Loss of Life
IMDB rate: Not yet rated
Genre: Revenge, Slasher
Recently I was given the opportunity to watch the screener of the movie 'Loss of Life'. I was quite excited by this, not only because it was my very first screener, but also because it seemed like a genuinely good movie.
There might be some spoilers in this review, I'm sorry!
On October 31, 2012, in North Hollywood, California, a group of high school friends decided to document their Halloween night out. What they end up documenting is a horrific bloody attack that quickly becomes the worst night of their lives. This film is the compilation of the footage found that night.
I think this movie had quite some big potential, but unfortunately, it was not what I expected from it.
To start with, without subtitles it's VERY difficult to understand what they are saying. The first 30 minutes there's happening absolutely nothing except for a lot of talking and to be honest, I only understood maybe 10% of it. The movie is about a big group of friends, 7 or maybe 8 people, and the entire time they are talking and yelling, all at the same time, so it's almost impossible to understand what it's about.
They are talking about what they are going to do and stuff, they are suppose to go to some Halloween party but first they need to go to some location to do stuff. When they're at this location, absolutely nothing happens. It's just useless rambling and yelling with a camera. To me this moment (which lasts about 30 minutes) is absolutely useless because I have no idea why they are there. They might have said it, but I don't know because it's impossible to understand anything that's being said.
It's sad that it's so noisy, because if the dialogue was understandable and made some sense it might have improved the movie a lot.
Then after 30 minutes, there's finally happening something. There's a girl running towards them, yelling for help, she's all injured and she's being followed by two guys with masks and weapons.
Then again, the guys try to ask her what happened, but then again, everyone is screaming at the same time. But in this case I forgive them for it, because they are scared. It's only logical that they react this way, so even though it's a tiny bit annoying, it might be a good and believable moment.
Afterwards a few escaped and got to the car, they couldn't start it because they had no keys. You see, every logical person would run as the wind to escape these masked dudes, but for some reason these guys stay in the car (when they have every opportunity to run away) and argue about what to do. Well, let's see, run away perhaps? The street is only a few meters away so it's very easy to get some help.
But no of course they stay in the car and get in even more danger. This might be one of the few movies where splitting up is a good idea.
I must say, the acting is very good. Not once was I annoyed by bad acting or something. Also, I love the variation in cameras, it gives a good insight who is filming what, because the quality differs a lot from each other. The make-up was in the beginning very good, especially from the girl, her injuries looked quite real. But at some point the bloods starts looking very watery. A bit too fake. There's not much music in the movie, unfortunately only when somethings about to happen. It's quite easy to create a jump-scare in a Found-Footage movie, but because the music only starts to play at scary moments, this effect is away. The moments that could be jump-scares disappeared because of this.
Another good thing were the masks. There's nothing more scary than a murderers with masks in a Found-Footage movie.
I quite like Found-Footage movies. For me they have a bigger scare-effect than a regular movie. I think the storyline of this movie is quite reasonable, even though it's a bit predictable. Unfortunately the elaboration is not very good. It did have some potential, but there are just too many unbelievable moments. Also, a noisy movie is not always a bad thing, but it has to be understandable at some moments or else it's almost useless to watch. I must say, I am from The Netherlands and my mother tongue is obviously not English so this might be only a problem for me, but I very much doubt it.
I do want to thank Mance Media again though for giving me this opportunity.
My personal rate: 4/10
Recently I was given the opportunity to watch the screener of the movie 'Loss of Life'. I was quite excited by this, not only because it was my very first screener, but also because it seemed like a genuinely good movie.
There might be some spoilers in this review, I'm sorry!
On October 31, 2012, in North Hollywood, California, a group of high school friends decided to document their Halloween night out. What they end up documenting is a horrific bloody attack that quickly becomes the worst night of their lives. This film is the compilation of the footage found that night.
I think this movie had quite some big potential, but unfortunately, it was not what I expected from it.
To start with, without subtitles it's VERY difficult to understand what they are saying. The first 30 minutes there's happening absolutely nothing except for a lot of talking and to be honest, I only understood maybe 10% of it. The movie is about a big group of friends, 7 or maybe 8 people, and the entire time they are talking and yelling, all at the same time, so it's almost impossible to understand what it's about.
They are talking about what they are going to do and stuff, they are suppose to go to some Halloween party but first they need to go to some location to do stuff. When they're at this location, absolutely nothing happens. It's just useless rambling and yelling with a camera. To me this moment (which lasts about 30 minutes) is absolutely useless because I have no idea why they are there. They might have said it, but I don't know because it's impossible to understand anything that's being said.
It's sad that it's so noisy, because if the dialogue was understandable and made some sense it might have improved the movie a lot.
Then after 30 minutes, there's finally happening something. There's a girl running towards them, yelling for help, she's all injured and she's being followed by two guys with masks and weapons.
Then again, the guys try to ask her what happened, but then again, everyone is screaming at the same time. But in this case I forgive them for it, because they are scared. It's only logical that they react this way, so even though it's a tiny bit annoying, it might be a good and believable moment.
Afterwards a few escaped and got to the car, they couldn't start it because they had no keys. You see, every logical person would run as the wind to escape these masked dudes, but for some reason these guys stay in the car (when they have every opportunity to run away) and argue about what to do. Well, let's see, run away perhaps? The street is only a few meters away so it's very easy to get some help.
But no of course they stay in the car and get in even more danger. This might be one of the few movies where splitting up is a good idea.
I must say, the acting is very good. Not once was I annoyed by bad acting or something. Also, I love the variation in cameras, it gives a good insight who is filming what, because the quality differs a lot from each other. The make-up was in the beginning very good, especially from the girl, her injuries looked quite real. But at some point the bloods starts looking very watery. A bit too fake. There's not much music in the movie, unfortunately only when somethings about to happen. It's quite easy to create a jump-scare in a Found-Footage movie, but because the music only starts to play at scary moments, this effect is away. The moments that could be jump-scares disappeared because of this.
Another good thing were the masks. There's nothing more scary than a murderers with masks in a Found-Footage movie.
I quite like Found-Footage movies. For me they have a bigger scare-effect than a regular movie. I think the storyline of this movie is quite reasonable, even though it's a bit predictable. Unfortunately the elaboration is not very good. It did have some potential, but there are just too many unbelievable moments. Also, a noisy movie is not always a bad thing, but it has to be understandable at some moments or else it's almost useless to watch. I must say, I am from The Netherlands and my mother tongue is obviously not English so this might be only a problem for me, but I very much doubt it.
I do want to thank Mance Media again though for giving me this opportunity.
My personal rate: 4/10
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