Unfriended (2015)

Unfriended

Alternative name: Cybernatural
IMDB rate: 5.8
Genre: Ghost, Found-footage
Starring: Heather Sossaman, Shelley Hennig, Moses Storm

It's been awhile since I last posted here. Still having difficulties trying to combine school, homework, watch TV shows while traveling in the train, World of Warcraft and writing reviews. Good thing is that I sometimes have to watch movies or play games for school but that's kinda different from the usual stuff I post about. Maybe someday I'll start writing about it here as well, we'll see.

So onto the 2015 horror movie Unfriended! I honestly didn't expect much from Unfriended and well.. it was good I didn't expect much because it was kinda rubbish really. Unfriended is a lot like the movie The Den where the movie is completely recorded with phone and computer cameras. In The Den it's filmed as if it's a documentary of screen-recordings. In Unfriended it's like we're just seeing the same thing that the main character does, so not with screen-recordings.

While video chatting one night, six high school friends receive a Skype message from a classmate who killed herself exactly one year ago. At first they think it's a prank, but when the girl starts revealing the friends' darkest secrets, they realize they are dealing with something out of this world, something that wants them dead.

Like I already mentioned, Unfriended is a lot like The Den because it has similar ways of approaching the set-up of filming. The Den however was a much better movie because it actually contained an interesting story, good build-up of plot and some likable characters. All of this is what lacks in Unfriended really.

Unfriended has literally the worst characters ever. They're all so unlikable and this already when you don't know the clue of the story yet. They're really all a bunch of dicks, no one seems to like each other and they're just very cringeworthy. Worst group of friends I've ever seen. There's really no character depth in any of them since they're all just a bunch of superficial jerks. They all still seem to live at home, yet while everyone is being murdered none of their parents seem to care. Huge plothole or are they really that terrible people that not even their parents care?

The actors are horrible as well. It was like looking at a 10-years old musical through Skype rather than watching some actual actors being terrified of ghost stuff. They were unrealistic and honestly it's not really an acting talent to just scream for 90 minutes.

The story is kinda.. meh... A ghost contacting and hacking people over Skype, it's kinda lame. Also why right at that moment? Why not sooner? You can tell me that this movie contains a beautiful message which is supposed to tell me "Don't be a (cyber) bully", but honestly even if I was I'm not really expecting someone to come back from death to make me kill myself over Skype. Because honestly, that's just bullshit.

Unfriended is in my opinion a rubbish movie that tries to be original with it's Skype approach but it fails miserably at being original. Purely Skyping the entire movie is just boring as hell. The approach is similar to The Den which I'd recommend if you want to watch a good original, somewhat similar, movie. Actors aren't very good, characters are horribly written and the plot is unbelievable.

My rate: 3/10

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

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

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: Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)

Paranormal Activity 4

IMDB rate: 4,5

Genre: Found Footage, Ghost

The Paranormal Activity movies are a pretty big hype the last couple of years and well, the franchise grew quite fast since the first release. At the moment there are five Paranormal Activity movies and I believe a sixth one is also coming. I watched the first three movies and today I watched the fourth one, two years after it release. It's actually the first Paranormal Activity movie that I haven't seen in the cinema, which should give you an idea what my thoughts were about the third movie. The fifth movie, The Marked Ones, doesn't seem good at all and I'm not even sure if I will ever watch that one.

This is actually my first Paranormal Activity review, simply because I didn't write reviews yet when I watched the first three movies. But here's a quick overview of my thought about the first three movies! I liked the first movie, it was somewhat refreshing at the time and it made found footage movies popular again. I think I liked the second one even more, it was actually one of the few movies (besides Mars Attacks and Donnie Darko) that gave me nightmares. I hated the third one, it was just dumb and only gave a bit more information about why it all happened to these girls. Also, everything that appeared in the trailer did absolutely not appear in the movie itself, important things such as the fire. 

Now, the fourth Paranormal Activity movie. I did not hate it, but I didn't like it either. I didn't like it because it was simply a more boring copy of the first movie. They threw in a few new techniques to show what happened but other than that it was just exactly the same. Instead of installing cameras all over the house, they now let their webcams of their laptops film the entire day. And it even does this apparently when the power is off? Also, these people never close their laptops and even their kid has a laptop with a very good camera. 

