Found footage horror is a genre that has been around long enough to have exhausted most of its tricks. Over the years, I've seen more than enough films in this particular subgenre to confidently say that There's A Man Over There is certainly not among the worst. Far from it, actually. In fact, this 2026 horror film gets quite a few things right that many other found footage movies seem to struggle with. Unfortunately, it also makes a few questionable decisions that ultimately prevent it from reaching its full potential.
There's A Man Over There Gets Found Footage Horror Right
One of the biggest problems with found footage horror is that so many films struggle to make their characters feel like actual human beings. We are often presented with the familiar cliché of young people who spend most of their time drinking, partying and doing drugs, usually without giving us much reason to care about any of them.
There's A Man Over There doesn't exactly reinvent this particular formula. Its characters still fit that familiar description, but there's one significant difference: they actually feel like real people.
And that makes all the difference.
The way the film is shot, the way the characters talk to each other and, perhaps most importantly, how they react to the situations around them all feel remarkably authentic. There is something wonderfully natural about the whole presentation. At times, it genuinely feels as though you're watching somebody's personal home videos rather than a carefully constructed horror movie.
Natural Performances Make the Characters Feel Real
A big part of this authenticity comes from the performances. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say the lack of traditional acting.
It almost feels as though the director simply told the cast to do their own thing, behave however they wanted and just make sure everything was heading in roughly the right direction. This approach works surprisingly well.
The actors don't appear to be constantly thinking about how they should deliver their lines or how they should react to a particular situation. Their conversations feel spontaneous, their interactions are believable and nothing really comes across as forced.
For a found footage movie like this, that is exactly what you want. The more natural everything feels, the easier it becomes to immerse yourself in the experience. And There's A Man Over There manages to achieve that considerably better than many of its genre counterparts.
A Slow-Building Mystery That Creates Genuine Tension
Another aspect that deserves praise is the film's pacing and overall structure.
Rather than immediately throwing everything at the audience, There's A Man Over There takes its time establishing its characters, introducing its mystery and gradually building the tension. Information is revealed little by little, allowing the sense of unease to grow naturally.
This is an approach that works particularly well within the found footage format. When the audience doesn't know exactly what is happening, even relatively ordinary situations can become uncomfortable. The film understands this and makes fairly effective use of it.
I also appreciated the fact that the central threat isn't some vague monster, supernatural entity or otherwise unexplained paranormal phenomenon. Instead, the danger comes from an actual human being.
There's something inherently more disturbing about a threat that could realistically exist in the real world. It makes the events feel considerably more grounded and gives the film an uncomfortable sense of plausibility that supernatural horror often struggles to achieve.
Unfortunately, the Ending Is Where Things Go Wrong
As is often the case with found footage horror, the build-up is considerably stronger than the eventual payoff. Unfortunately, There's A Man Over There takes this particular problem a step further.
In fact, its payoff is arguably even weaker than what we've come to expect from films of this kind.
For much of its runtime, the movie does an excellent job of keeping things relatively subtle and realistic. It understands that what you don't see can be considerably more frightening than what you do see. The mystery, the atmosphere and the gradual escalation of events all contribute to an increasingly unsettling experience.
But then the film decides to go all out.
Instead of maintaining the approach that worked so well throughout the rest of the movie, it starts showing far too much. The subtlety disappears, the realism takes a considerable hit and the tension that had been so carefully established begins to evaporate.
It's an incredibly frustrating decision because the film had already demonstrated that it didn't need to rely on excessive visual reveals to be effective. Its more restrained approach was working perfectly fine.
Had the filmmakers maintained that same level of restraint during the final act, we might have been looking at a considerably better horror movie.
Final Verdict: A Found Footage Horror Film With Plenty of Potential
Ultimately, There's A Man Over There is a film with some genuinely impressive qualities, but also a number of significant shortcomings.
Its naturalistic approach, believable characters, effective atmosphere and gradual build-up make it a considerably more engaging found footage experience than many of the genre's lesser entries. It understands the importance of authenticity and does an excellent job of making its fictional events feel like something that could actually have happened.
Sadly, the final act undermines much of that good work. By abandoning its subtlety and showing far too much, the film sacrifices precisely the elements that made it so effective in the first place.
It's a real shame, because there's a genuinely above-average found footage horror movie hiding somewhere in here. Instead, we're left with a film that has some considerable strengths, but just as many glaring weaknesses.
Still, there's enough here to make it worth checking out for fans of found footage horror. Just don't expect the ending to live up to the promise of everything that comes before it.
Rating: 6/10
