Reviews

This was a great film!

I liked it a lot. Watched it absolutely enthralled the entire time.

I love it when directors respect my intelligence enough to give me just enough exposition to understand the overall plot, but not enough to prevent me from using my imagination to fill in the blanks.

I LOVE movies like that, films where not everything is spoon fed to me as if I'm some inept child that can't understand how imaginative narrative works.

And the ending was incredibly satisfying. I soooo wanted her to finish watching Friends LMAO Overall, a decent film. Mahershala Ali, Julia Roberts and Kevin Bacon bring the expected solid performances you'd expect from A-listers.

It was shot on anamorphic lenses (not entirely sure which ones, but they were very nice and rendered images really nicely), and cinematographer Tod Campbell (Stranger Things, Mr. Robot) executes some absolutely sick camera movements and places the actors in very intriguing positions within the frame. It echoes a lot of the stellar camera work he did on Mr. Robot, so if you liked the way that show looked, you'll love the way this looks.

Overall, a decent flick, and hopefully not prescient. Because what it suggests could absolutely happen at any moment in today's modern world.

6.5/10.

This movie is INSANE!

First off; gorehounds will LOVE this film. There are some really gross, messed up things that happen in this film. And it's not afraid to really mess kids up. YOUNG kids, like babies. Some things happen to a couple of kids in this film that I didn't think they'd show, let alone linger on. Reaaaaallllyyyy messed up stuff! There is a scene in the trailer that shows someone stumbling in the street...THAT part...that longer part...WHOA!

This film is BRUTAL!!!!!!

Secondly, it's GORGEOUS. Not shot with anamorphic lenses, but cinematographer Mariano Suárez really makes every frame sing. A couple of shots in this are some of the best I've seen in years from a spherical lens setup. Really pretty film, more so when you consider the absolute brutality of it.

Third, and the only negative I have is that the main character is an absolute idiot. I know that you have to have people make dumb decisions for most horror films to work, but this protagonist makes absolutely mind bogglingly stupid decisions the entire time. It's borderline aggravating how dumb he is. And the rules for dealing with demons is kinda vague, which makes the audience confused as to how to the characters in the story are actually supposed deal with demons.

Other than that, this movie is a GO! Definitely worth a watch.

Gives a new meaning to eating on the road LOLZ

8/10.

WHAAAAAT THEEEE HELL DID I JUST WATCH?!?!?!

This movie is absolutely bananas.

The last 40 minutes or so are an absolute assault on sanity.

I swear on everything I love that this is, BY FAR, the most messed up cosmic horror-based found footage movie I have EVER seen.

Not gonna lie, the first two acts are somewhat mediocre. Lots of decent hints as to what comes at the end, which is admittedly cool. IF you can catch them. Pretty standard fare, honestly.

But YOOOOOOO!!!!

When Ol Boy literally goes into what I'm assuming is Hell itself (not a spoiler)?!?!?!?

JEEEEESSSUUUUS EFFING CHRIST

Absolute chaos, sheer madness, total Lovecraftian nonsense that I barely understood. You don't know what the hell is happening, but you do get just enough to get an idea of where he is when it's happening LMAO

I honestly feel like this is EXACTLY what it would be like if you ran into a Lovecraftian horror IRL. You would legit lose your mind with how insanely horrific these monsters are as written in the fiction. According to the lore, they are so incredibly evil and incomprehensibly monstrous that the mind breaks when you see them.

That's kind of EXACTLY what happens in the last act.

Robbie Banfitch, the director and star of this film, has done an INCREDIBLE job with a relative shoestring budget. He only lights up the last act with a flashlight. You only see a tiny bit of what's happening, and it's just enough to have you saying "what the eff was THAT" multiple times within that last 40 minutes or so.

HIGHLY recommended. It's playing at the Chattanooga Film Festival at the time of this writing, an online event. And it will be playing at other film festivals before (what damn well better be) the inevitable wide release.

I STRONGLY suggest you watch this film, and nowhere near children.

8/10.

This is pretty much a third installment in the V/H/S series.

Which isn't a bad thing necessarily.

This anthology styled found footage horror film tells the story of a police officer who really, really, REALLY should have taken the day off.