The scares are all the same, only more mild this time. Throwing people in the air to knock them out, removing their blankets and dragging them across the room. We've seen these things in all three movies already and it's predictable and frankly, not very scary anymore. The only new thing in this movie was the addition of the Kinect. It gave a very cool vision of dots all over the room when night vision was turned on, this was especially cool when the kid Wyatt walks downstairs and you see something follow him. It looked a bit fake but it was a nice thought I think. Also, I thought the cat was a cool addition, it caused a few unpredictable scares. I did think they would make use of the cat more though.

I must say that I was thankful that the subtitles described the noises that these people heard because I had my volume turned up pretty loud and I still couldn't hear a thing that they apparently heard. So when I read [thumping noise upstairs] I at least knew why they stood up and asked 'who is there?'.

In every Paranormal Activity movie there does not happen a thing in the first half of the movie, I kinda expected the same thing with this movie, only still nothing happened when the first half had passed. Or well, I think it's better to say that nothing new or interesting happened. Not only until the very end of this movie something new happened, and that was literally in the last ten seconds. These last ten seconds definitely did not cause a 'WOW' effect with me, it more caused a 'WTF is this shit' effect, I think. You know what happened? Out of nowhere there comes a mass of angry (possessed?) woman towards the camera and when the camera turns around we see a very scary Katie. That's it. This mass of woman had absolutely not been mentioned in the entire movie, and I really have no idea where the fuck they came from and what their entire purpose was for this ending. 

I also don't really get the storyline, Katie moves in next door with this weird scary kid named Robbie, and I figured he was Hunter since Katie kidnapped Hunter at the end of part 2. But this Robbie kid is just someone and I actually have no idea where the fuck he came from. This Hunter kid apparently is Wyatt, who apparently was adopted. But that's all the information we get about it. We have no idea how he got away from Katie and got with this new family. And this is only how I interpreted it, I'm probably all wrong, since this doesn't make any sense. 

Paranormal Activity 4 was pretty boring and absolutely not scary. It's definitely the least good one, since it's illogical as fuck. I literally have no idea what suddenly was going on in this movie, but they will probably tell us in the next movie.. or not, whatever. The movie is predictable and only changed slightly from the previous installment. There's nothing bad to say about the acting or anything, but there is about the rest of this movie. I enjoyed part 1 and 2, but after that things of course became a mess. 

My personal rate: 4/10

Review: The Den (2013)

The Den

IMDB rate: 6,0

Genre: Found-footage, Serial Killer

The Den is a bit of a twist on the found-footage genre, while it is indeed a found footage it isn't the shaky camera kind of movie. The movie is basically a screen recording of a macbook. The main character of this movie is visiting a lot of video chat rooms so when we see her, we see her through the camera in the computer. 

It's kinda funny because when we see things happen on her camera the quality is surprisingly good, while I'm pretty sure that the quality on computers is often not very good. 

I think we've all covered our webcams at least once in our life time because of the thought of possible hackers and well, that's exactly what this movie is about. This girl didn't cover her webcam and well, some pretty nasty videos of her were send around online. What I don't get though, when she finally finds out that people hacked her computer and made her webcam record personal stuff, she still doesn't close her laptop at night, meaning they are still able to watch her. This is kinda annoying especially because she is being threatened and they just know everything she does and when she leaves the house and stuff. It's like she doesn't even prevent that they can stalk her. It is a pretty scary idea though, that these people watch every move she makes, and manipulate her that way. It's a really modern movie that's about things that are actually possible to everyone these days.

The perspective is somewhat refreshing, but also a bit boring after a while. Basically we just watch a computer screen the entire time with sometimes a switch to cellphones. The conversations are all through programs comparable with Facetime and stuff, only this program also gives people the ability to chat with random people around the world, something like Omegle. So when she chats with strangers she obviously sees billions of guys jerking off and even the Nigerian Prince that needs to get rid of his money shows up. It's at least a bit of a different twist on the found footage genre.

