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Dean (6924 KP) rated V/H/S (2012) in Movies

Feb 2, 2018  
V/H/S  (2012)
V/H/S (2012)
2012 | Horror, Thriller
5
6.1 (19 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Horror anthology
A Horror anthology from a found footage point of view. It's very low budget and it shows. A couple of the stories were ok the others weak. The main story linking them all was ok. It had 2 more sequels... Also very low budget!
  
Found Footage 3D (2016)
Found Footage 3D (2016)
2016 | Horror
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Interesting approach to Meta Horror (0 more)
Low Budget and at times to its detriment (0 more)
Some Nice ideas, but a little less than good
Found Footage 3D is a fun idea...a meta horror about a small crew filming their own 'found-footage' horror, so you have a mixture of 'movie within a movie' scenes mixed with their own documentary about the making of their film.

The other aspects of the premise are all very much in keeping with tradition; the haunted cabin, the unseen "spectre", the paranoia etc

It is reasonably well made and well acted for a smaller budget film, and though the script offers few surprises, it is an easy watch, and makes some clever observations on the genre including a brilliant rant by one of the characters about how 'there have only ever been 2 half decent found footage movies, and one of those was 15 years ago!".

All in all, it is a good, fun, at times clever, at others predictable romp through a haunted cabin in the woods, with a self aware cast and an attitude of 'lets just enjoy the tropes'.

Worth a watch.
  
Lake Mungo (2009)
Lake Mungo (2009)
2009 | Horror, Mystery
7
6.6 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Nice Documentary style (1 more)
Good performances in the main
Wonky Twists (1 more)
Slightly disappointing ending
Lake Mungo delivers some eerieness but outstays its welcome
Contains spoilers, click to show
Lake Mungo is a found footage/documentary style hybrid horror movie that tells the story of a family whose 16 year old daughter drowns, but then continues to appear to her family and in footage and photographs in the local area.

Without wanting to spoiler anything, I will just say that the director manages to create a quite unsettling atmosphere, almost akin to that created in the first 3 paranormal activity movies, using CCTV footage and phone camera footage to add to the eye witness statements and interviews with the family.

The film is a little longer than it needs to be, the last section felt like it began detracting from the earlier scenes as they add a few last twists, but overall it is a well made film, with a strong sense of unease throughout.

Well worth a look if you like Paranormal Activity, and that style of film.
  
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Dean (6924 KP) rated REC (2007) in Movies

Jan 7, 2018  
REC (2007)
REC (2007)
2007 | Horror
8
7.5 (13 Ratings)
Movie Rating
One of the best found footage films (1 more)
Genuinely scary
Scary
A great little Spanish horror film that has a realism about it you just don't get in many horror films. This did so well the Western remake was done just a few months later and also got good reviews @Quarantine (2008) . It's very short at 70mins but brutal and shocking after a slow opening. Filmed from the point of view of a local TV camera man, it's a found footage film like Blairwitch and Cloverfield, making a documentary about the local fire service. They go out on a call to a local apartment block, beginning a series of shocking events.
There are 2 sequels that are worth checking out and a sequel to the American version as well.
  
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
1999 | Horror
Everything (1 more)
Tedious, repetitive, not scary
Possibly the worst film I've ever seen. Definitely the worst out of the films that are highly rated by critics.

I just found it dull. The idea of 'found footage' could have been good, but it was poorly executed, leading to a disjointed film that didn't engage me in the slightest and didn't make me feel for any of the characters, who get increasingly hysterical over noises that could be anything.

The best thing about the film was that it (finally!) ended.
  
Grave Encounters (2011)
Grave Encounters (2011)
2011 | Horror
5
4.0 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
A few good jump scares (0 more)
Found footage done to death (0 more)
Found footage is here to stay
Even though it has been done to death over the last few years there is still something unnerving about found footage horror. Now and again I like to go back and dip my toe in it if anything for the enjoyment of scaring myself shitless for a few minutes.

