Macabre…ish Horror Review: TRIBE
You came here for a synopsis, which you will get (more of a play by play, really. Scroll down to find it 👇🏽) but let’s do it the opposite way than I normally do this.
TRIBE is Dan Asma’s debut horror feature film. This is an incredible debut, it’s a found footage film with an intriguing and interesting story and mystery. Disturbing visuals and eerie characters. If you like jump scares and found footage movies with a disturbing and fascinating story, give this one a try. Honestly, by the end I wanted more. Dan Asma is the co-founder of the marketing agency, Buddha Jones, he’s responsible for a lot of trailers of horror movies you’ve definitely seen.
Now when I say I want a solid (or better) found footage film, this movie, is what I mean. Give me a strong start, let the story unfold and then give me story moments so the mystery comes together. This movie is even a little bit out of order, which can be a little confusing but it makes sense because it is found footage and presented that way. The moments of jump scares and reveals were very nice and appreciated because as we all know, a found footage that reveals nothing is disappointing. This movie left me wanting a lot more, I watched it three times and thoroughly enjoyed it.
This is not a passive experience, you will have to pay attention to appreciate this movie. Follow and pay attention to the time/date stamps, they are important.
Spoiler alert - Synopsis:
TRIBE 2024, 80 min.
Let’s start at the beginining of the end:
Nov. 12 - 14, 2024
Devin’s lost track of time and his physical form is changing. His skin is changing and disturbing vein like structures have cropped up on his face in a cluster and it’s spreading. His eyes are losing their color. He has nightmares and strange fractures in his memory. Not only does he have no idea how he got to his location, he has no idea how to leave.
He has lost functions, like his ability to drive or understand how to operate his vehicle. He also can’t remember how to operate a lot of his gear or remember what’s on his hard drives. He’s seeing images all around him, terrifying images and all of his devices appear to be recording his thoughts. So he starts plugging in and watching the hard drives, all labeled, one by one.
The beginning…
Aug 10, 2024
Devin Adams, a retired Doctor of Visual Studies takes a break from his gear reviews to screen old home movies that his ex wife, Kate (Nicole Jones) drops off at his place. With an aside that Charlie asked her to hold onto them and give them to Devin, after he retires.
At first, it’s very normal video of friends, one of them, Charlie (Keaton Asma), sitting together talking. He talks about a theory that suggests that human evolution is tied to another intelligent species that might have evolved and died out. Charlie also talks about all the lack of evidence of so much history of evolution and how someday there will be no evidence of humanity. He talks about beliefs and how you can believe anything.
Then there are clips of a random and somewhat mysterious shipping container with the doors flung open and a grainy image of a noseless, humanoid being. Some of the clips are from the humanoid’s POV.
Kate is invited back to Devin’s place and he asks her what she remembers from back then, before Charlie committed suicide. And that weird church he was always going on about. Neither of them thought it was real. Kate is now curious about the tapes, some of which she is in.
So Devin does what anyone who’s never watched a horror movie would do, he decides to go on a road trip to the middle of nowhere, with shoddy signal to the mountains. He grabs his gear, dog, trailer and a 4 wheeler and hopes to find the shipping container. If it’s still there. And he documents the entire thing, starting with the death of his dear friend and college roommate, Charles Anchor.
It is Aug 20-22, 2024…
Devin sets up camp in the Cuyamaca Mountains, a place he, Kate and Charlie used to visit, 25 miles North of Mexico. He pulls out his drone to record some B roll and begin his search. And he eventually finds the shipping container, which looks brand new, somehow, and since it’s locked, Devin sets up trail cameras. It is August 28th.
In the next few days, he reviews the footage from the cameras and he doesn’t just get grainy, shadowy footage, it’s really good quality. The creature gets right up close after it realizes, it’s being recorded and aggressively interacts with the camera. He also brings the camera inside and is filming itself.
