The Pyramid (2014)

The Pyramid

IMDB rate: 4,7
Genre: Found-Footage, Survival
Starring: Ashley Hinshaw, Denis O'Hare, James Buckley

The Pyramid... well I actually was prepared for this one to be bad. Not only because I read some reviews about it explaining exactly how terrible it was, I actually didn't expect anything else after reading the summary:

A team of U.S. archaeologists unearths an ancient pyramid buried deep beneath the Egyptian desert. As they search the pyramid's depths, they become hopelessly lost in it's dark and endless catacombs. Searching for a way out, they become desperate to seek daylight again. They come to realize that they aren't just trapped, they are being hunted.

Why did I still watch it? First of all, I love stories about Ancient Egypt and the pyramids and stuff, second of all movies like these always give plenty of material to write about, also I haven't seen any horror movies about Ancient Egypt before so I gave this movie a shot!

People call this a found-footage (or mockumentary) movie, but to be honest that's hardly true. The movie starts out as one indeed, but for some reason it fails to keep pursuing that perspective. In fact, one second the movie is filmed with their camera, the next shot however is one from an angle that they couldn't have possibly filmed, and the shot after that turns back to their own camera again. It's kinda annoying after awhile and I think it's one of the biggest flaws in this movie. Just make a choice and choose a perspective, either one would've been fine, but just not both. A movie which combined these two perspectives well was [REC]3, where the beginning was filmed with a hand-camera and then there's a very smooth transition between that and the regular camera. Perhaps that would've been a better choice for The Pyramid as well.

The Pyramid is a very cliche movie actually, every time something was going to happen I just knew that that particular thing would happen in a few seconds. For example (spoiler!) when the tunnel to the pyramid opens, we just knew that something would hurt one or two people. It happened. When the woman started to climb to tunnel, you just knew she was going to be attacked and fall down. It was all way too obvious unfortunately. Another different sort of cliche that bothered me is the 'all men are dumb, but this strong woman will survive' cliche. I don't know but it seems some sort of new hype where this needs to keep happening.

I was actually surprised to see Denis O'Hare (American Horror Story, Dallas Buyers Club) in this movie. He's not a bad actor in my opinion so I based my tiny bit of hopes on him. Unfortunately, even he couldn't make this right again. His acting was fine though compared to the other ones, it was purely how bad the script was that made it all seem so terrible. The characters are very unlikable, their dialogues are unrealistic and everything seemed very staged. Also, the camera-guy only making witty comments is getting a bit boring as well.

This movie reminded me a bit of As Above, So Below, which wasn't such a bad movie actually compared to The Pyramid. I think the Pyramid could've been more enjoyable with a better script and some consistency in the filming style. The idea of the 'monsters' inside the Pyramid aren't too bad, they don't look too bad either, it's just that it gives a weird twist to the story itself. I wouldn't recommend wasting your time on this movie, although it is fun to see a horror movie, found footage style, that includes Ancient Egypt.

My rate: 4/10

Screener: Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story (2015)

Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story

IMDB rate: 5,7
Genre: Mockumentary, survival
Starring: Alexandra Breckenridge, Doug Jones, Chris Marquette

Last week I posted the trailer of the movie Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story (or from now on: Always Watching), the trailer itself looked interesting to me because of the "Slenderman" type of villain in this movie. Perhaps the trailer itself didn't look to great, but I was definitely intrigued by it.

For those who don't know Slenderman, it's a videogame released a couple of years ago where you need to collect drawings or something while being chased by the Slenderman. The Slenderman is a faceless figure in a suit, quite scary looking. I didn't find the game very scary myself, but I definitely did like the Slenderman because of his creepy appearance.

This movie is not officially about Slenderman, it's actually based on a few YouTube short movies of Marble Hornets which I haven't watched myself yet. But well, there is an undeniable resemblance between the movies villain (called The Operator) and Slenderman. Which I like quite a bit.

Here is what Always Watching is about:
On the hunt for an intriguing news story, a small-town news team follows a crew inspecting repossessed houses. Inside a particularly strange house, the news team discovers a box of video tapes inside a locked closet. Sensing a story, they decide to take them back to their studio. From the tapes, they learn that the family who had lived in the house was not pushed out by the banks, but fled the house in fear for their lives. Trying to decode the story, the crew keeps seeing a faceless figure dressed in a dark suit appear in the footage that causes the videotape to scramble. Their fear mounts when this figure, The Operator as he is deemed, starts to appear in their real lives, standing quietly and watching them. Tortured and terrorized, the three crew members must track down the mystery of The Operator before it's too late.

There's actually quite an interesting bunch of actors in this movie. Doug Jones plays The Operator himself, and while his role isn't too big I must say that he is the perfect choice for this type of villain. Doug Jones is mostly known for his "unrecognizable roles", such as The Silver Surfer in Fantastic 4, as the scary creature in Pan's Labyrinth, as Billie the zombie in Hocus Pocus but my favorite role of him is definitely as "The Gentleman" in my favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Hush".