A house, which had been completely demolished a year prior, suddenly reappears. Neighbors call the cops, and the one who shows up to the call finds a VHS tape in said house and proceeds to watch it. In between sequences on the tape (of which there are three), he explores the house.

After each sequence, things get crazier and crazier for this officer.

The bad:

• people do incredibly stupid things in the face of clear, imminent danger
• the sequences are somewhat predictable and don't break any new ground in this sub genre of horror
• it's a V/H/S clone

The good:

• the last 10 minutes are rather creepy (the house physically changing was effective)
• special effects are decent
• the creature designs, especially of the thing wearing the red dress, are good. Very weird looking and creepy
• some genuinely scary things happen in the last act
• it's a V/H/S clone

Outside of the unfathomably stupid things almost every character does (e.g. the officer reveals some scary monster with his flashlight, and instead of running away, he simply TURNS AROUND), I found this to be enjoyable and a decent watch.

For only $3 on Amazon, I think it's well worth a watch.

Megan Is Missing is the fictional account of two young girls who are seduced and kidnapped by a online predator.

As a fan of mockumentaries and found footage films, I'd have to say that this ranks up there with some of the best ones in the horror genre. Mainly because it's very, deeply, incredibly unsettling.

From a gore perspective, it's rather tame. There is not a single scene that shows someone actually being killed. It's mainly the aftermath that you see.

I found that the way this story was told was brilliant, to be honest. Its relatively minimalist approach to backstory exposition, particularly regarding Megan's abuse as a child, is incredibly effective in establishing the causes for some of her extremely questionable actions in this film. She does things that are arguably nonsensical, but when she explains how she was molested as a ten year old by her camp counselor (in EXCRUCIATINGLY harrowing detail), you kind of understand why she does those things.

Speaking of acting, I see reviews that chide the performances based mainly on decisions the girls and their friends make. They seem to forget that these are supposed to be relatively clueless teenage girls, and by default are SUPPOSED to make stupid decisions. Amber Perkins as Amy Herman is particularly good in her portrayal of an innocent 13-year old girl, convincing even as the horrible things that happen to her during the last act are happening. You really feel sorry for her as she pleads for her life, rather convincingly.

And that last act...sheesh.

Starting with the two photos of Megan that were found on the fake fetish website in the S & M contraption, broken, bruised, bloody, absolutely TERROR-STRICKEN...those all-too-brightly-lit pictures, coupled with what the film conveys about how evil the antagonist is, had me stunned. The stark, exposed, abject vulnerability in her eyes is something that sticks with me even as I type this.

Also, the way the antagonist breaks the spirit and will of Amy in the final act is positively soul crushing. The part when he rapes her is as deplorable as anything I've seen in Irreversible, I Spit On Your Grave or Blindness.

As a parent to a thirteen year old girl, this movie was really hard to watch.

I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of found footage horror. Very, very, very disturbing stuff.

I'm biased TOWARDS found footage films. I generally love them. I can forgive some of the more ridiculous things within them due to the fact that I'm a bit of a junkie for this sub genre of cinema.

This film?

Not so much.

It's terrible.

The characters do some INSANELY stupid things. I know, I know, virtually ALL horror movies have the main characters doing stupid things. This one takes the proverbial cake though.

So instead of heading DOWN a desolate mountain TOWARDS civilization, you decide to go up to its remote, isolated, hard-to-reach summit instead?

So you're being chased by a slow, ill-equipped-for-mountain-roads RV and you're in a 4-wheel drive vehicle made for the terrain you're currently lost in and you still let it catch you?

So you've just discovered your friend trapped in said RV literally surrounded by weapons with her foot cut off and you decide to kill one of the people involved in the death of your friends and possibly the mutilation of your friend and you run AWAY, weaponLESS from a prime vantage point of ambush?

This movie's characters are absolute idiots, even by lax horror film standards.

The gore (what little of it is on display) is decent, the setting is sufficiently creepy, particularly the town they stop in and that's about it. Almost nothing else is worth mentioning, let alone watching.

Do not pay to view this. It would be a total waste of money.

