Compliance is a new found footage horror movie about surveillance, conspiracy and a disturbing rabbit hole.
Written, directed, produced and edited by Kyle Mangione-Smith, Compliance is a new independently made horror thriller, which turns modern surveillance technology into its own storytelling device, building a conspiracy out of security cameras, webcams, phones, screen-sharing and other digital eyes that are usually watching us without us thinking about it – the film has already made its UK debut at Tubi FrightFest, where it screened on August 31, and will now make its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest later this month.
A Found Footage Movie Where Nobody Is Really Holding The Camera
COMPLIANCE follows Sam Cornell (Megan Wilcox), a young crisis manager working for tech startup UVisit, and Sam is brought in when a sexual assault scandal threatens to derail a multimillion-dollar business deal, where her job is essentially corporate damage control, but while also attempting to contain the fallout and help the woman at the centre of the scandal, she starts uncovering something much bigger.
And rather than relying on the familiar found-footage setup of somebody wandering around with a camcorder while screaming, Mangione-Smith constructed the movie around environmental surveillance – cameras that are already present in the world and are largely unnoticed by the people being recorded – security cameras, hacked webcams, dashcams, body cameras and screen-based footage all become pieces of the puzzle.
From DIY Horror Project To Fantastic Fest
Mangione-Smith originally launched a Kickstarter for the movie in 2024 with a $15,000 goal, eventually raising $22,807 from 153 backers, and at the time, the filmmaker described the project as a largely DIY production and explained that the surveillance-camera approach was partly inspired by the possibilities of making ambitious found footage without needing a massive budget, where he specifically cited Spree and the Alan Resnick short This House Has People In It as examples of the kind of technology-driven storytelling that interested him.
This will also be Mangione-Smith’s feature debut, although he isn’t completely new to uncomfortable digital horror – his previous short Annihilator dealt with the world of online snuff films, while his work more broadly has focused on violence, alienation and the darker side of the modern digital world.
Alongside Megan Wilcox, the cast includes Lindsey Normington, who appears as Sarah, Charlie Wood and Neil Wachs, and Normington will probably be the most recognisable name to horror fans coming into the film after appearing in Anora, while Wilcox previously appeared in Raccoon Soup.
Mangione-Smith has an unusually large amount of control over the finished movie – he is credited as writer, director, producer and editor, with Denis Kirkman-Moriarty serving as cinematographer, Dani Taouil as production designer and DJ Speedsick handling the score.
The film runs for roughly 104 minutes.
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