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Reviews
Specter (2012)
Awful
There are some decent "found footage" films out there. Devil's Pass and Troll Hunter to name a couple. This film fell miles short of "decent". Here goes...
Characters - not a single likable character in the movie. At no point did I care what happened to any of the characters. Heck, most of the time you can't tell what's happening to them anyways due to the dark and obscure filming. What little character development there is paints a picture of unemployed drug users who like to party in dark, trashy houses... hard to develop empathy there.
Plot - Let's see, an earthquake is mentioned and there's some actual footage of a tsunami and landslides. Not really relevant to any scenes that follow in the remainder of the movie. Possibly the weird stuff you see here and there is alien-related and therefore responsible for the natural disasters? Who knows, nothing is explained. And no, I'm not a simpleton who needs a tidy ending or plot explanations by someone in the movie. But you can't just piece together a bunch of dark, obscure scenes and expect the viewer to use their imagination... there needs to be something more than blurted lines and shaky images to tie it all together.
Pace - think Cloverfield. Main characters at a normal party (well, normal for white trash), unexpected chaos ensues and the characters pretty much run around until the abrupt ending. Keep in mind, they focused several times on the fact that the characters took drugs before the chaos began, so much of what you see could be hallucination and when they focus far too long on a character who is in a trance-like state, you aren't sure whether it's the drugs or the hinted-at alien activity (or whatever it was).
Filming - atrocious. It's dark, there are too many long periods of just black screen, and the few glimpses we get of the weird stuff are simply that... brief glimpses of weird stuff. The glimpses explain absolutely nothing of what's actually happening.
Look, I don't mind "found footage" movies. In fact, I kind of like them and I am pleased when I find a decent one. But add something to it, take a new angle, do something unique! And for crying out loud, the everyone-dies-end-it-abruptly-and-ambiguously ending has been done a zillion times.
This movie, even free, isn't worth the time investment.
CWB
The Secret Village (2013)
Absolutely Horrible
At some point in the future, scientists will be able to prove that watching terrible movies is harmful to your intelligence and overall psyche. The day they do that, this movie is going to be named in my lawsuit.
The wife and I love a good horror movie. But we also enjoy putting on a bad horror movie and making fun of it. Some movies, such as this one, are so bad that you can't even extract comedy from them.
For instance, it's been scientifically proved that Demons at the Door is the worst movie ever made (and will also be named in my lawsuit). However, it's so absurd that you can laugh at it.
I don't even need spoilers to illustrate how bad this movie is. The quality is just so bad that a lot of the time your face will be scrunched up in a "what the hell was the point of that?" expression.
The cuts are awful. In one scene, the blast of typical horror movie "shock" music cuts flat off. I almost guarantee they noticed something wrong with the scene in the editing room and instead of re-shooting, they just said, "cut it there."
There are long, pointless pauses in the dialog. The expressions don't match the actual mood. The scenes skip all over the place.
Worst... the music. Most modern horror movies use the typical method of focusing on the main character in the scene, then something flits by in the background while they play a short, intense burst of "shock" music meant to startle you. In most cases, without the sound, the scene wouldn't make you jump and wouldn't even be ominous. Well, apparently the person who produced this movie was so startled by the flit/shock- music thing during some movie that he decided to use it every few minutes. I'm not exaggerating. If they change scenes, there is a burst of shock music. If they zoom in on someone's face, it is accompanied by shock music. If the main character reaches for a Kleenex, it definitely calls for shock music. I was baffled when I reached for my coffee and no music played.
Acting wasn't terrible. Plot has been done a thousand times. Main actress is cute. But they should never have let the monkeys into the editing room... the choppy, ham-fisted style ruined even the possibility of a corny B movie and the subsequent laughs.
You've been warned.
CWB
Toad Road (2012)
Contemporary Youths??? Hardly...
Possible Spoilers *but don't worry, the director spoiled this long before"
This show was a God-awful waste of time. I can go watch unproductive losers perpetuate their downward spiral in any college town. That's not interesting. I was led to believe this was a supernatural thriller. Why? Well, you see, the movie description clearly implies that there is a supernatural element to this movie. There are about 47 seconds of the usual obscure filming with ominous music.
Some people love the non-traditional indie film style. I do, if it's done well. This one was not done well. The majority of the movie was a collage of kids with no ambition, no direction and no common sense doing drugs that they can inexplicably afford without jobs. You don't care about any of the characters. You don't even feel sorry for them. You pretty much just assume that Darwinism will sort out most of these kids eventually.
Supernatural you ask? There is a hint of a local urban legend. It takes forever for any characters to get around to encountering it. Again, it lasts a few seconds. That's it. No explanations of any kind whatsoever. Where did the legend originate? Nobody makes it past the 5th gate? How do you know? Someone said? What happened on the trail? How does it end?
Well... do not expect any answers whatsoever. It's almost like someone said, "I have hours of footage of losers doing drugs... we could probably con people into watching it if we hint at the supernatural!" I mean, did NOBODY on the crew ask, "But... what HAPPENED?" The director must have said, "Eh, it's not important. We're going to end the movie right about there anyways. Just use your imagination." What truly boggles my mind is that people who had a vested interest in the success of this film looked at the first production version and said, "Yeah, that's perfect. People are gonna LOVE this!"
If you decide to watch this film, don't say you haven't been warned.
CWB