Perfect cast and a good story

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

I was channel surfing sometime around 1999-2000 (my mid 20's) and I believe this was showing on IFC. For whatever reason I stopped on this film and believed it truly was a documentary.I was not watching a film, this was real.I literally checked my doors multiple times (out of fear!)Once the conclusion was reached and I realized I had been had I ordered the VHS tape and had a viewing party under the premise of watching a documentary...The screening went as follows...I have no idea why it turned out this way...the ladies thought it was "ok" and "interesting", the guys were scared stupid (like me). One commented that he was continually looking outside, scared as if someone/something was out there and he couldn't see it/them.In the 2nd viewing I must say I was almost ashamed that I reacted the way I did the first time thru. Long story short, I get the negative reactions if you KNOW this is a work of fiction. If you have a chance to show it to others without knowledge that this is a movie (not a documentary filmed in real time), I would HIGHLY recommend you do so. The folks getting scammed will thank you. It's a gift.

Stefan Avalos & Lance Weiler co-directed this film and star as two local cable-access hosts with a show called "Fact Or Fiction?" who get the idea to go into the New Jersey woods to look for the Jersey Devil, taking two assistants with them. In the morning, only one(Jim Seward) comes out alive, the other three brutally murdered. Jim is arrested and tried for the murders, but maintained his innocence. Filmmaker David Leigh decides to make a documentary about the case, interviewing those involved, and enlisting the help of a woman(Michele Monarch) to clean up the found footage to identify the killer, which (sadly for her) she does... Frustrating film has a most effective style and interesting approach to the story, creating an eerie and unsettling mood, and does feel "real". Unfortunately, it all goes wrong at the end, when the killer is revealed in such a jarring change of style that it takes viewer out of picture altogether, and is most unsatisfying. In desperate need of a rewrite. A shame, this could have been great...

Comparisons… we just can't help ourselves. I see a lot of comparing between this particular shadowy cult effort to the very similar in style, worldwide hit 'The Blair Witch Project (1999)'. Both share a low-budget cost and that documentary edited structure, but other than that. Really that's it. Well it did come out before its more fancied rival. We begin with Steven Avkast and Locus Wheeler hosts of a cheap cable show called "Fact or Fiction" going into the Pine Barrens of New Jersey with the aid of Rein Clackin and Jim Suerd to broadcast the search for New Jersey Devil. However Suerd is the only to come out alive, and accused of the murders. A year later filmmaker David Leigh decides to make a documentary about it using the live footage they shot to get down to the bottom off what really happened in the woods that night. 'Broadcast' has more an entertainingly detailed background (from actual footage to interviews) to its story-telling and for most part it's highly captivating and immensely inventive. Well that's up until the indifferently eye-rolling last ten minutes, which totally spins back onto itself with a ridiculous (if off-putting) revelation. It was going so well (I liked the whole ambiguous, open-minded and eerie nature), then they shot themselves in the foot. It feels like it came from another movie. They lost that chilling vibe and cooked up some glaring plot holes because of that sudden inclusion even if it was undeniably effective. Still the gimmick is provocatively engineered and efficiently presented by the director and his actors (believably capable performances by Jim Seward, Stefan Avalos, Lance Weiler, Rein Clabbers and David Beard) to leave an unforgettable imprint. The set-up manages to feel sincere with good use of illuminating the manipulative air stemming from the media to influence an outcome. Be it bullet proof or not. Everything is basically suggestive with a drearily dreaded tone. Some sequences can cause a shudder and make your skin crawl, as things are linked together or put down for us to mull over. A slick, stark and engrossingly blood curdling concept that's almost pulled off.

... a twist that apparently wasn't that popular.Yes, this is The Last Broadcast, a movie that's suffered the undignified fate of never being reviewed without someone mentioning "The Blair Witch Project", despite the fact that this was released over ten months earlier.In all essences it's a superior work, though a strangely uncompelling one. The concept of parodying the documentary format works well, and has much to say. Sadly, however, what it does say isn't always as interesting as it could be, the narrative pull lacking urgency.By the time we get to the twist - which is arguably satisfying, even if it eliminates the mystery and doesn't even make sense (who is filming those final long shots?) - then whatever compulsion the picture had has already dissipated. A very clever idea and decently made on the budget, but the execution fails to live up to the potential.