By Jon Donnis
Tribe, directed by Dan Asma, arrives on UK digital 25 May via GrimmVision after a run on the festival circuit. It follows Devin Adams, a retired university lecturer played by Asma, who begins recording his own condition in November 2024 as it worsens. His symptoms include loss of motor functions, amnesia and a developing facial deformity that continues to change across his recordings.
Devin’s footage becomes the main structure of the film. While documenting his decline, he discovers old videotapes that shift the timeline back to August 2024. These tapes show him investigating the death of his friend Charlie, played by Keaton Asma, who was connected to the Church of Heaven’s Light and took his own life after visiting the Cuyamaca Mountains.
That investigation draws Devin back to the same location in search of answers. The Church of Heaven’s Light sits at the centre of what he uncovers, tied to Charlie’s death and the events around the mountains. What he finds there begins to point towards something beyond a straightforward explanation, involving belief systems, hidden activity and material that does not sit comfortably within anything concrete.
The found footage format keeps everything limited to Devin’s perspective, using his recordings and the recovered tapes as the only access point to events. The present day deterioration and the August investigation start to overlap, with each set of footage altering how the other is understood.
As the material continues, the story moves into psychological collapse and body horror, with Devin’s condition worsening alongside the investigation. The cult elements and references to something larger and more unsettling remain unresolved, keeping the focus on the fragments of evidence rather than any fixed explanation.
Apple TV - https://apple.co/4nEJ1Tn
