James Cullen Bressack returns to his horror roots, and I could not be more excited. The filmmaker behind two of my favorite found-footage movies, To Jennifer and Hate Crime, has delivered another mind-bending entry for the list: I Have Proof. This will not only scramble your brain…it will completely fuck up your thinking. And probably your day.  

Alex (the talented Larsen Deane, who bears a striking resemblance to Russell Brand) is unraveling. Holed up in a cheap, filthy motel room, he spends every waking moment recording his day. His routine includes speaking from cue cards, following a young blonde woman around town, and displaying paranoia far beyond any reasonable sense of stability. He is cracking and through complete muted silence, Alex seems to be reaching out for help.  

He labels each daily recording an “Evidence Tape” and studies cassettes with titles ranging from Devil Hears to Exorcism. These “sermons” reassure him that he is neither losing his mind nor suicidal—and that the unseen forces consuming him from within are real. But, are they?  

When Alex ventures beyond his squalid, grimy motel room, he obsessively records Mary’s daily routine. Bystanders who notice his behavior intervene, sometimes with startling aggression. Only briefly deterred, Alex retreats to the dingy room, increasingly convinced that he cannot escape the demonic presence circling him with horrific intent. He conveys his state of mind through messages written in blood: “No one believes me,” “If you speak, it hears you,” “They think I’m crazy,” and “If it sees me, my skin reacts.” Alex then reveals gruesome bruises and blotches creeping across his body, darkening, and spreading as the deliberately slow-paced story closes in around him.  

Always wearing black gloves and carrying a camera, our desperate main character leaves us questioning whether he is truly deteriorating or being hunted by a malevolent paranormal entity. Though he remains silent, his fearful expressions speak volumes. Is Mary his unwitting savior, the key to defeating evil, or the very demon he is trying to escape?  

Alex’s condition worsens after he displays his medication on camera, then throws it away, convinced he can battle the monsters alone. As he descends further toward an agonizing and seemingly inevitable end, flashbacks to home videos focused on a birthday celebration with his mother and beloved sister, remind him of the comfort of love and happier times.  

Armed with crucifixes, a rosary, bloodstained photographs of Mary, and a sharpened pocketknife, Alex performs a ritual to make holy water for his arsenal against the devil. Whether Mary represents salvation or damnation remains unclear, but her presence leaves him more unnerved than anything else. The uncertainty surrounding his intentions toward Mary is equally terrifying, leaving me unsure whom to root for.  

I Have Proof sustains an atmosphere of psychotic paranoia through Alex’s unsettling behavior, labored breathing, crushing despair, and overwhelming hopelessness. His unknown motives intensify the terror as he moves toward an ominous conclusion certain to end badly. And very brutally.