I saw this at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival on August 16th.
-I had a bad feeling before the movie began when they introduced Eli Roth & the two main actors, including the leading woman who plays the possessed chick. Eli cracked way too many jokes, humoring & hyping up the crowd. I thought this was a bad move, as if we're supposed to treat this like a Scream-type experience. Fun, but enjoy the 'boo!'-like scares. I thought it would've been better off to just turn off the lights & start the movie, setting the mood for something terrifying. It didn't help that we were introduced the actors first, making it hard to buy into the story.
-There's way too much humor in this movie that it became impossible to suspend my beliefs & be involved in the story.
-After a suspenseful moment, it would be followed up by another wise crack. The audience by far laughed more than letting out scares.
-It's supposedly 'found footage'...but it has a score?! During all build ups for the suspenseful moments, you'll hear a note from a cello, or eerie ambiance as if you were watching a film...but we're supposed to believe that this is documentary video? -These were actors acting to a script, there was no sense of improv a la REC & REC 2. The exchange in dialogue, reactions appeared way too rehearsed.
-There's one camera man filming this thing. But the editing/camera work was amateurish. I.E. There's a shot of the main priest taking off his blazer, then immediately cuts to the opposite angle showing him finishing taking off his blazer, as if it were done in one shot. It looked like there were either 2 camera men, or had another camera placed on a tripod capturing the shot. Way too many instances of this happening, it looked too professionally done for a 'found footage' type documentary. The reason why REC was far more effective is because the actors weren't told much of the things that would happen during scenes. Also, lot of the footage was done in one or just a few takes, which mostly were long, drawn out shots.
-The last 10 minutes of the movie made me wonder how many times they must have changed their minds how it should've ended. It was a mess, & will leave you in disbelief for all the wrong reasons.
I love my horror, I really wanted to like this movie, I'm not comparing it to The Exorcist, my girlfriend treated me on my birthday to watch this & we were both immensely disappointed. Eli Roth introduced this movie saying they wanted to create something original, I can only surmise that it did just that in showing how to deliver something so watered down & downright trailerpark movie trash.
-I had a bad feeling before the movie began when they introduced Eli Roth & the two main actors, including the leading woman who plays the possessed chick. Eli cracked way too many jokes, humoring & hyping up the crowd. I thought this was a bad move, as if we're supposed to treat this like a Scream-type experience. Fun, but enjoy the 'boo!'-like scares. I thought it would've been better off to just turn off the lights & start the movie, setting the mood for something terrifying. It didn't help that we were introduced the actors first, making it hard to buy into the story.
-There's way too much humor in this movie that it became impossible to suspend my beliefs & be involved in the story.
-After a suspenseful moment, it would be followed up by another wise crack. The audience by far laughed more than letting out scares.
-It's supposedly 'found footage'...but it has a score?! During all build ups for the suspenseful moments, you'll hear a note from a cello, or eerie ambiance as if you were watching a film...but we're supposed to believe that this is documentary video? -These were actors acting to a script, there was no sense of improv a la REC & REC 2. The exchange in dialogue, reactions appeared way too rehearsed.
-There's one camera man filming this thing. But the editing/camera work was amateurish. I.E. There's a shot of the main priest taking off his blazer, then immediately cuts to the opposite angle showing him finishing taking off his blazer, as if it were done in one shot. It looked like there were either 2 camera men, or had another camera placed on a tripod capturing the shot. Way too many instances of this happening, it looked too professionally done for a 'found footage' type documentary. The reason why REC was far more effective is because the actors weren't told much of the things that would happen during scenes. Also, lot of the footage was done in one or just a few takes, which mostly were long, drawn out shots.
-The last 10 minutes of the movie made me wonder how many times they must have changed their minds how it should've ended. It was a mess, & will leave you in disbelief for all the wrong reasons.
I love my horror, I really wanted to like this movie, I'm not comparing it to The Exorcist, my girlfriend treated me on my birthday to watch this & we were both immensely disappointed. Eli Roth introduced this movie saying they wanted to create something original, I can only surmise that it did just that in showing how to deliver something so watered down & downright trailerpark movie trash.