I think this movie is comparable with the movie Untraceable. Untraceable is also about people being tortured online only with them the torture gets worse when more people start watching. In this movie it's more that one person pays to see someone get stalked and get murdered eventually I believe, at least, that's what I figured from the ending. Apparently there's a sort of torture porn site where you can subscribe to for 99$ and there you can just watch people get crazy basically...

Sometimes we catch a glimpse of the bad guys and I think their outfit is a bit comparable with Michael Myers and The Strangers, definitely not the least scary guys around. The police is definitely not very realistic in this movie because one moment a 'girl' is texting and literally a few seconds later she's found in the bathtub with her wrists cut, while her phone is still in the kitchen. It's seemed kinda obvious to me that she was laying in the bathtub for quite some time already plus she could not text and cut her wrists that quickly after.

The ending is a bit weird and I still don't really know what the entire purpose of these attacks was. They sell it online or something, but I don't really see the point of killing people for nothing. It's a bit weird. When the girl finally escaped I was kinda hoping for her that she would escape actually, the scene was also very cool because she only had one tiny flashlight and she was in a very dark building. It reminded me a lot of one of those horror games where you only have one shitty flashlight, something like Slenderman or something.

The acting wasn't much special, which is kinda sad because I thought the movie was kinda impressing. It's a very modern approach and somewhat realistic too. There are many logical errors in this movie but well, I did enjoy this movie because it was pretty original. I think you should definitely give this movie a chance.

My personal rate: 7/10

Review: Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night (2010)

Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night

IMDB rate: 5,3

Genre: Ghost, Found Footage

This will be a short review since I watched this movie quite some time ago already, and I simply forgot to write about it. I think it's worth to write about it though. 

Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night is said to be a sequel to the original Paranormal Activity movie. Unfortunately, besides some small changes it's exactly the same as the original one. Quite ironic actually, since Hollywood remakes every Japanese successful movie, while in this case it's the other way around.

I liked the original Paranormal Activity, it was a welcome change in the genre I think. I know that most people dislike PA but I really thought it was scary at moments. I'm a real baby when it comes to 'paranormal' movies or shows for that matter, I just don't like the idea of invisible things around me. It gets even worse when those things are able to do scary stuff to you.

As I already mentioned, it's practically a remake of the American version, only thing different is that they immediately figure that it must have been a ghost who moved the wheelchair. There's also the typical Japanese vibe to it (not strange of course).
What's also different is that the girl has her legs broken, meaning she can't walk. This makes her extra vulnerable, a nice addition to the movie I think. I was really grossed out when she walked around with her legs all nasty, which is a big plus!

I liked this movie, it had it's scary moments and it had some nice twists compared with the original one. I do like the American version of Paranormal Activity better though. Nevertheless, still a fun movie to watch.

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: Cloverfield (2008)

Cloverfield

IMDB rate: 7,1

Genre: Found-footage, Survival

I really love the movie Cloverfield, the more I watch it, the more I like it. I keep noticing new things which makes it always a fun to watch. I think it's a very good found footage movie. The acting is good and there's actually quite a good view of the monster. This is quite rare for a found-footage movie.

Cloverfield follows five New Yorkers from the perspective of a hand-held video camera. The movie is exactly the length of a DV Tape and a sub-plot is established by showing bits and pieces of video previously recorded on the tape that is being recorded over. The movie starts as a monster of unknown origin destroys a building. As they go to investigate, parts of the building and the head of the Statue of Liberty come raining down. The movie follows their adventure trying to escape and save a friend, a love interest of the main character.

The acting in this movie is excellent. Main characters are being played by Jessica Lucas, Odette Annable, T.J. Miller, Lizzy Caplan and Michael Stahl-David. Jessica Lucas is also seen in the remake of Evil Dead and in the horror movie Amusement. I haven't seen Evil Dead so I can't judge that movie but I have seen Amusement and that's quite a shitty movie. Her acting performances were absolutely not good but I quite liked her in Cloverfield. I've seen Lizzy Caplan in a few comedy movies so I was not sure how she would be in a horror movie, I found her personally quite boring and not very special. I like her better in a comedy. Another familiar comedy actor is T.J. Miller, a character that is unfortunately not much seen since he operates the camera, you do hear him a lot though. I liked his character in the movie, he was funny and constantly talking to himself. He was complaining about running while he was running from a monster, not very believable but he gave the movie a tiny bit of comedy. I think that the romance in the movie wasn't necessary. I found it a bit frustrating at times but it gave them a reason to travel to the other side of Manhatten. I would also have liked another storyline were they tried to escape Manhatten. I do like the storyline the way it is though, but the romance was a bit cliche.

