The only saving grace of this movie is that the majority of the actors gave it their all and pulled off great individual performances considering what they were given to work with. Don't get me wrong, the ensemble did not work cohesively in the film at all.
Like many of you have already seen, the previews to this movie are misleading, making this look like an attempt at an old school horror flick. The story is original, in that Pastor Marcus is "filming this documentary in an attempt to expose exorcism for the scam that it is", but finds a genuine demonic possession. There was no need to 'trick' film-goers by making the previews this way; it just sets them up for disappointment.
Personally, I was completely surprised at the beginning of the film, in a good way; it seemed that I was going to get an original story line! But alas, I was setting my hopes too high. Predictable "twists" came one after another, and 30 minutes into the film, I had it figured out.
The film never developed an even pace, and certain elements became increasingly frustrating by the end of the movie, for instance, the "cameraman" only using the camera's light a third of the time it would have been appropriate for him to do so; the shaky-cam "found footage" technique executed without any originality; and the fact that this film had a musical score all killed the escapism, keeping me from believing a minute of the story.
I'm not even going to bring up the details of the ridiculous excuse of an ending. I had hoped Eli Roth would have tried something other than the "doesn't make any sense and takes everything away from the film" ending that effects every movie he's attached to, but even as a producer, the ending has his fingerprints all over it.
Mr. Roth, you owe us all more. Get back to Cabin Fever - you showed so much potential, and yet your skills have yet to mature.
Like many of you have already seen, the previews to this movie are misleading, making this look like an attempt at an old school horror flick. The story is original, in that Pastor Marcus is "filming this documentary in an attempt to expose exorcism for the scam that it is", but finds a genuine demonic possession. There was no need to 'trick' film-goers by making the previews this way; it just sets them up for disappointment.
Personally, I was completely surprised at the beginning of the film, in a good way; it seemed that I was going to get an original story line! But alas, I was setting my hopes too high. Predictable "twists" came one after another, and 30 minutes into the film, I had it figured out.
The film never developed an even pace, and certain elements became increasingly frustrating by the end of the movie, for instance, the "cameraman" only using the camera's light a third of the time it would have been appropriate for him to do so; the shaky-cam "found footage" technique executed without any originality; and the fact that this film had a musical score all killed the escapism, keeping me from believing a minute of the story.
I'm not even going to bring up the details of the ridiculous excuse of an ending. I had hoped Eli Roth would have tried something other than the "doesn't make any sense and takes everything away from the film" ending that effects every movie he's attached to, but even as a producer, the ending has his fingerprints all over it.
Mr. Roth, you owe us all more. Get back to Cabin Fever - you showed so much potential, and yet your skills have yet to mature.