The Outwaters

This movie is somehow very comparable to Skinamarink and that's not a good thing at all. You have absolutely no idea what's going on the entire runtime and it's full of horrible filmmaking with extremely dark shots with a flashlight every once in a while. If the darkness bothers you, don't worry because you'll end up getting screams and running with no context. If that doesn't bother you then you'll just be treated to random footage thrown together going from night to day and so on and so on. I really don't know what the heck was going on in this movie. If it's this easy to make a movie then maybe I need to pick up my iPhone and just start shooting random footage and ask a studio to buy my horribly shot movie and release it theatrically to piss everyone off. Apparently it's that's easy in 2023.

Before I start my review, let me state categorically that the editing is absolutely awful; what might have easily been a 90-minute (or less) feature has been stretched to nearly a 2-hour duration, for reasons I cannot comprehend.

Returning to the main course, as a follower of Found-Footage, I had high hopes for it, but it let me down big time. First and foremost, there is no visible urgency, and the incidents that take place have no clear explanation. Everything has been shrouded in vague, almost pretentious hallucinogenic images that makes little sense without context.

Yes, there's a lot of blood and elements of bodily mutilation, so gore fans may rejoice, but my point is, does having blood all over make it vile? That definitely makes for uneasy viewing, but does it truly intimidate? Especially in this day and age when people are so accustomed to seeing gore and brutality onscreen?

To summarise, it's a massive disappointment; it may placate a particular segment of the audience, and if you're one of them, I'm happy for you, but it didn't work for me at all! I admire the effort and ambition, but not the final product.

P. S. Terrific work with the Sound but alas! It had all gone to waste.

Horrible. I'd honestly rather watch paint dry. It's like watching someone's home movies for much longer than you want to; home movies of someone you don't even really know all that well. Pure torture. I'm not sure what people are smoking when they say it's the most terrifying movie they've ever seen, because I wasn't terrified one bit; just bored to death. And the characters? Oh my, they were so annoying. I honestly wanted them to get it in the end because they deserved it after the pain it put us through. I cannot believe this movie gets compared to Blair Witch because it is not even in the same galaxy of greatness.

You won't know what's going on. But not in a "over your head" artistic kind if way. More of a "not going to explain it because I don't know how" bad filmmaker kind of way.

The story is non-existent and won't ever be explained so don't hold your breath. And again, not explaining your story isn't artistic, it's lazy. High concepts are confusing. But confusion isn't high concept.

The acting is good and the poor cast shines early when the movie is setting up for its terrible 2nd and 3rd acts.

Look I'm an expert in found footage. I've seen them all. I love the genre and I can even find beauty and meaning in the Bad Ben series of films.

But THIS? Skip it. It's just a mish mash of gore and severely limited views. What an overrated mess. Omg.

I truly wish I could give this film a better rating. The premise is great, the blood effects are phenomenal, I just couldn't see much of anything! You rely on the small beam of light a character uses in the second half and all you can make out are eyes and faces! Don't believe the hype. This is a disappointing attempt at avant garde found footage filmmaking, that literally loses itself in the dark. Also, the dialogue and character interactions are incredibly jarring, it doesn't flow well in my opinion, and most of it is stiff and unnatural. The first 20 or so minutes will be the only coherent dialogue so brace yourself.