The main character of Always Watching is Chris Marquette, and even though he isn't extremely famous, he played in a few pretty cool movies such as The Girl Next Door and Fanboys. Chris Marquette did a pretty good job with playing the main character I think. A smaller role is for relatively unknown Alexandra Breckenridge who you may have seen in her role as "the sexy maid" in American Horror Story season 1, she also plays a role in the last season of The Walking Dead. Wasn't too crazy about her acting, but maybe her script just wasn't entirely right for her. She was kinda just put as the pretty girl in this movie, but I think she can do better than that.

As I already said, I love the villain in this movie, this Operator guy. He is scary as hell, but honestly I would have loved to have seen more of him. Especially with the magnificent actor Doug Jones portraying him he just deserves a bigger role in the movie. What I also would've loved to see was more of a background story of this Operator guy. What is his purpose, how is he there, what is he and does he have a weakness? Maybe an interesting approach for a sequel ;).

For a found-footage movie it's a pretty decent movie I think, it pretty much follows the standard found-footage movie principle but overall it's done okay. The movie is not specifically scary, but I must admit that because I was watching this movie with headphones on I got quite tensed sometimes. So here's a quick tip: want a more scary experience while watching horror movies alone? Watch it with headphones on :).

Always Watching is quite a decent movie I think, especially for a found-footage movie who have a reputation about being horrible often. I would've liked it better if the Operator was given a bigger role, because he is of course what's most interesting about this movie, the scenes that he was in were pretty cool though. The dialogue was a bit lame at times and there were a two scenes were the one dude was screaming to the other which was pretty annoying, but overall I actually had quite a good time watching this movie.

My rate: 6/10

As Above, So Below (2014)

As Above, So Below

IMDB rate: 6,1

Genre: Found-Footage, Supernatural, Survival

Starring: Perdita Weeks, Ben Feldman, Edwin Hodge

I came across this movie and when I read the back of the DVD-cover it seemed like a very interesting movie. Playing in the Catacombs of Paris, and made by the same director as the not uninteresting movie Devil, I thought this might be an awesome movie. I was a bit bummed out to see that it was a found-footage movie, not because I hate found footage movies, but because the last couple ones I've seen were terrible. But I must admit that it was a reasonable movie.

Here's what As Above, So Below is about:
Miles of twisting catacombs lie beneath the streets of Paris, the eternal home to countless souls. When a team of explorers ventures into the uncharted maze of bones, they uncover the dark secret that lies within this city of the dead. A journey into madness and terror, As Above, So Below reaches deep into the human psyche to reveal the personal demons that come back to haunt us all.

I thought it was an amazingly interesting setting, the Catacombs of Paris are very spooky and it's a great scenery for a horror movie. It's also very cool that this was the first movie that was actually allowed to film in a small part of the Catacombs. I must admit that the story of the movie wasn't always too original and at times it was just plain weird but the atmosphere was just amazing which is of course very important as well. It was very claustrophobic.

As Above, So Below is in my opinion a mix between Grave Encounters and The Descent, perhaps even a touch of Indiana Jones. Many people didn't like Grave Encounters but I must admit that I thought it was a reasonable movie, although it was weird sometimes. This was even more so the case with Grave Encounters 2, it was weird and just too weird at moments. These weird elements were also in As Above, So Below and sometimes it was a bit too much, going into a room and ending up in the same room you just came from is not logical, I don't like stuff like that. I find demons, hell and stuff like that more logical than ending up in the same room again. On the other hand, it was also a bit like The Descent which is a very good movie in my opinion. The claustrophobic feeling was captured just right, just like they did in The Descent.

The movie is somewhat predictable, the roof collapsing when the last person is going through is of course not very special. The acting was pretty good but I would've liked to see a bit more character development. The characters weren't written very good I think, at some moments the French people spoke English to each other, which is of course a bit unlikely. I thought that the character La Toupe was pretty awesome, he was very creepy and great for the movie. He reminded me of that YouTube video 'Salad Fingers' :D.

I think As Above, So Below is a reasonable movie. It's very weird at moments and sometimes a bit too much Grave Encounters-like but it also has a great and interesting story, the entire trip itself is for a fascinating reason already, but the characters needing to overcome their past was a great addition as well. Great location and good acting. Unfortunately a bit too many plotholes, there were just too many unanswered questions. Overall, a decent movie.

My rate: 6/10

The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014)

The Taking of Deborah Logan

IMDB rate: 6,4

Genre: Possession, Mockumentary

Starring: Jill Larson, Anne Ramsay, Michelle Ang

The Taking of Deborah Logan, or in short The Taking popped up on Netflix this weekend. I didn't really know what it was about but the rating on Netflix and IMDB seemed to be decent, so I gave it a watch. 

The Taking is a mockumentary about an Alzheimer patient, and it shows the progression of the illness. At first I was a bit bummed out that it was another found-footage movie, since there are so many of those already. But for a found-footage movie it started out pretty decent. 

