Bodycam: When Patrol Turns Into a Nightmare

From director Brandon Christensen, Bodycam is a found footage horror film that follows a pair of police officers, Officer Jackson (Callica) and Officer Bryce (Rogerson), who get an alleged domestic abuse call late at night while on patrol to a quiet suburban house in a rundown neighborhood. Shortly after responding to the call, the officers found themselves involved in an accidental shooting. Not wanting to be condemned by the public, the officers go about covering it up, only to find out that their body cameras aren’t the only things watching them. Leading them down a terrifying rabbit hole, their night would evolve into a full on nightmare. A decent addition to the found footage genre, it is one of the stronger films the genre has had to offer in quite some time.

The kind of film that feels like it belongs as part of the V/H/S franchise, it essentially feels like a feature length version of one of its segments in the best sense. It hardly wastes any time on setup, essentially jumping right into the action, which is a refreshing change of pace for a genre that usually revels in a prolonged setup. Setting the tone from the start, the tension continues to effectively build from there, before exploding into utter chaos come the second half that more than delivers. In the midst of its strong opening act, one can’t help but forget that there is a supernatural entity lurking around the corner, something that only adds to the experience. Put in a horrific situation, Jackson and Bryce keep finding ways to dig themselves into a deeper hole the longer the film goes, building even more dread out of the situation.

The scares themselves are super well handled, especially as the film goes along, creating the feeling of being in a real life haunted house. Making the most of its relatively short 75-minute runtime, it goes by in a flash, while still delivering a worthwhile watch. Callica and Rogerson are solid as Jackson and Bryce, despite not always making the best decisions. In spite of their flaws, audiences will find themselves emotionally invested in them, especially Jackson and his strong moral code. Similarly, it’s hard to not give director Brandon Christensen (and co-writer with his brother Ryan), and the rest of the crew, credit for pulling the film off with what one could only presume to be a very small budget and limited resources.

Doing exactly what it sets out to do, Bodycam is arguably not that memorable, nor bring anything all that new to the table. The story is on the basic side, while the characters aren’t given much in the way of development, and the dialogue comes off as a little stilted at times. In addition, the film also suffers from some very distracting and excessive shaky cam at points. A purposeful choice, it is on that can take audiences out of the experience, and can make those scenes hard to watch for the easily lightheaded or affect those who suffer from motion sickness. Meanwhile, the final few minutes and ending itself could have been a lot stronger as well, ending on a bit of a whimper.

For fans of found footage horror, Bodycam comes recommended and should check all the right boxes. Not without flaws, though the film doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, it is certainly well made and delivers a tense and scary watch that utilizes found footage in a successful way. At the end of the day, audiences can’t go wrong with something that is only 75-minutes long, and is now streaming on Shudder.

still courtesy of Shudder

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/