The big monster looks very real in the movie. I think it's very difficult to make a monster look believable and real in a found-footage movie, but I was quite impressed by it. Apparently the monster is some sea creature. He looks like a giant salamander. There are also a lot of tiny monsters who look a bit like spiders. They look very awesome.
My favorite moment in the movie was the moment where the head of the Statue of Liberty was thrown of and landed right beside them (shown in the picture above).

At some points in the movie it's very confusing what is happening, but that's the risk of a found-footage. I think that it's very likely that some people might get sick because of this. I normally don't notice it that much but some moment were a bit too shaky.

I really enjoy watching this movie, I think it's really good. The acting is magnificent and you actually cared about the characters. The monsters look amazing and are truly scary. The scariest scene in my opinion was the scene in the subway where Hud uses night-vision on the camera.

I really recommend watching Cloverfield, for those who haven't seen it yet. It's an enjoyable movie with a touch of science-fiction. Excellent acting and a good plot.

My personal rate: 8,5/10

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: A Haunted House (2013)

A Haunted House

IMDB rate: 4,8

Genre: Comedic, Found Footage

This weekend I finally decided to watch A Haunted House. I really enjoy the first two Scary Movie and since this movie is written by Marlon Wayans, who also wrote parts of Scary Movie, I thought this must be an enjoyable movie. It's not as good as Scary Movie, but not as bad as some people are saying. You recognize a lot of the same things that's also going on in Scary Movie, and while we've seen it all already, it still quite funny. Some parts were extremely boring, but there were also a few parts that were  really funny. Sure, it's a bit overdone, and there were more boring parts than funny parts, but it's still not a bad movie to watch. Just don't look at it too serious.

Malcolm and Kisha move into their dream home but soon learn a demon also resides there. When Kisha becomes possessed, Malcolm - determined to keep his sex life on track - turns to a priest, a psychic, and a team of ghost-busters for help.

I must say that all the funny parts involved Marlon Wayans. All the other parts were just kinda boring. This movie really resembles Scary Movie a lot, it's filled with sex, drugs and jokes. And well, after seeing it that many times it's not really fun anymore. Sure, some of the things were, but because it were moments that were so typical and predictable, it's taking down a lot of the comedy. Especially the parts were a lot of talking was going on were boring, it had no further use for the movie and well, in my opinion it could have been filled with good jokes instead of talking that is supposed to be funny, but definitely is not.
The acting is not that great, but for a movie like this, it's not really bothering.

The idea of a parody movie is fun, but in the last few years there came so many terrible parodies, that you can't take the genre serious anymore. It's not supposed to be serious, I know, but I mean it in a way that they're so terrible, that I don't want to watch any parody anymore,

This movie mainly is about the found-footage genre, such as Paranormal Activity and The Devil Inside. But instead of making their own story around these found footage movies, they just copied everything literally and put some jokes in it. What I liked about the first two Scary Movie was that you noticed of what movie they made fun of, but it still had an own story. A Haunted House does resemble the later Scary Movies a bit more in that case, because in those movies it was also too obvious what movie they made fun of. Jumping from one movie to another, in an obvious way. I hope it's not too confusing what I say, it's a bit hard to explain ;).

I liked some parts of the movie, but most of it was rubbish. It's an enjoyable movie too watch if you're not taking it seriously. Also, you must be quite patient while watching because some parts are quite boring. Don't expect too much from it, because it simply isn't much. It's nice to watch it once, but I know that I probably won't watch it again. It's bad, but not terribly bad.

My personal rate: 4,5/10

Review: V/H/S (2012)

V/H/S

IMDB rate: 5,7

Genre: Found-Footage, Supernatural

So I finally got around watching V/H/S, I've wanted to see this movie for quite some time but I never got around watching it. I was very impressed by the trailer, but it was not really what I expected from it. From what I've heard, many people disliked the movie and expected a whole different movie than what it was. I did not really disliked the movie but it was a whole lot less scary than what I've expected. 

