed bag.

Warning: minor spoilers ahead.

Erie takes a hard shift in the third act by switching formats. Yes, Erie is not just a found footage film; it is a hybrid found footage film. While the format switch makes sense once you see how the rest of the movie plays out, the abrupt shift in format and genre can be distracting, especially for found footage fans. Casuals, or even non-found footage fans, might enjoy this shift, as it goes somewhere completely different from the initial setup.

Your taste may vary when it comes to hybrid-style found footage films, but Erie does have a lot going for it. With fantastic performances, solid storytelling, creativity, and excellent tension-building, Erie is a found footage film worth watching.