Recently I came across Grave Encounters. For the first half, it’s a tense thriller the second it completely loses its way, nothing more than abject horror. The premise is too good to be true. While taping an episode of their ghost hunting reality show a group of paranormal investigators get a little more than they bargained for inside an abandoned mental hospital.

Watching an empty space in the dark via night vision camera may seem like flogging of a dead horse but as an audience, we still find ourselves hypnotised. The standard set up unravels brief character development, although we don’t really care too much as we know they aren’t going to be around for much longer.

As the group move from one room to the next with increased frustration that nothing is manifesting itself the shit really hits the fan when they discover they can’t actually get out. Cause for panic as each one is picked off leaving one loner to discover the horrors the hospital is hiding.

It’s not all bad. The acting is more solid than most and there are some good scares, many however are all too predictable. It’s safe to say that found footage genre is here to stay, all that needs to be done is to weed out the good from the downright awful.
  
The Houses October Built (2014)
The Houses October Built (2014)
2014 | Drama, Horror
8
7.7 (6 Ratings)
Movie Rating
I may be a little biased, as I have a special place in my heart for found footage movies. However, I really did enjoy this one. It was unique as far as the topic goes, and was made to feel very real. No one really does know what they're getting into when they go to haunts. They may be deemed safe and fun, but are they always really that way?
  
The Bay (2012)
The Bay (2012)
2012 | Horror
7
5.6 (9 Ratings)
Movie Rating
I've never been the biggest fan of the found footage sub genre (there are of course some notable exceptions!) but there's something about The Bay that really gets under my skin. The documentary style provides a strong sense of realism, and the footage shown captures the panic of an outbreak with eerie accuracy, and with recent real world events, it's all feels a bit too familiar, especially when negligence from people in charge is thrown into the mix.
The way the town descends into panic is executed in a truly disturbing way. The gore is seldom but hard hitting. The resulting film is one that makes me question both swimming and drinking tap water ever again, because those parasites are real, and absolutely fuck that.
  
Operation Avalanche (2016)
Operation Avalanche (2016)
2016 | Comedy, Drama
6
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Yet another found footage movie, yet another film about the faking of the moon landings (these must surely outnumber films assuming Apollo 11 really happened by a considerable factor). An ambitious young CIA agent cooks up a plan to save NASA by fabricating footage of a successful moonshot.

Doesn't sound very promising, but just about pulls it off due to obvious knowledge of its subject and an unexpected level of technical proficiency - the team get the expertise they need by stealing it off the set of 2001 (a witty touch, but very well-executed). A bit larky most of the way through, which makes a third-act shift into a much more serious mode difficult to pull off, and not particularly original, but watchable and with some very nice moments.
  
Cloverfield (2008)
Cloverfield (2008)
2008 | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Cloverfield is, at heart a found footage Kaiju movie with the twist that you don't see much of the main monster until the end of the film. Unlike Kaiju films like Godzilla or even Pacific rim, Cloverfield does not concentrate on the monster but on the people affected by it's rampage and the found footage aspect of the film helps bring us in close with a small group of survivors as they try to work out what is happening and try to find their friends.
I knew some one who absolutely hated this film for the very fact that the monster is rarely seen, although he clamed that you never actually saw the monster, which isn't true so I don't think he watched all the way to the end. He had a point though, if you want to watch a film where monsters fight it out amongst themselves then this probably won't be for you.
The monster is really nothing more than a plot device and the fact that it is only revealed in parts and not fully seen until the end helps to keep the film centred on the people and helps add a touch of reality to the film, after all if you lived in Japan during a Kaiju attack you would be more interested in saving your own life than weather you were about to be eaten by Godzilla or Ghidorah.
Being a found footage film, Cloverfield suffers slightly from the usual shaky camera work and occasional low sound but these are kept to a minimum. The film also manages to avoid relying on night vision or infra red so the footage is, for the most part, much clearer than other films of this style and doesn't keep switching formats which make the film less distracting than others.
Over all Cloverfield is a good monster/survival film which leaves some questions to be answered in the sequels (or not )