Posted: Mar 20, 2017 11:25 pm
Watched a few more found footage films yesterday.
Encounters (2014) Nothing really new here, but a lot of nice familiar things put together in one film. A film crew from Denmark ventures into the forests of Sweden to film a movie and have some, well, 'encounters'. One of those films where the acting is nice and quiet and the characters are something other than obnoxious. And there's a really nice early creep scene when the crew are driving through the forest and see a guy just standing in the middle of the road looking at them. And he just keeps staring at them as they drive closer and then finally go around him.
Reel Evil (2012) This one did have a new idea or two, but it wasted its few new things on just a tired effort and a whole lot else that was derivative. A documentary crew (yes, another film crew!) are making a behind-the-scenes feature for a film. The main feature is being filmed in an abandoned hospital, and when the documentary crew realise that the feature itself and those involved are a bunch of cliches and not worth a documentary, they go off exploring the hospital. See, nice framing plot and the existence of this other larger crew nearby creates a feeling that the documentary crew are somewhat safer than usual in this sort of film. (That was what initially made Grave Encounters fun - you knew they only had to wait in the main hall until morning and things would be fine. It makes the ghost hunting fun for the initial part, at least. Until the uh-oh.) Would've been nice to play around with that a bit. But this movie just looks too much like a movie. There's no sense that you're watching an actual documentary crew. And I couldn't count the number of times the main character ran off on her own. Idiot.
Raakavedos (2016) Very low-budget indie effort that's up on Youtube. Only about an hour long, so in the same tradition as The Museum Project. Just not as good. A guy goes exploring a set of buildings that used to shelter children and finds something creepy. Mostly just an exploration film. Lots of shots of empty rooms. Decent effort. And heck, I wish Reel Evil looked more like this film. At least this thing had the realism thing down.
Encounters (2014) Nothing really new here, but a lot of nice familiar things put together in one film. A film crew from Denmark ventures into the forests of Sweden to film a movie and have some, well, 'encounters'. One of those films where the acting is nice and quiet and the characters are something other than obnoxious. And there's a really nice early creep scene when the crew are driving through the forest and see a guy just standing in the middle of the road looking at them. And he just keeps staring at them as they drive closer and then finally go around him.
Reel Evil (2012) This one did have a new idea or two, but it wasted its few new things on just a tired effort and a whole lot else that was derivative. A documentary crew (yes, another film crew!) are making a behind-the-scenes feature for a film. The main feature is being filmed in an abandoned hospital, and when the documentary crew realise that the feature itself and those involved are a bunch of cliches and not worth a documentary, they go off exploring the hospital. See, nice framing plot and the existence of this other larger crew nearby creates a feeling that the documentary crew are somewhat safer than usual in this sort of film. (That was what initially made Grave Encounters fun - you knew they only had to wait in the main hall until morning and things would be fine. It makes the ghost hunting fun for the initial part, at least. Until the uh-oh.) Would've been nice to play around with that a bit. But this movie just looks too much like a movie. There's no sense that you're watching an actual documentary crew. And I couldn't count the number of times the main character ran off on her own. Idiot.
Raakavedos (2016) Very low-budget indie effort that's up on Youtube. Only about an hour long, so in the same tradition as The Museum Project. Just not as good. A guy goes exploring a set of buildings that used to shelter children and finds something creepy. Mostly just an exploration film. Lots of shots of empty rooms. Decent effort. And heck, I wish Reel Evil looked more like this film. At least this thing had the realism thing down.