At first the movie feels like a true documentary about Alzheimer, it shows pretty good what the disease causes and that it affects the people around them to. You've already read in my genre section that this movie is about possession, which gave a pretty interesting input at first. The character Deborah Logan (played by Jill Larson) is the Alzheimer patient and every time she has one of her 'episodes' you think that the way she behaves is because of the Alzheimer. When the movie progresses you are getting doubts though, is this really just Alzheimer or is there more going on?

The movie is a lot like Paranormal Activity, only this movie had a more interesting story going on. The Alzheimer gave a nice perspective to what was going on. It actually made you doubt if things where happening because of Alzheimer or because of the possession.

Unfortunately, about halfway through the movie becomes just another one of these typical found-footage movies. When Deborah was clearly being possessed the story became choppy and somewhat lame at points. The scary moments are pretty much all off-screen meaning we can't actually see a thing of what's happening. During these moments the camera decides to get fuzzy or something, so when something should be on screen, it's being somewhat censored. Pretty disappointing really, because the movie started off pretty good. 

I liked the dialogues in The Taking, mostly because the camera dude was sarcastic as fuck. This guy is finally someone who knows when something scary is about to happen, he knows his movies. "Of course the light's don't work", "standing still in the dark, nice..." or "Damn white people with their fucking basements and attics". It lightened up the mood a bit. The acting is decent, Jill Larson does a great job at playing the unstable Deborah. Her appearance is great as well, since she can be flattering looking at her good times, but can seem very scary as well on the characters bad times. 

The Taking of Deborah Logan started off promising, but unfortunately took the familiar way. It was scary at the beginning and it had some nice refreshing parts, it's just the ending that really bummed me out. It was standard, lame and nothing we haven't already seen before. The scary parts are never really on camera, and when they are things are shaky as hell. It's really as if someone else made this film halfway through it, everything promising became standard again and the nice build-up was just for nothing really.

If you're not a big fan of the Paranormal Activity movies this movie isn't something that you would like, since it's pretty much the same concept. But if you don't hate those movies and like a nice twist to the storyline I think you won't hate this movie. In that case, give it a try!

My rate: 5,5/10

Review: The Bay (2012)

The Bay
IMDB rate: 5,6
Genre: Virus, Mockumentary

A couple of weeks ago I watched the movie The Bay, I've heard pretty good things about this movie and for a long time I thought it was just another shark movie. I was of course terribly wrong with this, since it's not about sharks at all, I can't even remember why I figured it would be about sharks. Anyway, The Bay is a pretty good movie, it was much better compared with what I expected it to be.

It feels like a pretty real documentary, you can notice this pretty fast in the movie because the webcam lags as hell, which is pretty realistic since I have never seen a not-lagging webcam in my entire life. The reporter also seem genuinely surprised with everything that's happening around her, instead of just reporting emotionlessly what's going on, she's actually trying to give a name and a face to everyone she's interviewing.

In my opinion the camera was a bit too shaky. I know that is pretty standard with mockumentaries, but in this movie it was just too much. It made my eyes hurt and gave me headache, meaning it's really too shaky. I had the same by the way with the Poughkeepsie Tapes, that's why I never finished watching that movie (although I'm still interested in watching it someday). It was a bit annoying to watch at times, and even more so because the subtitles happened to be synched wrong (which is Netflix' fault of course, not the fault of the movie). Unfortunately some parts where a bit too difficult to understand, meaning I may have missed some important information going on.

I was pretty curious about what would happen at the start of the movie, because you know that a virus will be spread, but you have no idea yet how big this will be and what will happen to those infected. I also was a bit skeptical since it's another found-footage movie, and this combined with the IMDB rating I didn't really had high hopes for this movie, but it turned out better than I expected it to be. It's really one of those rare good found-footage movies ;).

There are actually quite a few good scares in this movie, and the make-up of the sick people is very good. The movie is pretty gross most of the time, which may make it hard to watch to some people. I liked the gross parts though, I thought it made it a lot more realistic. I think the movie is best described as an intelligent movie, it's not the standard horror movie where there's bad guys who slaughter people, this movie is much more interesting than that.

I thought The Bay was a very interesting movie with good acting and great effects (also, a great poster). I did think it was a bit too shaky though and because I couldn't hear everything they said (lack of decent subtitles) I am still confused about a few things. Other than that, a very good found-footage movie.

My personal rate: 7,5/10

Review: V/H/S/2 (2013)

V/H/S/2 

IMDB rate: 6,1

Genre: Found-Footage, Supernatural

I must admit that I wasn't very interested in watching V/H/S/2 because I didn't like the first part that much. It wasn't a bad movie or anything, but it was just not really what I expected. The sequel is a lot better I think, the segments are a lot better I think. 

Searching for a missing student, two private investigators break into his house and find collection of VHS tapes. Viewing the horrific contents of each cassette, they realize there may be dark motives behind the student's dark disappearance.

