Two cops answer a domestic disturbance call and are soon caught in an inescapable night of terror in Brandon Christensen’s found footage horror film Bodycam, premiering on Shudder on Friday, March 13th
TW: Infant and animal trauma.
Last year, director Brandon Christensen and his team, including cowriter Ryan Christensen and cinematographer Clayton Moore, gifted us the Shudder original Night of the Reaper, a notable and highly recommended film. Its style, storytelling, and verisimilitude helped to turn the expecations of the subgenre on its head. They return for another Shudder-original, Bodycam, which perfectly fits the subgenre’s expectations, creating a fantastic tone and sense of the world through a tight, tense found-footage journey. In this case, it might not reinvent the genre, playing like a V/HS segment expanded to full length (or the X-Files/Cops crossover episode), but that doesn’t abate the effectiveness. I understand the V/H/S comparison might turn some fools off, but trust me, Bodycam is a rollicking, rolling film, never taking a break with the breathtaking terror and uncomfortable nature of the story.
It’s Friday, October 13th. Officers Jackson and Bryce (all the camerwork is from either of their… wait for it… bodycams) answer a call in what could be a trap house. Reports of a woman screaming inside put them on the porch. Zombie-like junkies, akin to those milling about in Prince of Darkness, watch and loom. Another scream, and they go in. Well, without showing the hand, things happen and set off a night of terror. The junkies are more dangerous than they seem; cult-like activity occurs. It all bursts with a sense of “we shouldn’t be here. We shouldn’t see this.” But they can’t unsee, they can’t undo. And they are stuck getting worse and worse with no way out in sight as the world becomes more dangerous and surreal. No escape from the madness.
Funny coming so close to Night Patrol, which botched police vs supernatural so hard. But, Christensen’s film doesn’t use the overcoating of racism or police brutality or the like. Bodycam is straightforward and fat-free. At a mere 75 minutes, Christensen keeps it tight, focused entirely on just what is happening and the horror of it. Two cops enter a situation and are quickly over their heads and involved by going to the wrong place and the wrong time, making a horrible choice, and the consequences. Especially if the consequences enter a vast unknowable terror, keeping mostly to the pair and a few other sane humans, the information is kept close to the chest and never takes a silly step of too much. It’s kept mysterious and unnerving rather than explained away with needless or forced exposition.
Christensen deftly avoids using too many of the expected cliches, shifting on what’s set up. One might think, “oh I see where he’s going”. In the same ways, such conjecture is correct, but done in slightly new, surprising ways. In others, the red herrings are self-aware misleads. It’s smartly put together, as was Night of the Reaper. The characters are well-developed and written, avoiding the good cop/bad cop dichotomy. Jaime M. Callica’s Officer Jackson is written to be more even-headed and a protagonist, but that doesn’t mean Sean Rogerson’s pushy and edgy Officer Bryce is a bad guy, just a different way who keeps making bad choices, but in a way we understand, but most viewers will not agree with. Choices that lead to the trouble we know is coming.
As he did for Night of the Reaper, cinematographer Clayton Moore uses the darkness incredibly well; I love it when a film set primarily at night with deep darkness is still immediately visible. So many do that wrong, confusing muddy visuals for horror. All the more impressive with the filming from chest-level found footage style. Yes, for those motion sick, the opening features plenty of shaky cam, but I noticed it lessened as the film went on. I was impressed with how it was cut, thank you to editors Brandon Christensen (again) and Rob Grant. Matching shots create a continuity, and the shot choices and cuts build up the tension, showing us just what to see, increasing rather than dispelling and cutting tension with a sudden shift.
Bodycam is another win for the Christensens, who also previously made Z, Superhost, and Still/Born. Tight and effective, it makes new uses and methods of the familiar premise. Bodycam comes to Shudder Friday, March 13, 2026.