Quote:
Originally Posted by Tommy Jarvis
Grave Encounters 2011 ★★★
As a found footage, it did not really stand out all that much.
Don't get me wrong. The opening scenes had the whole style down of this particular type of “spectacular” reality show. Mythbusters is the first show that comes to mind, but I am fairly certain that there is other more supernatural related programming that they managed to mimic very well.
And then there are the special effects. Seeing them in a found footage is already pretty rare as such and having them as well executed as they are here definetily adds to the film.
So the film has its merits and the third star is deserved. But I have seen this formula better executed in other flicks. Decent, but run of the mill and vice versa. And I can certainly see why people would love this one.
For people who just discovered FF and are starting to dig.
Would You Rather 2012 ★★★
Would you rather is a horror about choices that's easily linked to similar flicks like Saw, The Belko Experiment or even Hounded or The Purge (Pretty sure The Purge: Anarchy had a similar storyline).
I liked it. Sure, it has the tropes of the genre: the self sacrifice, the mad host, the butler who is just as good at poaching eggs as he is at kicking ass, the arrogant, self-entitled son (let's call him Don junior),... but it keeps a solid pace, so I never got bored with it. Even though, it was obvious early on who it would come down to. I also kind of expected the half dead tough guy to make a comeback, but they did not go for that low hanging fruit.
The characters are no Shakespeare, that's true. Then again, normal, levelheaded people do not get themselves into the sort of situation where they have to rely on this type of maniac. So there are only two ways you can go with these characters: either make them the type of sleazebags John Heard does so well, or the sad orphan type character that's supposed to break your heart like with Brittany Snow's character.
The acting? Meh. I thought it was okay for what it was. John Heard and Sasha Grey got characters that suited them and Jeffrey Combs was delightfully hammy as Lambrick. His rejoicing in the suffering made him an excellent villain.
One more thing I would like to mention is the ending. I don't say this very often, but this one was needlessly cruel. I get the all for naught-feel it was supposed to get across. I just doubt wether or not this was really needed. If the writers had gone with Amy as their main characters, it might have worked as a cumuppance. But now? Torture! Huh! Good god, y'all. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.
For fans of torture porn and Hunger Games-like survival stuff.
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Grave Encounters
It's really hard for me to drum up much interest in seeing ghosty visuals and jump scares with the found footage and the institution settings cause it's just so, so old to me. But I know any genre or topic can be done really well. For me there would have to be a really good story and rich characters, and it's rare to find that in horror films like this. Blair Witch did it, but it's very rare.
As far as photo realistic found footage, Chronicle (2012) was eye popping, and good film in general. Ever see that?
The V/H/S 1 & 2 have some crafty photo realistic found footage shorts. Plus, each short is short, so if you don't like one, you don't have to wait long. Most are pretty nasty, but usually more of a ghost story, or just kind of explores a concept or technique.
Would You Rather
After watching it a while, I decided I would rather not.
It is what is : torture porn. Decent production value. They could have gone more the Saw route, or any route, but they really just put lipstick on a faux plot.