Found footage horror from Germany? In “Heilstätten”, YouTubers want to spend a night at the Heilstätten Beelitz. But the courage challenge gets out of hand. Starting today, you can stream the scary flick on Disney+.
Originally, one thought that the found-footage genre had long since passed its zenith. But actually, our increasingly digitalised world is predestined for further found-footage outings. Vlogs by YouTube stars, courage challenges streamed to an audience of millions. The blurred, semi-professional aesthetic of this film genre seems more real than ever in these times of transparent YouTube stars who share their entire lives with the camera and a multitude of faceless fans.
Accordingly, the genre, which was actually declared dead, has also experienced a small revival boom in recent years, which can no longer necessarily be pinned down to the horror genre alone. Desktop thrillers like “Searching”, “Open Windows” or horror shockers like “Unknown User” show that there is still a lot of potential in the genre.
There has also been an exciting genre contribution from Germany in recent years, which does not offer any real innovations in terms of form – but nevertheless leads the genre thematically into the modern age. Here, German YouTube stars want to face a fear challenge on the outskirts of Berlin – and have to discover that the legends about the Beelitz lung sanatorium have a kernel of truth. You can watch the German found-footage horror film “Heilstätten” on Disney+ from today, 27 January 2023.
In our FILMSTARTS review we gave the film a good 3.5 stars. Antje Wessels writes in her conclusion: “Michael David Pate’s found-footage horror film ‘Heilstätten’ is solid as a scary experience, but is significantly enhanced by the apt satirical side-swipes at the YouTube industry. “
AND THAT’S WHAT “SANCTUARIES” IS ALL ABOUT
What a real YouTuber has to offer his audience of millions is something really good. With their latest courage challenge, Marnie (Sonja Gerhardt), Betty (Nilam Farooq), Charly (Emilio Sakraya) and Finn (Timmi Trinks) want to really shock their adrenaline-hungry fans and therefore spend a night in the Beelitz pulmonary sanatorium. It is said that gruesome human experiments were carried out in this disused hospital complex during the Second World War. Ghost alarm! If you don’t press the bell and subscribe, it’s your own fault.
When they arrive at the sanatoriums, everything goes as normal at first: the rooms are equipped with video cameras and one prank with the danger of a heart attack follows the next. But when Betty is upset and reports that she has seen a woman covered in blood and wants to stop the challenge, the mood changes. When the Youtube stars’ mobile phones disappear, it becomes clear that someone is actually playing a dirty trick on them.