Devin is spooked and excited, he contacts a colleague in the anthropology department, Prof. Malcolm Orens and talks about the footage. Devin also contacts, colleague and Criminology student, Archer Auray (Tyona Bowman), to get her help searching for a church called Church of Heaven’s Light. Charlie mentioned it in the old videos.
Aug 30, 2024
Devin, later returns to the container and the door is open. Inside there’s a cot, a lit candle and notebooks. Devin quickly grabs the books and flees. Later, he contacts Sean Abigail, a Mathematician, in an attempt to understand the math inside the notebooks. Dr. Abigail says the math is extraordinary and the pages he received seem to be coordinates or 4 different places on the planet and a cryptic message that says “Prepare for Heaven’s Light, you don’t need eyes to see your savior. Forget the mind to find your faith, the faithless will suffer forever.”
Sept 5, 2024
Later that night, Devin returns to the container and something jumps out at him. He is terrified and flees back home, not to his trailer but home.
•
[Archer later leaves a message, she finds a topographical mapper, Gina Globe, who found the container and people living primitively inside. That was 8 years ago. But when Archer called her, she claimed to have no idea what she was talking about.]
•
Sept 9, 2024
Kate returns to Devin’s house with an ancient looking book, The History of the Church of Heaven’s Light. She acquired it from Charlie’s office manager, after his death. It seems to be written by his grandfather and contributed to by Charlie. She’s come to talk about what she found inside and it is eerie.
September 15, 2024
Devin returns to the spot and the container is gone. Nothing left but tracks and a painted stake that marks the spot of a buried case containing an ipad. On it, are strange clips, including some from the home movies and Charlie on May 10, 1994, over 30 years ago. Charlie is talking about daydreams and nightmares and how all of his thoughts are somehow recorded and downloaded to a hard drive.
Sept 17, 2024
Spooked, Devin sends some of those clips to Marissa Terrace, an expert in IT and Metadata. Marissa says this particular metadata are symbols that they’ve never seen before. She warns him about sharing these files, that they could be spreading a virus or cause a trojan horse event.
Winter.
Devin makes the trek to Mt. Shasta, which is the nearest coordinate from Dr. Abigail, from the notebook and which is mentioned in the church’s history book. He finds and enters a cave, then a cave within the cave. Just like it was mentioned in the book. And he almost immediately falls ill. Devin is surrounded by humanoid beings, they are invisible to him but they are there. He returns to his trailer.
While he sleeps, Archer leaves a message about more of her findings about the church. She speaks of corruption and deterioration of the members, magic and sacrifice. It’s all bad. Marissa also calls. The clips he sent her has been playing nonstop, on a loop, on all of their terminals with no way to stop them.
When Devin wakes, he is stunned to find he is physically changing, on top of still feeling terrible…
….Then he arrives at a place of darkness. A woman is there, she says he is in the Cuyamacas, the place beyond the clouds. Devin’s face then cracks and half of his head shears off…then he wakes up and he is shocked to discover he never left the Cuyamacas. It’s Nov. 17, 2024.
November 20th…
Devin can see the 40 foot massive, ever growing structures, he can feel their vibration and feels like he’s losing his mind.
Nov. 27, 2024
Devin finds himself in the dark place again, with the woman. She explains that he’s not dreaming, he’s in another dimension. She explained that her people moved underground, they evolved differently, their senses changed and grew exponentially. Her people move through dimensions. She explains the church made a mistake by settling near their portal and it corrupted and changed them. She explains the truth about Charles. And it is an ugly truth.
The woman says she’ll wipe his memory and return him home but Devin fights it, corrupts the file and the deletion fails.
May 2025…
Devin’s camp is found at the Cuyamaca Mountain, no one’s seen him for more than 6 months. There is an investigation and the Sheriff sends a link to one of Devin’s colleagues and the department’s new hire, Archer Auray and she recognizes Devin and the feed immediately fails and what she sees changes her.