'Tinsman Road' review: found-footage horror about a filmmaker searching for his sister

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The soundscape of Robbie Banfitch’s latest low-budget film is key to the creepy mood, in a story of a disappeared girl and her brother’s attempts to find out more

The latest feature from ultra-low-budget film-maker Robbie Banfitch (after The Outwaters and White Light) sees him wearing many hats; he is the film’s director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and lead actor, multitasking truly above and beyond the call of duty. The result is a reasonably impressive achievement: a sad little horror story about a family grieving for a missing daughter-sister that tempts the viewer to think there are ghosts about, or at least something supernatural afoot. Feet and the sound of footsteps play an outsize role here, with the carefully constructed sound design making this found-footage exercise more nuanced than most cheap horror iterations of the genre.

Banfitch plays a guy named Robbie Lyle, an aspiring film-maker who has come home to rural New Jersey to spend time with his mother Leslie (played by Banfitch’s own mother Leslie Ann Banfitch, giving a moving performance). Both son and mother are still trying to cope with the unexplained absence of Robbie’s sister Noelle (Salem Belladonna, seen only in pictures and old home movies, but heard singing often), who went missing a few years ago while out for a walk on the secluded road of the title. Robbie tells Leslie that he’s making a doc about angels or spirits; she is convinced Noelle is haunting the house, but when he goes out and asks local people about what they know of his sister’s disappearance, it’s clear he’s a sceptic.

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