I want to start off by saying that I normally don't have a problem with ambiguity when it comes to movies. However, with this one it's pretty clear from the beginning that this is just another case of a filmmaker using ambiguity and opaqueness to hide the glaring lack of content and ideas.
Starting off with the found footage format, it seems that Mr. Banfitch either doesn't understand the genre or understands it but is too lazy or otherwise unable to stick to the rules of the genre.
We're told upfront that what we're seeing is raw unedited footage from three memory cards, but this is proven false within the first minutes when the audio is carried over from one shot to the next.
It gets worse when just before memory card 3 begins there's a lengthy scene of the characters wandering around in the desert while an unequivocally non-diegetic "spooky" ambient track is playing in the background.
Again, did it not occur to the director that this makes no sense within the context of supposedly unedited footage?
And let's not even get into the absurdity of anyone being able to not only keep filming while they're being literally thrown into a black void of hell, but to also get a perfectly symmetrical shot of the various apparitions that are found within.
The pacing of the movie feels haphazard, and the long stretches of scenes in the first half that literally don't add anything to the plot seem to have been left in intentionally just so that the runtime would meet feature length criteria.
The only positive thing I can say is that the actors are generally pretty decent.
There are some cool ideas here and there, but unfortunately all of them feel half baked and underdeveloped. The time loop/alternate timeline twist could have been interesting if more focus was put on integrating that storyline in a cohesive way, but here it feels like an afterthought, competing with half a dozen other afterthoughts.
And the creature? Well, let's just say that when I read about it my imagination couldn't help but picture something a bit more ambitious than the static dog/wolf/alien we got, which is only seen in closeup, and is only illuminated by the ever present flashlight, with threatening dog growls added in post to suggest an actual living entity.
I keep seeing people comparing this movie to Skinamarink, which I absolutely loved, but many of those people seem to focus on trying to make this new wave of gay horror happen just because the two directors happen to be queer. This feels borderline offensive, as the two movies have nothing else in common, either thematically or in terms of quality.
Skinamarink is a great example of a director using ambiguity to their advantage and as a way to heighten the on-screen tension by suggesting rather than showing.
The Outwaters is a good example a director pretending to be suggesting rather than showing, but who is actually doing neither.
I honestly wanted to like this movie. I was hoping for a new Blair Witch Project, but instead we got another run-of-the-mill attempt at found footage that has been seen may times before.
I'm not mad, just disappointed.
Starting off with the found footage format, it seems that Mr. Banfitch either doesn't understand the genre or understands it but is too lazy or otherwise unable to stick to the rules of the genre.
We're told upfront that what we're seeing is raw unedited footage from three memory cards, but this is proven false within the first minutes when the audio is carried over from one shot to the next.
It gets worse when just before memory card 3 begins there's a lengthy scene of the characters wandering around in the desert while an unequivocally non-diegetic "spooky" ambient track is playing in the background.
Again, did it not occur to the director that this makes no sense within the context of supposedly unedited footage?
And let's not even get into the absurdity of anyone being able to not only keep filming while they're being literally thrown into a black void of hell, but to also get a perfectly symmetrical shot of the various apparitions that are found within.
The pacing of the movie feels haphazard, and the long stretches of scenes in the first half that literally don't add anything to the plot seem to have been left in intentionally just so that the runtime would meet feature length criteria.
The only positive thing I can say is that the actors are generally pretty decent.
There are some cool ideas here and there, but unfortunately all of them feel half baked and underdeveloped. The time loop/alternate timeline twist could have been interesting if more focus was put on integrating that storyline in a cohesive way, but here it feels like an afterthought, competing with half a dozen other afterthoughts.
And the creature? Well, let's just say that when I read about it my imagination couldn't help but picture something a bit more ambitious than the static dog/wolf/alien we got, which is only seen in closeup, and is only illuminated by the ever present flashlight, with threatening dog growls added in post to suggest an actual living entity.
I keep seeing people comparing this movie to Skinamarink, which I absolutely loved, but many of those people seem to focus on trying to make this new wave of gay horror happen just because the two directors happen to be queer. This feels borderline offensive, as the two movies have nothing else in common, either thematically or in terms of quality.
Skinamarink is a great example of a director using ambiguity to their advantage and as a way to heighten the on-screen tension by suggesting rather than showing.
The Outwaters is a good example a director pretending to be suggesting rather than showing, but who is actually doing neither.
I honestly wanted to like this movie. I was hoping for a new Blair Witch Project, but instead we got another run-of-the-mill attempt at found footage that has been seen may times before.
I'm not mad, just disappointed.
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