In the first V/H/S movie there are a lot of moments that remind you of other movies, such as Grave Encounters, The Tapes and the Last Exorcism. In this part I didn't see a lot of moments that looked a lot like other movies, which is a good thing because that means these segments are a lot more original. Of course, a zombie movie isn't very original, but the way they filmed it is. There were a lot more nice twists in this movie. 

The acting in these segments was overall better compared with the first movie. Perhaps the acting in the segment Phase I Clinical Trials by the girl wasn't much good, but I think that's the only person that I was slightly annoyed about. 

In V/H/S/2 the 'main tape' is Tape 49, this is the main storyline and this is the one that we return to after each segment. The second segment is Phase I Clinical Trials, the third segments is A Ride in the Park, the fourth segment is Safe Haven and the last segment is Slumber Party Alien Abduction. It's hard to say which one I liked best, since they all had positive and negative moments. The one that I didn't like a whole lot was Tape 49. Here's a quick overview of the segments!

1. Tape 49

Like I already said, not my favorite one. It's of course the same set-up as the first movie, which makes it a bit predictable. I thought it was kinda boring, in the previous movie it wasn't good either but at least we saw a lot of things happen in the background and stuff. This one just tried to live up to that, and it didn't turned kinda boring and predictable. By the way, something that I noticed and I just have to mention; why the fuck is everything that attacks screaming first? It's getting a bit ridiculous. 

2. Phase I Clinical Trials

This one started out pretty interesting. I thought it was pretty cool that the guy had eyes that could film and record. Sure, it's a bit weird and far-fetched but it looked very cool. It's like a modern twist on The Eye or something. I already mentioned that I wasn't crazy about the actress, she didn't act well and her role was pretty random and just a way to give the information the viewer needed. Other than that, she was pretty rubbish, as character and actress. The scares are very standard and very predictable. There is no chance you would ever get scared by one of these 'jump-scares' because every one that has seen at least one horror movie knows what to expect. 

3. A Ride in the Park

This one was pretty cool actually. It's a segment about zombies, but it was a pretty cool approach. This is because the biker that got attacked by zombies had a camera attached to his helmet. It's pretty much a segment about the short life of a zombie, only more awesome. We didn't literally watch the guy himself, since the camera was on top of his helmet, but it was pretty easy to guess what was going on. It was pretty cool when he was eating the guts out of someone, and we watched this from his view. The effects are gross looking, meaning they looked awesome. Good job on those! Also, loved it when he started to recognize himself somehow, and managed to do something about it. I think if I had to choose I would say that this segment was my favorite segment, it was really good! One downside though, I thought it was pretty unlikely that someone managed to get ahold of the footage from the other cameras and edit it in at the right time. A bit of a bummer that one.

4. Safe Haven

I'm not really sure what to think of this one. It was kinda awesome, the storyline was very interesting and stuff, but it was kinda confusing at moments. The segment starts off very slow, and in the end everything goes incredibly fast. A bit too fast in my opinion, things got just too confusing. There's definitely a whole lot going on in this segment, from demons to zombies, mass suicide and even hints to raped children. I think the makers of this segment tried to put in as much action as possible, which could be a good thing if done right, but I just can't make up my mind what to think of it. It had some pretty cool moments though. The creature looked very fake unfortunately. I also was surprised by how conveniently the camera fell every time, and how nicely the editing was done for a found-footage movie. I mean, there are even security cameras included in this footage, which seems a bit too far-fetched.

5. Slumber Party Alien Abduction

At first I thought this one was my favorite, but the ending dramatically changed that. It looks pretty cool at first, because a camera is attached to a dogs collar or something, which gives an interesting view. This segment is pretty messy but I liked it a lot at first, it was very tensive and I could only hope that these kids would manage to escape from the aliens. But then the ending came..... the kids were abducted eventually, and at first their dogs is going with them up in the air. But then they let go of him, and we see the camera drop to the ground, with the dog lying next to it. Probably dead. It was absolutely the uncoolest ending ever, and it made me hate this segment. Moviemakers, please know that no one will like your movie if you kill animals in it, period. 

V/H/S/2 is definitely a lot better than the first movie V/H/S. It's a lot more original and the segments are a lot more fun to watch. I'm actually looking forward again to the sequel of this movie, because of course there will be another sequel. It was a fun movie to watch, it was surprising especially compared with the first movie. 

My personal rate: 6,5/10

Review: My Little Eye (2002)

My Little Eye

IMDB rate: 5,7

Genre: Mockumentary, Survival

A few years ago I was watching a few horror movies that were on TV and I came across the movie My Little Eye. I didn't think much of it then but for some reason this movie kept popping up in the back of my mind. Unfortunately, for a long time I couldn't remember what this movie was called so I was never able to re-watch it. A few weeks ago I decided to give my search for the title of this movie a new chance and started asking around on Yahoo Answers, with the few details I remembered, if someone knew the title of this movie. And there it was! My Little Eye!

