The Den (2013)

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Director: Zachary Donohue

Writers: Zachary Donohue and Lauren Thompson

Starring: Melanie Papalia, David Schlachtenhaufen, and Adam Shapiro

 

Synopsis: A young graduate student (Melanie Papalia) attempts to study the online activity of random people in order to get grant money for her graduate thesis in Social Media Studies. She witnesses what seems to be a real murder and gets caught up in trying to find the killer when her own loved ones start disappearing.

Review: First of all, I loved this movie and it is most likely because the story seemed more realistic and the ending was pretty awesome. If you’ve ever played on Chatroulette or any of the other video chat services, then you’ll recognize some of the familiar scenes that the main character, Elizabeth witnesses the first few days of her studies.

Elizabeth starts out with the usual silly online presences – the guys who want to show off their privates, the pranks that are supposed to surprise and scare you, and foreigners wanting to make new friends. Things start out with her being filmed while making love to her boyfriend and having that video sent to various people, including the ones who decide if she gets a grant or not. Along the way, she makes friends with one girl who never shows up on video and when she eventually does, it’s her death that Elizabeth sees.

The police don’t believe her and it’s her best friend that she turns to in order to get help. Once he and her boyfriend disappear, Elizabeth goes out on her own to try to find them and this is where things get really interesting. Her sister is targeted and things go from bad to worse for her really quickly.

Without giving anything away, the ending reminded me of Hostel somewhat and that was really refreshing. It left the door open for a sequel while still allowing the original movie to end with closure should a sequel not be made.

 

Found Footage O Meter: I’d give this movie a solid 8/10 for an original look at what many of us are familiar with – online video chatting. There are some really intense and violent scenes if you’re into that but they don’t overwhelm the plot or seem gratuitous in any way.

 

 

 

Willow Creek (2013)

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Director: Bobcat Goldthwait

Starring: Alexie Gilmore, Bryce Johnson

Synopsis: A couple goes into the woods looking for Bigfoot. You can imagine what happens next.

Review: I am trying to think of exactly what I wanted to say about this movie. It started off as a slow burner, and then slowly gained momentum. And it kept building and building, and well it was kinda of a let down. It was shot very similar to the Blair Witch Project. But it just fell flat.

You follow Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) and Jim (Bryce Johnson) a couple headed off to the wood in search of Bigfoot. They follow the trail by retracing the steps of Robert Patterson and Bob Gimlin took to Willow Creek. It was there Patterson and Gimlin recorded Bigfoot. Now I admit I liked the characters. I loved how Jim was just stoked about finding Big Foot. And Kelly was his polar opposite Kelly is a total skeptic….like to the core skeptic.

So you have a 77 minute movie the first part is the driving to get to the destination. The second part is the interviews. And I actually did like the interviews they seemed authentic. Things start getting hairy when they go into the woods. There is lots of night action where they are in the tent and there is lots of rustling, and weirdness going on. And I was at one point on the edge of my seat. And I was so excited to get to the end, but when I did. I regretted. It was like someone let all the air out of my balloon. So much build up for what something I couldn’t even get a good look at it. I found that was more than a little disappointing.

 

Found Footage O Meter: 5/10

While I didn’t hate it I didn’t love it. What was most memorable to me was why Kelly didn’t get the job for the Summer’s Eve douche commercial. When she said Hail to the V I wanted to go out buy some right then. This was supposed to be about Big Foot but I kept think why did Kelly not get that part…lol. When you watch the movie you will know exactly what I am talking about.

I felt the movie had a good premises, and great build up only be a let down at the end. I will add this I like it better than most of the Big Foot found footage movies I have seen thus far.

Grave Encounters 2011

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Director: The Vicious Brothers

Writers: The Vicious Brothers

Starring: Ben Wilkinson, Sean Rogerson, Ashleigh Gryzko

Synopsis: For their ghost hunting reality show, a production crew locks themselves inside an abandoned mental hospital that’s supposedly haunted – and it might prove to be all too true.

 

Grave Encounters starts off very similar to any other ghost hunting show like Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures. I found the cast very realistic in the aspect of being ghost hunters. I felt like I was watching a show. You watch a camera crew stay the night in a supposedly haunted insane asylum. Most people will feel okay we have all heard this story and seen this movie. I thought the same despite the rave reviews it was gaining before I viewed it myself.

 

(Minor Spoilage) I also loved how the beginning it did address the fact that every show doesn’t always get results hence paying a handy man to say he saw something. I kinda figured this may happen in the real shows like Ghost Hunters.

 

Now, I don’t want to give too much a way. I am only giving my review and this is not a blow-by-blow of the entire movie. The movie had some great scares. However, I did find all the screaming and f-bombs dropping a little annoying. But I can’t really say anything because I am relatively sure if I were in the same situation I would probably be dropping f-bomb as well. But is just really annoying to watch for me.

 

I did not go in expecting much from this movie. It was surrounded by a ton hype by the time I got around to watching it. Typically when a movie is surrounded by so much hype I end up hating it. And I hate it when that happens. But this movie did its job. I was scared and jumpy. I put my hand over my eyes and peeked through a couple of times. So I am with this one to say the least. And it had a nice little twist.

8.5/10: Definitely one of my favorite found footage movies. It was well done and the actors were great. It’s definitely one not to be missed.

I will be reviewing Grave Encounters 2 very soon!!! 🙂