Comparisons to The Blair Witch Project are inevitable for the inventive, satirical The Last Broadcast, a chilling and funny mockumentary by filmmakers Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler. Besides being made and coming to prominence around the same time (though without a Blair Witch-style marketing juggernaut), The Last Broadcast also details the doomed travails of some amateur filmmakers as they track a mysterious, murderous legend in a dark forest. Hmmm, sound familiar? Actually, The Last Broadcast takes a different tack on this premise, one more media-savvy than Blair Witch. Turns out that this is the latest installment of the X-Files-ish public access show Fact or Fiction, and its doofusy hosts (Avalos and Weiler themselves) plan on doing a live broadcast from deep in the New Jersey woods on their ongoing quest for the Bigfoot-like Jersey Devil. Teaming up with two Internet-based fans, they plunge themselves and their equipment into the wintry woods; only one man, the creepy psychic Jim (Jim Seward), returns, and is promptly convicted of the murders of the other three. While it does boast footage made by the "dead" filmmakers, The Last Broadcast is more formally structured as a documentary, complete with officious, muckraking host (David Leigh) and much behind-the-scenes footage. We're let in on the backgrounds of the victims, the 911 phone calls, the murder trial, the inconsistencies the prosecution overlooked, and the painstaking work of reconstructing the film stock, which may unlock the mystery of the true killer. Filmed entirely with digital cameras and assembled on digital systems for a mind-boggling $900, The Last Broadcast boasts a great look and a sharp, satiric eye for sending up the media--Avalos and Weiler are in calm command of their medium and message. The film does take a sharp turn that could either enrage or amaze viewers enraptured by what's preceded, but it's a minor quibble at best. And unlike The Blair Witch Project, The Last Broadcast does answer all the mysterious questions it raises. --Mark Englehart
