Confessions in Static (2025) horror film review

Confessions in Static is an exploration of the True Crime genre, and its ethics and effects on society, but it fails to deliver that message in a satisfying or novel way. Written and directed by Troma veteran Bob Freville, Confessions in Static is a satirical found footage film that takes the viewer through a series of vignettes that piece together the events of one fateful night when two groups of friends go to the same “murder house”. The film opens in medias res with four long-term friends being interrogated after recently reuniting at a funeral, with flashbacks of that night in the form of camcorder and iPhone footage.

The film has a lot to say about a lot of different topics, but fails to really deliver anything meaningful. In addition to its main theme of true crime’saffect on society, it also attempts to talk about toxic masculinity, white privilege, and “wokeness” (*eyeroll*) but the messages are so muddled that it’s unclear what they’re trying to say. The cast is an unlikable group consisting of Jason–the alpha influencer who is disgusted by queerness, Al–the sycophantic conspiracy-obsessed stoner who follows Jason’s every order, Danny,the documentarian filming everything, and Lisa–the “innocent girl” who might know more than she lets on. They are pretty standard character tropes that don’t make the audience want to connect with them or care what they have to say. Which is a shame because the film is almost entirely dialogue.

To say the writing feels clunky would be an understatement. This movie wants to be Heretic mixed with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but lacks the nuance of the former and the wit of the latter. The characters didn’t feel like old friends who had just reunited after more than a decade, they felt like a group of strangers trying to “out-edge” each other. There are multiple scenes that go on for far too long and add nothing to the story. The worst example of this is a scene in which the characters listen to a podcast, simply standing and reacting to it. This goes on for 44 seconds and serves as an exposition dump. The assumption is that these are meant to be character-building scenes, but they just fall flat and leave the viewer bored. The film briefly diverges from the main cast at points to follow a group of Youtubers who want to get some clout from the infamous murder house. These characters are extremely queer-coded to the point of ridicule, which further confuses what this movie is actually trying to say.

The characters spend a lot of time talking about “PC” culture and how terrible it is, lumping in everything from cultural appropriation to liberals being weak. One might assume that since we aren’t meant to like these characters that the film is taking the opposing stance, but there are no actions shown to back it up. None of the ideas go deeper than surface level, and it leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth.

There were enjoyable parts of the film. In particular, there is a scene near the beginning during the exposition dump in which it cuts from found footage to classic filming, and we see some cool practical effects in the form of severed fingers in a crazed man’s mouth. This was a great way to show the backstory and break up the dialogue with a little bit of action, and I wanted so much more of it. Dialogue-heavy films are great, but they need to keep the viewer invested, not bored. With the Troma name being touted alongside Freville’s, there was a surprising lack of any action at all. The only time anyone is hurt is in a fight scene that makes The Room feel like a Marvel movie. If the movie leaned more into breaking up the found-footage with some more interesting practical effects like the very brief cutaway we got, it would have gone a long way towards selling the dialogue.

This was clearly a work of passion. It looks like everyone involved had fun making Confessions in Static, but unfortunately that amusement did not translate to the screen. It tries to explore too many themes while staying surface level, bores the viewer with clunky dialogue and completely irrelevant scenes, and fails to live up to the potential behind its premise and creator. Although this is a creator to watch, it’s hard to recommend this particular film.