I now watched My Little Eye again and my opinion hasn't changed much about it. It's fun to re-watch something like this though, even though it's not much of a good movie.

Five young people apply to live in an isolated house together for six months whilst their every move is filmed by numerous cameras. Each has their reason for wanting to be there - fame, money, adventure. The prize - $1 million. The rules - if one person leaves, everyone loses. It becomes the ultimate morality test. When Danny's beloved grandfather dies, does his greed overcome his love? When the skittish Emma finds blood on her pillow why does she still stay behind? And what dark secret does the house harbour that leaves them feeling as though they're being watched by more than just a million pairs of eyes?

I was glad that when the movie began they skipped the first 5 months of staying in this house, with these reality TV kind of shows they only argue, so skipping most of this was kind of a relieve. The movie really begins when there's only one week left, and from that point on things are getting dangerous and strange. It was pretty interesting and realistic that these game-makers were trying to mock them out of the house, by saying for example that someone's grandfather died. It was a pretty big guess of them to take when saying it was only the game-makers saying this. Of course the game-makers want to get them out of the house so they don't have to pay a million dollars.

Something what I thought was pretty annoying was that you don't have a clue how long they still have to stay in this house. It should be only a week, but at some points it looked like this week had already passed. When things really started to get weird, they finally figured that there must be something wrong. They go to a room where supposedly weren't any cameras, but well, if there weren't any cameras we couldn't have seen what happened, right? The manage to hack a device and this is where they figure out something pretty disturbing. I thought this was a very nice twist on the story and it gave a huge unsettling feeling. Even though most of the movies was already over, it just gave a disturbing feeling over everything you just saw.

I can't really imagine that no one would bother to look for these people though, [SPOILER] once their families has figured out that there isn't any advertising for this show, they sure would start caring for what is happening with their family member at some point? I mean, being a family member you sure would look for this show or whatever it is to see your relative, when you can't find anything about it you definitely would start to worry and contact some authorities.
[/SPOILER]

The acting is pretty decent. Kris Lemche (Final Destination 3, Ginger Snaps) plays the asshole, Rex, of the house, or at least he seems to be quite an asshole in the last week that we watch. He is smart though and pretty realistic with this whole situation, of course he wants the money pretty badly but well, what can you expect from someone who has been stuck with a bunch of strangers for 5 months. He plays the role pretty realistic, and he has good looks for this part too. Laura Regan (Dead Silence, They) plays the shy girl Emma. A bit of a boring character actually, she's only whining and is never up for something fun, not really a person who would sign up for a reality show like this. I'm not a big fan of her acting, she's just trying too hard. Didn't like her in Dead Silence either. A small role in this movie is for Bradley Cooper, it's pretty funny to see an actor who's kinda big now see in a movie like this. I'm not a big fan of him as an actor, but he did an OK job in this movie.

My Little Eye has a pretty interesting view on reality TV shows, such as Big Brother. The movie isn't very scary but does leave you with a pretty unsettled feeling. It's all filmed with security cameras which provides different angles than regular movies, which makes it kinda interesting. I wouldn't say My Little Eye is an amazing movie, but it's definitely a fun watch I think.

My personal rate: 6/10

Review: Diary of the Dead (2007)

Diary of the Dead

IMDB rate: 5,8

Genre: Zombie, Found Footage, Mockumentary

For those who followed me for a longer time, might remember that I once had the poster of Diary of the Dead as an header/logo thing for my blog. Strangely enough, I never watched the movie. Until now.

Not sure what to think of it really. It had good points, but I think it contained more bad points. It's a George A. Romero movie, aka the king of zombies, and well, it wasn't much good in my opinion. I wouldn't say that his zombie movies become less entertaining though, I really liked Land of the Dead (2005) so no bad things about his recent movies. 

I love the found footage genre, it's an amazing addition to the scaring effect I think. Zombies are scary, sure. But the hand camera brings an extra scare to it. It's more unexpected I think, also the movie style is a bit messier which can lead to nice effects (unless they're too shaky to see what the f is going on). 

So on the hand camera aspect of this movie, great thing to do! Only makes it better for me!

What's wasn't very good about this movie was the acting and the script. It was a terrible combination with unbelievable moments and terrible reactions of actors. It was unbelievable at every point possible.

When their friends got killed before them they react way too neutral. Especially the girl is annoying, she keeps repeating herself while mocking her boyfriend. I know that he's a dick, but stop repeating yourself dammit! Also, be less mocking towards him, really uncool.

 We see these types of people in every found footage movie; the ones who need to keep filming to document. Sure, that's a cool thing to do but I'm very sure that even those people have boundaries. 

For example this camera dude. At first he kept reloading his batteries, while there were screaming people in the hospital + a dead turning girl was in the room with him and he's only whining about his battery. The second time his friend is attacked by a zombie, and he doesn't even try to help her. He just keeps filming calmly while she almost gets bitten. Why the f* are people still friends with this miserable person? The third time he got chased by a zombie and he got bitten, simply because his documentary was more important than his girlfriend or his safety.

