Voyeurism and domestic surveillance remain popular sources of inspiration for indie horror filmmakers. 15 Cameras, the latest entry in what’s currently a trilogy, mixes in elements of both genres with the motifs of two others: the ‘hider in the house’ and the serial slasher. That kind of mash-up clearly gives writer PJ McCabe and director Danny Madden a lot of source material to work with. But the result is a pretty tasteless blend of the four ingredients.

Young couple Cam and Sky are delighted by the purchase of their new duplex home. To help with costs, the pair will rent out the ground floor. As they refurb the residence, they discover security cameras throughout the building. Cam then uncovers a hidden CCTV control centre, from which he plans to spy on the two young women he persuades Sky to rent to. Cam’s scheme is soon upended when he realises that the deranged, murderous landlord who installed this system might be planning a homecoming to retrieve trophies and exact retribution.

There’s no need to have seen either 13 Cameras or 14 Cameras to make sense of the storyline of this latest instalment. Cam’s comeuppance is inevitable from the outset, as are the home invasion and the bloody knifings that accompany the film’s closing act. But it’s difficult to work out what McCabe and Madden are trying to say – if anything – about actions that would put Cam on the sex offenders’ register. His voyeurism is framed as a kind of lecherous ‘prank’, with which the viewer is made complicit. For a film all about observation, that’s a pretty big thing to lose sight of.

15 CAMERAS is released on streaming platforms in the US on October 15th, 2023