A Jack the Ripper Horror Shot Through a Pinhole: 'Snapshot' Lands at Edinburgh and FrightFest
A low-budget British found-footage horror film that reimagines the Jack the Ripper killings — shot physically through a pinhole lens and framed in a perfect circle — has premiered on the festival circuit, earning attention for its sheer formal ambition.
Snapshot is the directorial debut feature of Joseph Archer, who also serves as editor and director of photography on the project. Cathy Wippell wrote the screenplay and stars as Minnie, one of a group of young Victorian women in London who pursue their own supernatural theory behind the Ripper murders. The women, an all-female ghost-hunting group, attempt to prove that the killings are the work of an inhuman being, with their investigation documented by a pioneering male filmmaker. (Variety)
The cast is rounded out by Hazel Rogers as Fanny, Nadia Lamin as Evelyn, and Tom Stourton, who voices the unseen character Tamworth. The music-hall song "Two Lovely Black Eyes" recurs throughout the film as its defining musical theme, anchoring the Victorian atmosphere.
What sets Snapshot apart is its visual approach. The film is presented entirely in a 1:1 aspect ratio — a square frame — that emulates the look of 19th-century pinhole photography. According to Screen Daily, the film was not merely styled to suggest the aesthetic; it was physically shot through a pinhole lens. (Screen Daily)
The festival path for Snapshot began with a competition premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival. Its next scheduled screening is at London's FrightFest, the long-running genre festival that serves as a key showcase for independent horror.
Screen Daily critic Nikki Baughan reviewed the film ahead of its festival run, describing it as an "inventive but stilted period found-footage horror shot through a pinhole lens." The review acknowledges the film's formal novelty while flagging pacing as a limitation — the kind of split response that often greets directorial debuts working on the edges of convention.
For a first-time feature-maker working with modest resources, Snapshot arrives with a fully formed stylistic identity. The combination of found-footage mechanics — a format the horror genre has mined for decades — with a 19th-century setting and a genuine pinhole lens puts it in conversation with the festival-circuit tradition of low-budget horror that punches above its weight on ingenuity rather than scale.
No theatrical release date or distribution deal has been announced. The film's festival screenings will determine whether it catches the eye of a distributor; independent horror with a strong hook has historically found commercial pathways from exactly this kind of festival exposure.