I like that they kept the slow walking zombie thing in it, you would think that people have better surviving changes with it but these people all seem to be really stupid that they can't walk fast enough without getting bitten. At some points though the zombies reached their victims a bit too fast, considering that in one case he walked from the forest to the house, into the bathroom which even has the possibility of being upstairs. Their friends were a bit too lazy to shut to door apparently.

Diary of the Dead isn't specifically a bad movie, it's worth at least one watch but further one it's quite standard and predictable. The acting isn't much good and neither was the script. The things they say are lame and quite stupid for students. I didn't really dislike it, but neither did I like it. 

My personal rate: 5,5/10

Review: Troll Hunter (2010)

Troll Hunter (Trolljegeren)

IMDB rate: 7,0

Genre: Comedic, Found-Footage

I remember the first time I saw the trailer of this movie, and I couldn't help but think: 'this must be a terrible movie'. But my boyfriend loved the trailer and since that moment he kept saying that he really wanted to watch this movie. So finally I gave in, with the lowest expectations ever. Damn, I don't like admitting this, but I was so wrong. 

When bears are found dead in Norway, the students of the Volda University Thomas, Johanna and the cameraman Kalle decide to investigate. They stalk the trailer of the mysterious hunter Hans expecting to find an explanation for the killings the reluctant Hans tries to flee from the youngsters, but he agrees that they film him in action provided they follow his orders. Sooner the trio of students learns that Hans is actually a troll hunter that works for a secret government agency. Further, several dangerous trolls have escaped from their territory and Hans is assigned to eliminate them.

Troll Hunter is really just about what the name already tells you, it's about a Troll Hunter. It's actually quite an improvement with other horror movies since this one is about trolls, other than the kinda standard werewolves, vampires or zombies. The trolls aren't some scary trolls sort made up to make the movie more scary, no it's kinda literally a fantasy-tale kinda troll.

The first troll we face has three heads, how more literal can you take a children's book? What I loved about this was that we got a clear look on the troll immediately. Even though it's a hand-camera movie, it looks great. When the troll wasn't seen very clearly, we get a night vision shot to show it even better. It looked really good. Most hand-camera movies seem to avoid 'the creatures' to make it more mysterious (or for themselves, cheaper), this movie really did it's best to show each troll as clearly as possible.
The trolls themselves, they really looked like they came out of a fantasy movie, so not very scary, but more dumb like. I thought it was a nice touch to the movie.

What I liked most about this movie was the fact that it wasn't 'over-the-top'. It was not like Dead Snow which was too obvious at trying to be comedic as well. It was actually exactly how it should be. It was fun, but also true to reality in many cases (besides the trolls obviously). It contained normal human reactions, and especially the rabies illness was an awesome addition. The only less fun thing was when the christian guy claimed he wasn't christian, while knowing this could lead to consequences. Another fun thing by the way, the trolls hate christians and can smell them.

The ending was a bit confusing, when the guy ran away with the cameras. Beware by the way, spoilers ahead! Here's my theory: I think that Thomas knew that Finn and stuff wanted to do something with them or their footage, so he ran off, got on the truck and got away with the footage. He died of rabies though before he was able to make a public meeting. The others of the camera crew died because of Finn. Perhaps the Trollhunter died as well, or perhaps he was the one bringing the footage to the public. I couldn't really figure it out.

An amazing thing in this movie was the last troll. It was huge and it looked incredibly awesome. It also looked very real in my opinion, always a big plus.

Troll Hunter was an amazing movie in my opinion. I expected the worst from it, but I got a movie that I recommend to a whole lot of people now. It really was worth the watch, and for those who haven't watched it yet; it's a real good movie.

My personal rate: 8/10

Review: Grave Encounters 2 (2012)

Grave Encounters 2

IMDB rate: 5,1

Genre: Found-Footage

After loving the first movie, I was kinda curious about the second one. I already heard a lot of bad things about it, but well, it's always the question what you think of it yourself. Grave Encounters started of slow, when things started happening it became sort of fun for a short while, but then things became bad. Unbelievably bad. There are spoilers in this review, so don't read any further if you don't want to know about how things went.

Synopsis taken from IMDB:
For people who don't believe the events of Grave Encounters, film student Alex Wright is out to prove them wrong. Alex is as obsessed with the first film as the 20 million people who viewed it's viral trailer on YouTube. While he and his friends research the events and visit the real psychiatric hospital depicted in the original film, they find themselves face-to-face with unspeakable evil, banking on the hope that their knowledge of the original film will help them survive the sequel.

The movie started getting slightly interesting after 40 minutes of boring teenage stuff. Party's, a lot of talking, questions about the first movie and then the teenagers went to the mental institution where the first movie was filmed. They figured that everything was real and they wanted to investigate that.

As you can imagine, the first 40 minutes were very boring.

