Bryan Loves You is a 2008 horror film directed by Seth Landau. The film relates the supposed true story of the Cult of the Bryans who took over a small Arizona town in 1993. It was shot in 17 days with a budget of $25,000.[1] It was released on DVD on September 23, 2008 by Anchor Bay Entertainment.
The plot revolves around a 32-year-old psychotherapist as he begins to suspect that the local religious cult has been murdering the town's citizens. He soon becomes sucked into a web of mysterious happenings, with the cult of the 'Bryans' being the focal point. The film uses the 'found footage' format, and claims that the film is a compilation of security footage.
Critical reception for the film has been mixed to negative,[2][3] with Dread Central criticizing the film's lack of realism, saying "Watching “found footage” shouldn’t have the viewer asking questions like, “Why is everyone acting so overly evil?”"[4] About.com's Mark Harris negatively reviewed the film, stating that "Bryan is mostly made up of drawn-out moments of inconsequential activity loosely tied together by a scenario that never delivers."[5]
JoBlo.com reviewed the film positively, giving it three-and-half "Arrows in the Head", and writing that despite the film's resemblance to previous horror works such as Clockwork Orange, the movie "still feels fresh and inventive".[6] MovieWeb called the film "a masterfully creepy ride through religious fundamentalism gone horribly awry".[7]