This film is very reminiscent of Unfriended, another horror film entirely shown from the view of a computer screen. This one mixes in regular cinematic footage with views from different cameras (cell phone, laptop, surveillance cams, etc.) to tell the story of a woman named Elizabeth who receives a large grant to study online webcam behavior.

Yeah, I know...how can I be down? LOL

At any rate, Elizabeth logs on to a specific feed that shows a woman being brutally murdered.

Things go downhill for her and her friends fairly quickly from there...

All things considered, I found this film to be rather good! As with virtually all found footage horror films, people continue filming long past the point where that should stop, and as in virtually all horror movies in general, the main character doesn't make very smart decisions...also, there's a scene that seems to portray what has to be one of the least secure crime scenes ever...

One scene in particular towards the end seems like a great opportunity for Elizabeth to enact revenge but she doesn't take it. A bit later on, it's sort of revealed that her doing what I thought she should with a hammer RE: revenge wouldn't have made a difference anyway, which was kind of a nice surprise.

Speaking of surprises, the ending...

The movie takes us out of the found footage realm for this part of the film. In fact, it's the only part of the film that isn't from a cam.

And it's quite the doozy! It serves to reinforce the notion that you never know what sick fetishes folks indulge in behind the relative safety and anonymity of the internet. Very disturbing ending!

A really nice piece overall if you can forgive a few really stupid decisions made on the part of the main character and don't suffer too badly from motion sickness.

This is essentially John Carpenter's The Thing set in a geographically different location and with less dread and ominous tension.

Which isn't a bad thing, not at all, actually, especially when you consider The Thing to be one of the best horror movies ever made...

The reason most people are checking this film out is because of the pedigree of the effects team behind this. I think they did an admirable job! Some of the effects, particularly the first one with the university official, were awesome. I can see how some might have a problem with the low lighting, but it didn't bother me personally.

A very by-the-numbers return to classic 80s horror. Could've used some better editing and maaaaaaybe more lighting, but I feel it largely accomplishes what it set out to do, namely show off the effects wizardry of the team behind the film. Practical effects are still alive and well.

So @ the behest of a fellow jaded horror movie fan, I watched this film.

"So you've been desensitized by horror movies with seriously twisted and sick themes like Cannibal Holocaust and Feed and The Mist, huh?" she asked...

"So you think horror movies of late are lame and don't actually engender feelings of DREAD and HORROR like John Carpenter's The Thing, huh?" she asked...

"So you wanna see something that messes with your HEAD more so than your EYES, huh?" she asked...

"Well watch THIS," she said.

WHOA.

In no uncertain terms, this film is one of the most disturbing pieces of fiction I've EVER seen.

I won't go into spoilers. There are a gang of reviews that came before and will come after this one that do that.

Just suffice it to say that I have never felt this...YUCKY, for lack of a better word, after watching ANYTHING EVER. And I've seen two of the films in Lucifer Valentine's Vomit Dolls trilogy, all of the August Mordum stuff, Angel's Melancholy, Adam Chaplin, Salo, Sweet Movie, all that extreme, transgressive stuff. None of it affected me like this film did. Those aforementioned films are more disgusting than disturbing, IMHO. There's a marked difference.

Technically, this film is beautiful. The look of the thing is great. Good angles, great lighting, all that. A technically sound film. Damn near GORGEOUS in places.

From a gore perspective, it's honestly not all that gory. There are a bunch of films that one- up this one HANDILY from a pure gore perspective. That's not to say that it ISN'T gory...it is, particularly towards the end. But it's NOT as bloody as some of these other reviewers would have you believe.

From a plot perspective, this film DEFINITELY lives up to the definition of horror. The themes touched upon are EXTREMELY disturbing. Wretch-inducing, even.

And all this from a self-professed jaded horror fan.

And the ending!!!

"Start with the little one..."

WTF?!?!?!?!

Sweet 12lb Baby Jesus!!!!

I probably won't be having sex with My Wife™ for quite some time after watching this film.

Which means it ABSOLUTELY did its job.

It HORRIFIED me.

I simply cannot recommend this film enough to true fans of horror films, particularly of so-called "shock cinema". If you fit into this category, even slightly, you MUST see this film.