When they finally arrive at the mental institution they are being chased away by a cop, so of course they come back later (when it's night) to break into the building. From that point it became slightly interesting. The set up was very much the same as the first movie, cameras in each room pointed on the same things from the first movie. Then the weird stuff started happening, and they got scared and wanted to go away. Of course, this wasn't possible. 

The order in which everyone would die was predictable as hell, so that wasn't much interesting. Then things were getting bad, real bad. Walls suddenly appearing or walls disappearing. Stuff like that.

That isn't all yet unfortunately, three of them finally managed to get out, and they went back to the hotel. That was kinda a surprise since the scaring wasn't going on for too long at that point. But well, when they stepped out of the elevator at the hotel they suddenly were at the institution again. 

These are the things that I hate in horror movies, it's absolutely illogical that they are back there again after seeing people and stuff at the hotel. 

Of course things weren't exciting enough yet, so that's when the main character from the first movie came in. Bear in mind that the original movie was set in 2003, so the guy would be wandering there for 9 years. His hair is looking fake long, his beard is perfectly neat but a bit bushy and strangely enough he still has his six-pack. For someone living in a mental institution for 9 years, only being fed by the rats wandering around and getting water from nasty old toilets, he was looking way too good (besides the ugly wig). 

At first he's helping them but then he's suddenly being a cunt controlled by something invisible that's making cameras float. It appears that if someone collected all the footage and finished the movie they would be able to walk out of the building. Of course someone did and as if these reasons weren't lame enough already, you should've seen the moment that this persons walks out of the door, into.... a corn field.... This really is the most fake looking, lamest, ugliest moment in the entire movie history.

There's absolutely nothing logical about this movie. A few scenes seem to be stolen from Paranormal Activity, Blair Witch and REC, besides that most of it looked a lot like the first movie. Everything that was original was incredibly bad and illogical. The scares are predictable and actually not scary at all. It was a lot like the first one only more lame (wait until you hear the girl ghost talk....).

It's sad that the movie turned out this bad because the acting wasn't too bad actually, for a movie this bad the acting was probably the only good thing about. Also, they had the opportunity with an awesome location like this one and they totally ruined it.
Grave Encounters 2 is a real waste of time and I absolutely don't recommend watching it.

My personal rate: 2,5/10

Review: The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The Blair Witch Project

IMDB rate: 6,3

Genre: Found-footage, Supernatural

I've seen this movie a thousand times already and I still love it. It's brilliant. You see nothing and barely hear anything, but it's so incredibly scary. This movie impresses me every time I watch it. I seriously don't get why this movie only has a 6,3 on IMDB, in my opinion it deserves at least a 7,5 or something. It's simply brilliant that they actually made people believe in 1999 that this movie was real. A real found footage. My dad saw this movie back then and he also believed this and he still claims it's one of the scariest movies ever.

Three film students travel to Maryland to make a student film about a local urban legend... The Blair Witch. The three went into the woods on a two day hike to find the Blair Witch, and never came back. One year later, the students film and video was found in the woods. The footage was compiled and made into movie. The Blair Witch Project.

I don't think it's strange that so many people thought it was real. Even when I know it's not real, it feels real. The local people are chosen so well, it fits perfectly in the movie. The useless talking in the movie makes it look real. Let's face it, the real scary things all together are maybe.. 15 minutes? So the other 70 minutes are filled up with random talking. But this is what makes it look real. Sure, sometimes you get a bit bored or annoyed because of this, but I think that's what makes the movie so special.

What also makes this movie so good is the fact that everything is up to your own imagination. They made the suggestions, you fill them in. You never see anything in the entire movie, yet it gives me goosebumps all over. Also, the noises is what makes it so good. Again, you don't know what or who makes them, that's again up to your own imagination.

The acting of the three main actors is also very real. Not once was I annoyed by bad acting qualities. I loved how you could hear the desperation in their voice. You did not see their faces, but you immediately pictured the desperate faces with it when you heard them talk. 

A thing that I did not like is of course Heather. What an annoying bitch, but her part in the movie is just that annoying. I do think there is a bit too much Heather in the movie. I would have loved to see a bit more of Josh and Mike. Heather is quite demanding and when she screams, she sounds like a guinea pig. Not a good combination. 

And now the Josh case! I find this very interesting because there are so many options what happened to him. 

- He could have been kidnapped by the actual Blair Witch

-He could have been kidnapped by local people who don't want them there.

- He could have wandered of, because he was 'losing it' and get lost eventually. 

So after a while they find a package of wood in front of their tent and you see a bit of Josh inside, I figured it was a tongue but when I read the FAQ on IMDB there stood that it was his teeth and blood. This is quite interesting because when it was actually his tongue, he could not have screamed their names on the last day. When it were his teeth he could have been it. I have a bit mixed feelings of the Josh thing. I think it might have been local people who kidnapped him. I also think he was still alive in the house and that it was actually him screaming for Heather and Mike. This does also explain that Heather and Mike get knocked out by them in the basement. But, in that case, it does not explain why Mike is in the corner. That makes me think it was the Blair Witch again. Very, very difficult. I really can't get to a conclusion. 

