‘Tinsman Road’ Review: A Heart-Wrenching Found Footage Epic [Unnamed Footage Festival 2025]
There’s nothing more terrifying than someone you love going missing. The lack of closure becomes its own horror story, forcing those it affects to shape a new existence for themselves without everything that once made them whole. While grief is often explored in horror, it’s never quite been done the way writer-director and star Robbie Banfitch does in his sophomore feature Tinsman Road, which I was lucky enough to catch at its world premiere screening at the Unnamed Footage Festival in San Francisco. An impressive epic, Tinsman Road builds upon a typical found footage foundation to bring the subgenre to new heights with a deeply moving story about the unbreakable bonds of family, even in the face of true evil.
The film follows Robbie Lyle (played by Banfitch), a New Jersey filmmaker who starts documenting his mother’s grief surrounding the disappearance of his sister, Noelle, some years prior. As Lyle sinks deeper and deeper into the project, he starts to discover things he never knew about her disappearance, and the stakes begin to heighten down on Tinsman Road. The film is truly a haunting ghost story that dares to explore the lives those left behind are forced to build around the emptiness of loss.
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Overall, Banfitch’s excellent film is more drama than horror in the conventional sense, but I would ultimately argue this is a true horror film. It’s a story that feels ripped directly from someone’s real life, from their real, tattered grieving process. Sure, there are some great spooky set-piece moments that really ratchet up the horror elements, but more than anything, this film is filled with a general sense of unease and spiritual tension from start to finish. It’s decidedly slower and more deliberately eerie than his first film, The Outwaters, but that is in no way a negative for this project. If you can tap into the movie’s desperate cry for answers, you will find yourself willing and, in some ways, destined to take this methodical ride with Banfitch’s character.
The film features a whole host of very natural performances that feel rooted in the real world. Honestly, I was expecting nothing less after the wonderfully real performances across The Outwaters. Banfitch anchors the film with a hardened yet playful persona behind the camera, but in a lot of ways, the real star is his mom.
Leslie Banfitch, who plays a fictionalized version of herself in the same way she did in The Outwaters, gets a lot more to chew on in her son’s second film—and with it, she proves what she’s capable of. Her performance is dialed-in and utterly tragic, molding her sorrow into the film’s foundation and emotional core. It’s so easy to be consumed by her pain as a viewer because her work in this film feels that real. She makes this feel like the documentary it’s supposed to be in the narrative, and that is not an easy feat. Without her performance, the film would not be as effective as a whole.
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Something that really sticks out about Tinsman Road from a visual standpoint is that it has a wonderful verite feel to it, way more so even than The Outwaters. This is, of course, because it was shot on a camcorder from 2003, but the choice to use this kind of equipment instead of something more modern that can be edited to look old naturally gives the movie a sense of realistic charm and, in a way, disarms the audience. That realism in the framing of the visuals aids in how Banfitch builds out a truly harrowing tale, using each element of the film—performance, writing, direction, cinematography, etc.—to incite both fear and sadness in his viewers.
The film’s dedication to detail is also quite undeniable, and it really plays into the heart and soul of the story. The way Banfitch frames shots, holds shots, and decides what images to highlight in the first place feels so rooted in his character’s love for his sister and his desperate search for answers. He is searching, scouring the Earth. The way Banfitch photographs this film feels like an extension of his character and the suffering he’s had to endure, and as a result, also his endless passion for the truth. In every image he fixates on, his focus on it is a prayer for an answer.
The film’s music is another crucial piece of the puzzle. The haunting vocals of Salem Belladonna, who also worked on the soundtrack for The Outwaters, give Lyle’s sister depth, resonance, and an essence the audience can tangibly connect with—in turn making us want her found just as much as he does. It’s a wonderful device that truly works movie magic by the end.
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Finally, the film features a deeply stirring, utterly gripping final act that really ramps up the horror elements after pulling hard on your heartstrings for nearly an hour and a half. The climax of this film has everything: menacing evils, forest terrors, tense scares, gore, and a life-or-death struggle for dominance. It’s a riveting moment in the film that starts to make the emotional rollercoaster that came before worth it. From there, Tinsman Road settles in on a perfect ending moment that feels so satisfying after the journey you’ve been on with these characters.
Banfitch rewards the audience for their suffering in the same way Lyle and his mother are rewarded for theirs. The symmetry here is enough to make you shed a tear, if you haven’t already by the time this powerful film comes to a close.
Robbie Banfitch’s Tinsman Road is a harrowing journey into the shuddering soul of a dark mystery, one with its bloody heart on its sleeve, begging you to connect within the sorrow. Begging you to walk down the road alongside it. I hope you’ll take its hand.
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Tinsman Road
Summary
An impressive found footage epic, Tinsman Road builds upon a typical found footage foundation to bring the subgenre to new heights.
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