By: Trevor Chartrand

Director Danny Madden brings us 15 Cameras, the second sequel to 2015’s 13 Cameras, just in time for this year’s spooky season.  The third entry in this series is serviceable, with an interesting twist on the original premise.  It’s a creepy thriller through-and-through, despite being a tad obvious with its metaphors.

The film opens following the alleged demise of the Slumlord, a voyeuristic landlord/serial killer who sets up hidden cameras on his properties, watching his tenants for weeks before killing them.  When a new couple moves into one of the Slumlord’s places, Sky (Angela Wong Carbone) develops paranoia surrounding the house’s history.  She obsessively watches a true-crime tv series about the Slumlord killings – murders that took place in her new home. Are there still undiscovered cameras around?  Her husband Cam (Will Madden) soon finds the answer in a secret room under the house;  a room with camera monitors the police must have missed.  When Cam starts watching the hidden cameras himself, he begins to demonstrate similar behaviour to the Slumlord killer, perhaps following in his footsteps…

Written by PJ McCabe (The Beta Test), 15 Cameras twists the original’s premise with the implication of a new villain, a passing of the torch type situation similar to Jigsaw’s many ‘apprentices’ in the Saw series.  Overall though, the film is a pretty typical slasher-thriller, albeit light on gore and creative kills.  There’s a noticeably small cast of expendable characters to kill off, so the body count is fairly low here.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though, because the film relies on character, suspense, and tension to be engaging – rather than shock value. 

For viewers new to the series, the ‘true crime’ television show featured in the movie is a functional and effective exposition tool, providing a decent backstory to series newcomers, without being too intrusive. 

The biggest gripe I’d say I have with 15 Cameras is the frequent overlapping of the true-crime narration (describing the killer’s behaviour) over images of Cam being creepy.  The parallels they are drawing between the killer and Cam are bonk-you-on-the head-obvious, and a bit off-putting.  Even our protagonist’s name, ‘Cam,’ is far from subtle.

Having said that, Will Madden as Cam rides the line between harmlessly awkward and potential lunacy long enough to keep us guessing where he’ll end up by the end of the film.  All of the performances are well-crafted, but Madden in particular is mysterious and compelling. 

At the end of the day, 15 Cameras is a straightforward little thriller that’s worth a Halloween watch.  Even with characters who occasionally use ‘slasher logic’, the film does have a tightly structured narrative with a few surprising payoffs along the way.  Overall, it’s a notable achievement, especially for the third film in a horror series.

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Trevor Chartrand: @OhHaiTrebor