All together, I think The Blair Witch Project is an incredible movie. You see nothing and is still scary as hell. Best low-budget movie ever made if you ask me. Very good acting and a must see found-footage movie. I think it's fair to say that The Blair Witch Project definitely is in my top list of my favorite horror movies. A must see!

My personal rate: 9/10

Review: Apollo 18 (2011)

Apollo 18

IMDB rate: 5,2

Genre: Found-Footage, Science-Fiction

This movie gets quite a low rating but personally I think it's a reasonable movie. I'm not a big fan of science-fiction, but I quite liked it when I watched it the first time. I'll admit, I didn't like it as much when I watched it again yesterday, but I think the movie isn't that bad.

Decades-old found footage from NASA's abandoned Apollo 18 mission, where two American astronauts were sent on a secret expedition, reveals the reason the U.S. has never returned to the moon.

The acting in this movie is quite good, but you don't really get to know the characters unfortunately, which makes it hard to care about them. You don't see much of alien type things, but what you see is satisfying. I like it when it's not too much, because when you see too much things will look fake easier. The alien type things in this movie that you got to see clearly looked like rocks so there's not much you can do wrong with a rock. I believe at some point you see another alien type thing and this one looked like a huge spider. But I was not quite sure if it was an alien, it could have been a shadow too.

I like the combination of science-fiction and found-footage. It's quite interesting. What's also interesting is that it takes place in the sixties. Inside the space shuttle (I'm calling it a space shuttle, I have no idea what to call it) there are three cameras, outside there are two or three cameras and there is a camera attached to the space suit I believe. There is also an old school hand-held camera. That's quite a lot cameras but sometimes I had the idea that some images being shown were not possible to see from one of these cameras. This is only a thought of course.

There's not much you see in this movie, most of the images are very shaky and when it's not shaky there's a lot of noise in the image. Because many of these images were so unclear, it made the movie  quite confusing. The movie can be boring at times, but when something started to happen, it became quite scary. There are some jump scares in this movie, but don't expect too much from it. 

The ending was kinda unsatisfying. I don't think it's possible that the company can let their people on the moon to die. Also, when the last part wouldn't have happened (the crash) the other person could notify the world about what happened so it's kinda unreal. 

The movie is not that great but it's not bad either. I know that I enjoyed watching it the first time and maybe it's just a movie that you need to see once and not more than that. Because the second time it was a lot more boring. The acting is good but the plot is a bit strange sometimes. The ending is really unsatisfying. 

My personal rate: 6/10

Review: The Devil Inside (2012)

The Devil Inside

IMDB rate: 4,0
Genre: Possession, Found-Footage

When I first saw the trailer of this movie I thought it would be a really good movie. Boy, was I disappointed. The trailer shows ever reasonable scare in the movie, so everything that happens, is not surprising anymore. I already thought the scary moments where very rare, but because of the trailer, they were also predictable, which is quite a shame.

The 'found footage' genre is really popular right now, and I really enjoy those movies most of the time. But because of the increasing popularity, everything is becoming the same. Most of the found footage movies are about a invisible spirit or demon, and this becomes a bit boring. Every story line is the same,  the scares are becoming predictable, just because of the overusing of this concept. We all know the found footage movies are fake, so why bothering for found footage when you can make a good quality movie? Maybe there are still surprising found footage movies, I only know that I haven't seen one in a long time.

The Devil Inside is about a woman (Isabella) who travels to Italy to do a documentary about her mother who in 1989 supposedly killed three clergy who were performing an exorcism on her at the time. When she gets there she meets two priests who also perform exorcisms on possessed people. Isabella has a camera man with her who films and documents everything. They soon find that Isabella's mother is still possessed, but when they try to do the exorcism, they find that the demon inside Isabella's mother can jump from one to another.

When I watched this movie, I thought there was a lot of resembling between The Exorcist and this movie. To the point that some things seemed literally stolen from it. I saw a funny quote on IMDB and I think it's quite relevant: 'Just watch the exorcist and shake the tv around'.
I think that this movie wouldn't be that bad if the story wasn't that predictable, unbelievable and boring. They can make a lot of this movie, but they kinda screwed it up in my opinion. The acting was not even that bad, besides from the character Isabella. But there still wasn't any chemistry between the characters, so you couldn't care less what happens to them.

And I didn't even started about the ending yet. I won't give any spoilers, but seriously? That was the best you could do? The ending seems like it was made this way so people are wanting to see a part 2, but the complete movie was so bad, that they failed miserably at it. It seemed like the idea came from that scary youtube ghost movie in the car (search for it if you don't know what I'm talking about).

Luckily this movie only lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes, so it was not a complete evening ruiner. All I can say is, don't waste money or time on this movie. Maybe if you're a die hard fan of exorcism movies, or you like the found footage genre, you might like it.

My personal rate: 2,5/10