What did I expect from it? Well, I'm not quite sure. From the trailer I've expected sick torturing or sacrifices. I don't know, but I do know that I expected a whole lot more from it then what it was. Some of the tapes were just lame, and not even slightly shocking or scary. Sure, it had some scary elements but the trailer showed them all already so it was nothing new unfortunately. The movie seemed to be all about tits and evil woman in the end, so kinda boring if you ask me.

This is an anthology of horror episodes that are tied together with one main story. It's about a group of guys who go round filming their crimes on tape. They are hired to do a 'job' for an unknown accomplice. They have to break in to a house and steal a V/H/S tape with something on it, but they aren't told what it is. While in the said house they find way more than just one tape, so they grab as many as they can and they start watching them while in the house. But what they see on these tapes is more than they can handle, and it's also hard to believe. But will it cost them more than they bargained for?

This movie reminded me of a whole lot other horror movies. It was like some segments were inspired by other horror movies or such. It was not that it was exactly the same but it had some of the same elements in them. For example, Grave Encounters, The Tapes, Blair Witch and The Last Exorcism. One segment even reminded me of the game Slender Man. But like I already said, it's not an exact copy, just some parts of it seem to be inspired by one of those movies. It's not really a bad thing because at some point everything has been done already so it's getting hard to be original. 

The acting was reasonable, in some segments not that good and in some a little bit better. While the movie was not what I expected from it, I did like it. Some parts did creep me out, but it could have been much better. I've heard that V/H/S/2 is a lot better compared to this movie so I'm excited to watch it at some point.

This movie existed from different segments and they appeared in this order: Tape 56, Amateur Night, Second Honeymoon, Tuesday the 17th, The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger and 10/31/1998. Tape 56 was the main story that you saw every time a segment ended.

I will list each segment in the order that I liked them.

1. Amateur Night

This segment appears to be the favorite one of everybody. Which isn't strange because it was simply the best one. The girl in this segment immediately creeped me out. Those eyes, oh man, so scary. Because the movie started with this segment (apart from Tape 56) I expected a whole lot from it, because it immediately scared me, that was a wrong thought but it didn't make this segment less good. It was really good, especially compared to the rest. 

2.10/31/1998

I liked this segment because it contained a bit of humor. It had some good jump scares because of suddenly showing ghosts and such but after a while it became a bit lame. From the moment that the guys rescued the lady this segment became boring. It was not even slightly scary anymore. You did care for the guys though because after everything they came back to rescue the lady, and well, when everything goes wrong for them, you actually cared a bit. This is quite something for this movie because for the others in the other segments I couldn't care less what happened to them. 

3. The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger

Starting from this one it became really dull. The acting was terrible in this segment. Also, the ghost suddenly showing up behind Emily was the only scary thing about it. I don't even understand what the use of this segment was. The ghosts were scary yeah, but what does a fetus and a chip in her arm have to do with ghosts? Kinda lame if you ask me.

4.Tape 56

Everybody in this tape was an asshole. So as you can imagine, I couldn't care less what would happen to them. It had some scary elements in it, like the thing walking in the background or the dead dude sitting in the chair who suddenly disappears and reappears again. But that's about it.

5. Second Honeymoon

Another lame story with terrible acting. A girl knocks on the door, asks something, goes away. Everybody freaks out. Girl sneaks in at night, films them, puts a toothbrush in the toilet (that was a bit funny) and goes away again. Some useless time filling scenes, again the girl with the camera filming the guy, cuts his throat and goes away with the girl. Plot: The woman was part of the plan and wanted her husband killed. Why not a divorce?

6. Tuesday the 17th

This one reminded me of Slender Man. But with pixels. I guess that's the best description: Slender Man in Pixels. Not a good story, not worth talking about.

The movie was not that bad but not good either. It contained some scary elements but most of the movie was boring and had a stupid story. None of the stories are explained so you're mainly unsatisfied after watching it. I'm not sure if I can recommend it. Opinions about the segments differ a lot so you might actually enjoy segments that I did not enjoy. It's not a must see movie but if you like found footage movies you might like it.

My personal rate: 5,5

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