There’s a solid and creepy idea at work in the mockumentary, Project MKHEXE, I just don’t think it’s executed as well as it could have been.

A rediscovered lost documentary tells the story of Tim Wilson (Ignacyo Matynia) as he attempts to dig into the suicide of his younger brother, Sean (Will Jandro). Tim doesn’t believe his brother would ever commit suicide, and his parents seem to be behaving increasingly strangely.

As he digs, he learns Sean was digging into a secret government project that may have spun out of the CIA’s MK ULTRA project in the 50s and 60s. Except that each time Sean runs down a lead, it practically vanishes from the internet, leaving no trace.

Slowly, Tim is able to piece things together and begins to learn what Sean has found and that he’d hoped to stop what may be coming.

What started as a secret government project becomes something more, something completely wrapped up in layers of cosmic horror. I like the idea of something that starts as an insidious secret government thing and then spins out beyond their control, and becomes something else.

The visual effects are obviously constrained by the low budget, but Waddell is able to make most of it work.

I like that you have to pay attention to the story. I like that you can get a glimpse of the overall horror at the heart of MKHEXE without everything being explained. I like that part of a haunting mystery; sometimes it makes it even scarier.

Waddell, as writer and director, tries to layer in as much info as he can; Sean’s journals are filled with notes, and freeze frames of the images hint at layers and layers of mythology created to bring the film to life. He also made sure to tie it in with the original MK ULTRA.

As mentioned, not everything works. I think it could have been a little tighter, I think a little more exposition, even if we aren’t given a full understanding of what is going on (an essential key to cosmic horror), I wanted a little more dread from it.

I wanted this one just to be a little stronger, because damn if I didn’t love this idea. It’s such a cool concept, and there are some great moments, and the reveals towards the climax are real emotional kicks, but I just wanted something a little more… I don’t want to use the word polished, but maybe?

Still, I like Waddell’s ideas, so I may be tuning in to see what he does next.