Confessional, a psychological thriller/whodunnit Shudder exclusive, is my favorite movie of 2020. There’s still half the year to go, but the bar has been set.

Okay, Troy, you started strong. Can you back up this grandstanding?

Elephant in the confession room – this is found footage. For some, that’s a turn off, and for others a real incentive to watch. I love me some cheesy, low-budge found footage. You know, a family’s going on vacation, so they tediously document every boring moment until the last five minutes when the killer takes the camera and brutally murders them?

But this ain’t that. Not even close.

Found footage has been done to death, but there’s always hope that inventive filmmakers will put a new spin on the subgenre.

And this is that.

Confessional is a faux documentary complete with text giving us characters’ names and connections and filling in additional information. As well as giving us some snark from the person behind the camera. It’s even broken up into chapters.

Um, this isn’t the first mockumentary horror flick, don’t you know about -

Yes, I know this isn’t the first found footage movie to be presented as a finished documentary as opposed to supposed to being raw footage documentarians died while shooting. The Hell House, LLC trilogy is just that, as well as Penn Jillette’s Director’s Commentary. It’s where the subgenre needs to be headed and more than coincidentally began with The Last Broadcast, which came out before The Blair Witch Project made it cool – and is a superior film.

Confessional is a mockumentary about someone forcing murder suspects to take place in talking head interviews for a documentary. So you never go, “Why don’t they put the camera down?” or “That’s impossible they’d get that shot!” And unlike ninety percent of found footage flicks since Blair Witch, they don’t start with a title card explaining everyone’s dead, which instantly dissolves tension. We don’t know the fates of any of the characters when the film begins, just that this was a documentary submitted anonymously to a student film festival.

Okay, that’s all cool or whatever, Troy, but what is the movie actually about?

The backstory is Amelia (Mia Xitali, Quinceanera) is a film student who likes to have her friends confess their inner secrets for her cameras. Zach (Brandon Larracuente, Party of Five) is a star swimmer and one of Amelia’s best friends. Amelia’s found dead from an overdose in her dorm room, and the same night Zach drowns in the campus swimming pool.

The deaths are deemed separate accidents and the campus mourns, but someone doesn’t buy it.

That someone has access to all of Amelia’s footage and decides to blackmail seven students who were close to Amelia and Zach into sitting down to film their confessions.

Who’s the killer? Who’s even the documentarian?

Yeah, Troy, who is the killer? Who even is the documentarian?

No spoilers, but I will say I was completely satisfied with all the answers.

On paper, this sounds like a real gamble. The majority of the movie consists of intercut scenes of one character in a room talking to cameras. But it’s so flippin’ good. (For a minute, I wondered if this was put together during the Coronavirus quarantine but this was filmed in 2019.)

Even though we spend most of our time in this claustrophobic confessional room, the movie doesn’t feel small. And it’s all in thanks to the incredible performances from the cast. There’s no weak link here.

Marcus Scribner (Black-Ish) is Garrett, Zach’s best friend and teammate. Paris Barelc (Alexa & Katie) plays June, Zach’s girlfriend. Vanessa Marano (The Dead Girls Detective Agency) is Noelle, Amelia’s film student rival. Lucas Adams (Days of Our Lives) is Major, head of the swim team and founder of a pro-men not-so-secret society on campus. Jess Gabor (Shameless) is Carrie, Amelia’s roommate. Jake Short (A.N.T. Farm) is Sai, Carrie’s step-brother. And Annalise Cochrane (Cobra Kai) is Raquel, the campus drug dealer.

I’d seen most of the cast in at least one other project but was most familiar with Marcus Scribner as Junior on Black-Ish. He demonstrates great range here playing a very different character as a popular jock.

The only complaint I have is the seven central characters are introduced in a lump that had me a little confused for the first few minutes. They do have their names and majors superimposed initially, but I could have used those titles to last a little longer. That won’t be a problem in repeat viewing of course.

Wait, what was that about a pro-men college society?

Glad you asked. Confessional is about people sharing their truths, or facing consequences. It’s a major theme. That means nothing’s off the table here. Turns out college students have sex and do drugs. I know, right.

Confessional also deals with rape culture and toxic masculinity. If you were one of the women who saw last year’s Black Christmas and cheered and felt empowered by seeing a movie openly dealing with those issues, you very well may feel similarly with Confessional. The two movies are very, very different in plot, tone, and execution, and coincidentally were both written by women whose surname is Wolfe. I was unfamiliar with Jennifer Wolfe before this, but I’ll watch whatever she makes next, no questions asked.

Is this some bloated, five hour thing because that’s fitting a LOT into one movie.

It’s a lean hour and a half, and I wanted more. Bring on a sequel! And, oh, I haven’t even gotten to how diverse it is.

Out of our nine lead characters, we have gay, lesbian, and bisexuals. Five women to four men. And four people of color. I’m not being very specific about the queerness because some of that factors into spoiler territory; queer identities are vital to the story. It’s almost as if the filmmakers purposefully set out for the world of Confessional to accurately represent a real world college campus.

Is there any random geekiness you want to express?

Oh yeah. The film also touches on the idea of the unreliable narrator. This is something we should all be more aware of, especially in documentaries, which are supposed to be fair and unbiased, but often are the viewpoints of the filmmaker.

When you pick up a camera and record something, you have influenced the picture. Even if you don’t add sound effects or fudge anything in post, you have decided what appears on the screen and for how long. And also what doesn’t. There is no such thing as a truly unbiased piece of art.

Confessional focuses on several people telling their truths to varying extents. Who is lying? Why are they lying? Are they even lying, or just skirting around the truth?

But there’s an extra layer to that, which is found in our documentarian.

They are feeding us a story. They are introducing characters, teasing danger by revealing blood, posing the whodunnit of it all, and editing the witnesses first hand accounts. This is two layers of reality at work. Sometimes in synch, sometimes at odds with one another.

So much geekiness, Troy…

I know, and there’s more! I really don’t want to touch on spoilers, but I want to hammer how impressed I am with Jennifer Wolfe’s writing. The names of the characters, if you look up what they mean (I’m a writer, I do this all the time) is reflexive of certain character aspects.

Amelia means “work.” She’s the filmmaker whose passion for her work inspires the entire story.

Zach means “Remembered by God.” As one of the two victims, it’s fitting that he be remembered.

Garrett means “Rules by the spear.” He’s one of Major’s soldiers and a tough guy character.

June is named after Juno, the Roman protectress of women and marriage. Her storyline revolves around relationships.

Noelle is French for “Christmas.” She’s recently won the big film competition and reacts to it like a kid on Christmas morning.

Major is probably a nickname, signaling how he wants to be presented and to lord over men and women like he’s an army superior.

Carrie means “Free man.” There’s a lot to unpack there, but much of her storyline involves forging her own identity, or becoming free from who she was before.

Sai means “protective.” He’s presented as Carrie’s overly protective younger step-brother.

Raquel means “innocent.” She fully admits to being a drug dealer, but states she’s innocent of any further wrongdoing.

(I may have lied about one of the names’ connections with a character to preserve the mystery. Ain’t I a stinker?)

Isn’t this supposed to be a review? Aren’t you getting lost in the weeds now?

Oh, snap, you’re right. There’s just so much in here to discuss, but you’re right, I’ll wrap things up.

Troy’s Takeaway: It might not be clear yet, but I loved it. There’s so much packed into a very simple concept and delivered powerfully. This is what I want to see in movies – great storytelling with diverse cast and characters tackling tough issues. Confessional is now available to stream on Shudder.