Found (stylized as found.) is a 2012 American horror movie based on Todd Rigney's 2004 indie novel of the same name.
Troubled fifth grader Marty loves to snoop through everyone's most private belongings at home. His mom, Lisa, has a series of letters from an ex-lover; his dad, Stanley, has a stash of porno magazines; and his brother, Steve, collects severed heads in bowling ball bags. Now that he knows his brother's secret, it's his secret, too. He can't let anyone find out, least of all Steve. But his life is falling apart the longer he keeps the secret.
Not to be confused with the 2023 NBC tv series also called Found.
Tropes from this movie include:
- Abusive Parents: At first glance, Stanley and Lisa aren't actually that bad. They care about their children (or at least Marty), even if Stanley is a racist who constantly fights with Steve, and Lisa is constantly treating Marty like a baby. By the climax, Stanley's abusive tendencies are in full bloom, where he strikes Marty and even orders Lisa to shut up when she pleads with him not to hit Marty again.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Steve comes across as a lot more cordial with Marty, and like less of a Big Brother Bully, which brings a certain air of tragedy to his character that wasn't in the book. His racism — while still present — is also considerably toned down, whereas in the book, he went on a full-fledged nasty, unhinged racist rant about how much he hated black people and wanted to kill all black women until the men would only have each other left to have sex with.
- Adapted Out: A number of minor characters from the book are either removed, replaced, have their roles trimmed down, or are Composite Characters.
- And I Must Scream: Marty's ultimate fate. He's left bound and gagged on his bed surrounded by the dismembered corpses of his parents and doesn't know when someone will eventually investigate.
- Animated Credits Opening: The opening credits are done in the style of comics that Marty and his friend work on.
- Asshole Victim: Marcus Sanders, whose head Marty isn't unhappy to find in Steve's bag, and with good reason. And David is one as well, although he isn't killed, but merely traumatized.
- Ax-Crazy: Besides the fact that Steve is a serial killer, he's clearly not completely there. His racist rants, while disgusting, are clearly the manifestations of an unhinged mind. The only bit of stability he shows is when he's around Marty, who he spares at the end.
- Big Brother Bully: Steve has a tendency to get violent with Marty over the smallest things, such as going in his room, even before he started collecting heads.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: David. He pretends to be Marty's friend, but eventually shows his true colors when he admits that he's tired of people picking on him because of his friendship with Marty.
- Bowdlerise: The film had to be censored in various countries, namely Germany, Australia and the UK. The bulk of the censorship occurs on the Headless scenes.
- Broken Pedestal: Steve becomes one to Marty once he resolves to kill his parents.
- Coming of Age Story: A really dark and depressing one. One of the most prominent themes is the pain of growing up.
- Decapitation Presentation: The modus operandi of both Steve and the killer from Headless. Marty himself does it with the head of a bully to scare one of his friends, although it was Steve who killed him.
- Downer Beginning: Both the book and the film open on the line, "My brother keeps a human head in his closet." It doesn't get a lot more upbeat after that.
- Downer Ending: Dear god. Steve murders his parents, leaves Marty tied up and left to an unknown fate, and it's never made clear if he plans on turning himself in. Even if he does, Marty will undoubtedly be left damaged for the rest of his life. And that's assuming if he's ever found.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Steve is a monster and a nasty bigot, but he genuinely cares about Marty, even going out of his way to kill a bully for mistreating his younger brother. However, he slaughters their parents when Marty pleads with him not to, and leaves Marty bound and gagged and tied to the bed without letting him go free.
- Eye Scream: Both the killer in Headless as well as Steve gouge out their victim's eyes.
- Film Within a Film: Headless is a slasher film that Steve is obsessed with and serves as a partial inspiration for his killings.
- Freudian Excuse: Not that there's much exposition on why Steve is so messed up, but it's implied that he's The Un-Favourite to both his parents, neither of whom are especially good people, with his dad in particular having some casually racist views. His withdrawal from his parents made him turn to horror movies as a means of escapism, and his discovery of the Film Within a Film, Headless, inspired him to act on some of his darker urges. The version of the film in the book has a much more racist approaching than the version presented in the movie, with the killer targeting black women exclusively, which probably fed into Steve's own latent racism and shaped him into the serial killing white supremacist we know.
- Full-Frontal Assault: An absolutely horrifying one carried out by the obscenely well endowed Steve after he rapes and murders his mother; presenting himself to his bound little brother covered head to toe in blood. Even worse in the uncut version where we get another before the act but with a full on raging erection.
- Gorn: The Headless segment is this full-stop to the point that the film was censored in other countries because of it.
- Insane Troll Logic: Steve's bigotry is heavily rooted in sheer delusional madness, broad generalizations, and a lack of foresight. He thinks that by killing every black woman in the world, he'll be able to stop them from breeding, and that after that, he'll turn his homicidal intentions towards the men, and that those few men left will be in prison to only have each other to have sex with.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Steve has a moment like this. Not after killing one of his several victims, or even his own parents, but rather, when he realized that he upset Marty.
- Nothing Is Scarier: In stark contrast to the Headless segment, the gore in the rest of the movie is about as restrained as one could expect from a film with severed heads in bowling balls. Most of the actual violence happens just off screen and it is chilling.
- Off with His Head!: Part of the ''Headless' killer's — as well as Steve's — mo, besides gouging the eyes.
- Only Friend: David, to Marty. It doesn't last.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Steve mainly targets black people due to his racist views, although his bigotry is notably toned down compared to the book, where he goes on a lengthy, vile, racist rant.
- Porn Stash: Stanley has one that he hides from his wife.
- Self-Made Orphan: Steve murders his own parents.
- Shout-Out: Both book and film have a lot of references to horror movies, including posters and videotapes. Besides that, though...
- Marty and Steve like to play The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
- The movie that Marty's dad takes him to see is Dawn of the Dead (2004).
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Marty starts out as a nice enough kid, albeit gore-obsessed, but as the story progresses and he finds difficulty keeping Steve's secret, he grows violent and eventually starts to shut down.
- Villainous Incest: Steve rapes his mother before killing her.
- World of Jerkass: Most named characters in both the novel and its adaptation are unlikeable assholes up to a point. Steve is a white supremacist and a Serial Killer who treats everyone around him with contempt except for Marty; Marty's parents, while merely flawed at first (with Stanley being a racist), become increasingly useless and indifferent to their son's problems; David secretly hates Marty because being his friend makes him a target for bullying. Marty himself isn't a whole lot better, as a combination of the bullying he's endured and the trauma of discovering his brother's dark secret and being forced to keep quiet about it has made him quite unpleasant and increasingly hostile.
- Would Hurt a Child: Steve kills Marcus Sanders, a fifth grader. Granted, he was bullying Marty, but he may have gone a little too far.