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Tribe review – compelling, unsettling search for a lost sect in the California mountains

Dan Asma’s impressive debut feature follows a retired professor, played by the director himself, whose research leads him to Lovecraftian terrors Dan Asma’s superbly unsettling debut feature could well be California’s answer to The Blair Witch Project, as it follows a retired professor protagonist heading out into the Cuyamaca mountains and into the bowels of Mount Shasta on the trail of a lost sect. Updating and complicating the found-footage movie for the era of too-many browser tabs, it comes with an icy Lovecraftian hint of terrors beyond and packs a hefty eschatological kick. Our intrepid academic Devin (Asma) has bitten off more than he can chew, judging by the riverbed of bloodshot veins disfiguring his face and failing mental faculties that have left him unable to drive his car out of the wilderness. Still able to access his past recordings, he jogs his own memories about what le

Tribe review – compelling, unsettling search for a lost sect in the California mountains
Source image associated with the linked report from The Guardian. Image selected from source feed metadata and displayed with attribution and link back; VINI does not copy the image into local storage unless rights are cleared.Credit: Image via The Guardian · Source-hosted image; rights remain with the publisher or credited rights holder. · Image source

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What happened

According to The Guardian’s source item, Tribe review – compelling, unsettling search for a lost sect in the California mountains, Dan Asma’s impressive debut feature follows a retired professor, played by the director himself, whose research leads him to Lovecraftian terrors Dan Asma’s superbly unsettling debut feature could well be California’s answer to The Blair Witch Project, as it follows a retired professor protagonist heading out into the Cuyamaca mountains and into the bowels of Mount Shasta on the trail of a lost sect. Updating and complicating the found-footage movie for the era of too-many browser tabs, it comes with an icy Lovecraftian hint of terrors beyond and packs a hefty eschatological kick. Our intrepid academic Devin (Asma) has bitten off more than he can chew, judging by the riverbed of bloodshot veins disfiguring his face and failing mental faculties that have left him unable to drive his car out of the wilderness. Still able to access his past recordings, he jogs his own memories about what le

Context

The development sits in VINI’s California file for readers following state policy, regional institutions, courts, markets, public services, and California communities. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-05-18T12:00:47+00:00.

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Primary source: Tribe review – compelling, unsettling search for a lost sect in the California mountains via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.

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