Bodom

Not very often can one watch a European found footage film; I had the opportunity to watch it on a horror festival. As this is my first review, I try to be pithy. Though the story involves the Bodom murders that happened in Finland in 1960, this one was made in Hungary on a very low budget.

Bodom is ready to hold your attention as well as it works with more emphasis on slow burn horror - see the documentary parts. The twist at the end was a good one, but the longer we follow the characters the less originality we can find.

Mostly, the actors were just tolerable, while cinematography was clearly a strong point despite the genre.

Bodom is neither a remarkable success, nor an unforgettable film, but lovers of the genre will definitely like it.

When first being introduced to this movie, I was told it was a horror movie. When we first think of horror movies we think of blood and gore and people being killed or attacked. These types of horror movies can get predictable and lose their sense of "scary". Bodom was original in the sense that it was a physiological horror. It made you think throughout the entire film, and when the film is about over and you think you understand the main character, there is plot twist that makes you question your previous thoughts. I enjoyed the angle from what the movie took place, by going through the perspective of two students doing a simple thesis on the mystery at Bodom. Originally I knew nothing about the mystery in Bodom, but this spiked my interested to learn more. When real-life murders are incorporated into movies especially horrors, many times the directors base the entire movie around it and almost imitate it. I found this horror movie to be refreshing in a sense that the movie was based around the mystery at Bodom, but it wasn't a reincarnation of the events. I highly suggest anyone who find horror movies to be bland and predictable to watch this movie in order to renew your faith that there ARE horror movies out there that will make you think even days after watching.

Honestly this movie was a mess. I love found footage and I can give credit to even bad ones but this just made no sense and they covered that up by saying "we just don't know". It was a poorly written story, terrible script, the actors had such an awful relationship that was nonsensical at best. Nik's whole backstory was ridiculous and frankly her anger didn't make alot of sense either. It was her choice to do the thing she's so angry about! We never figure out what happened at all. None of it makes any sense. The camera shots of the landscape were beautiful and the location were all it had going for it. This whole thing could've been done in 30 minutes or less. It was really just filler and arguing.

After discovering the details of a special crime, students attempting to document the crimes at Finland's Lake Bodom back in the1960s for this thesis project, but the longer they stay there investigating the incident find themselves under attack by someone or something not interesting in letting the truth get out.

There's not a lot to like about this effort. Among the few enjoyable features here is the actual setup that manages to effectively evoke a chilling atmosphere while dealing with the topic at hand. The subject of the real-life murders at the heart of the story they're researching offers a fine start here while focusing on the experiences to give their exuberance for the project a fine grounding point to them going to the lake which has a creepy air that's only enhanced by their encounters with the locals at the lake. There's a strong atmosphere to the friendliness of the group trying to be acquaintances with each other which instead leads to the chilling and brutal final half where the encounters become much more terrifying and everything gets flipped on its head with a series of striking revelations that offer up a lot to like here. It's all enough to hold this one up over its big issues. There is a lot that holds this one down. The biggest factor here is a highly irritating and aggravating concept of having the two be at odds with each for nearly the entire time they're together during the trip. That we almost immediately get dropped into their relationship that displays a fairly antagonistic attitude where almost everything in regards to how they interact, from what kind of camera they bring along to how infrequent and ill-prepared they are to going flying and the use of their rental car which always devolves down into arguments at the slightest drop of a hat. That tends to make them highly unlikable and makes their journey together highly questionable, especially once a completely needless subplot is introduced that tends to introduce the reasoning for their bitterness but that just makes their relationship even more suspect than before this part of the film suffers greatly. The other factor here that holds this one up is the somewhat underwhelming series of action featured during the big confrontations in the final half. This is the part of the film that suffers the most with the found footage format as this series of confrontations and encounters in the woods around their house as there's very little to figure out what's going on as we're just guessing because the night-time camera lighting giving everything a dark green haze and camera movements that are so erratic all it does is make the audience confused as to make is actually happening in a blur of footage. Considering what's going on, this type of format hurts the actions so much as the scenes you want to see the most are hampered by the filmmaking format rendering the images nearly impossible to make out. On top of that, the series of reveals that come about involving their history is just lame and underwhelming to the point of not being believable in the slightest, all of which holds this down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.