I Have Proof (2026)
Directed & Written by James Cullen Bressack
Starring Larsen Deane & Augie Duke

Horror

★★★ (out of ★★★★★)

In James Cullen Bressack’s latest film I Have Proof, a young man called Alex (Larsen Deane) is convinced he’s figured out what’s been plaguing him. He makes a bunch of VHS tapes containing recordings of him fleshing out his theory. The tapes show us messages scrawled in what looks like blood, Alex discarding his medication, Alex documenting bruises and marks all over his body, and his sister Bex (Augie Duke) trying to pull Alex back from the psychological edge. Unfortunately Alex only slips deeper into his already fragile state to the point there may be no coming back from where he ends up.

I Have Proof is a tedious and at times deeply disturbing perspective of a man slowly losing his mind and falling off the edge of society. What’s most interesting is that the film’s ending can be read in two ways: one, the events we witness are entirely real, or two, the events we witness are a result of us being pulled into Alex’s paranoid world. I Have Proof contains no hope. It’s a bleak piece of filmmaking that deals with what can happen when someone is too far gone for anyone else to reach.

Alex is consumed with religious ideas, many of which he gets from a pastor on recorded tapes. The pastor preaches on “the importance of abstinence” and believes that “the clean and the untouched will prevail.” He assures any listeners that while “God is listening . . . the Devil is, too.” Alex is particularly consumed by religious ideas about sex. He later scrawls a message reading “I’m a virgin” and seems to be blaming a woman for his attraction to her. Alex also seems particularly unnerved by the lullaby “Rock-a-Bye Baby,” which may or may not be connected to his fear of sex, bound up in a fear of procreating. Part of what makes I Have Proof so unsettling is that, frequently, we have to put together the pieces of Alex’s continually warping psyche. We trust that the VHS tapes are showing us the truth; however, at a certain point, we may have wholly entered Alex’s POV.

I Have Proof makes a subtle attempt at addressing inter-generational trauma when you pay close attention to one of the tapes we witness between Alex’s recordings. On one tape, a man mentions that their mom’s been “going on about demons again.” We’re led to assume that Alex and Bex are the kids in these other tapes, so perhaps it’s Alex’s grandmother who was talking about demons. Regardless of who, Alex has clearly been influenced from an early age by the religious ideas he’s gripped by during the current events of I Have Proof. Maybe the pastor tapes Alex listens to aren’t even his, but rather hand-me-downs from his previous religious fanatic grandmother, or whoever it may have been. One of the following things is most certainly true: Alex has inherited mental illness, religious fanaticism, or both from a family member.

I Have Proof is found footage at its leanest, as Bressack tells a nasty little story about a man struggling to keep hold of reality while the lines blur drastically. Found footage has evolved into an art form capable of going blockbuster big, but the most effective movies within the sub genre remain those that feel more personal and, on some level, realistic. I Have Proof may move into wilder territory near the end, and still it remains a realistic, disturbing portrayal of mental health in sharp decline, and no matter how you take the ending, it’s a tragic final act.