The Death of April

Even though this movie is a low-budget found-footage style film, I really hoped there would be a redeemable bit to it. Sadly there was not. The acting is passable I suppose and the story is OK. It starts slow and ends almost as slowly as it began. No shocks or scares and not even an ounce of suspense in the whole movie. I believe there can still be life found in this genre and that has been evident in films such as "Afflicted" and "The Borderlands." Having a large budget does not equal a better horror film. A good story and gripping atmosphere can lift a possible mediocre movie into the area of one of the best found-footage horror films. It's a small group because most of them are garbage.

This is basically if Paranormal Activity, a movie that already had zero budget, had it's budget completely slashed and made about 15 years too late.

Megan is a little interesting, but aside from that the movie is just really dull. Just imagine Paranormal Activity but even less happens. The twist is this is made to look like a documentary, but this has already been done to death and done better. If this were made 10-15 years ago I might say watch it, but the paranormal activity movies have been done to death and the found footage documentaries have been done to death now.

There's just not really much of a reason to watch this movie.

After disappearing one day, a woman's friends and relatives recount her experiences of her after moving across the country for a new job beforehand and using a series of video diaries to enhance the experience of her slow descent into madness discovering the truth about the whole affair.

Generally, this was a pretty solid mockumentary with a lot to like about it. The idea of this one following along with the typical format where the first half gives us an introduction to her through her friends and family as well as the first video diaries that tell of nothing but exuberance and enthusiasm for the experience sets this off on a nice note. There's a great idea of the normality of her life trying to live on her own through the videos while the talking head interviews offer a similar pattern with the early experiences being discussed being fun and friendly while they slowly and gradually get darker as the videos chronicling her parallel this experience. This leads to the rather fun supernatural antics that are brought up as a means of signaling her subsequent descent into madness. The first stages with the video evidence and investigation into the previous resident come off quite nicely with the early setup beforehand which makes this all rather freaky. Once it gets deeper into the mystery and it becomes far more psychologically damaging as the bizarre encounters and unexplained scenarios keep happening, there's a lot to like with the series of reveals that come about here during the freakouts and snapping going on with those around her that explains the behavioral issues here which gives this a lot to like. There are some drawbacks to be had with the film. The main detriment to the film is the incredibly bizarre hot shotting it does to introduce the supernatural into the film as it seems to get introduced out of nowhere. With the first instances of something going wrong simply being her failure to respond to friends, the sudden introduction of the murder at the apartment and the investigation into the paranormal appear so soon afterward with little build-up or genuine motivation to investigate at this stage of the film feels quite undeserved. There's also the decided lack of urgency towards the glacial plot as this one plays out in a lethargic manner and could've gone much faster which are the issues with this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Language and Violence.

When I was first watching this movie, I thought that it was going to be fairly interesting. Average acting, it could have been better and a good plot. The thing that ruined it for me was that nobody believed her even after seeing everything that had been happening. What kind of parent does not go visit their daughter when she first moves away? That was another thing that ruined it for me. The brother just so happens to meet a girl that's into the paranormal? The scene where the sister and girlfriend were having a seance, she had an episode of breathing difficulty, vase breaks, that scene was over the top and not needed.

Yes it is quite similar to Paranormal Activity in many ways, and yes it is clearly low budget but as a big fan of this genre and always looking for new films, I really enjoyed this new possession film, good twist, good ending, decent acting, leaves a lot of questions but in a good way. Ignore the bad reviews but I would concedd it is for those of us who are connoisseurs of the genre who can't get enough of this type of film (and yes we are out here!). The main actress is a little annoying and very reminiscent of Lena Dunham in the Girls series. There are no pleasing some people. I hope there is a follow up.