Dark Mountain

I absolutely love movies like Blair Witch Project or something clever this was not Blair Witch. This was more like Blair Witch 2 Bad! I mean first of all if you want it to be like a Found Footage Film you don't put in music over it or spooky noises. I have been 47 minutes into it and so far the characters are bad, the plot is very thin. At first I thought ok this might be interesting and then it's like oh no jump scare, run, scream and meh. Maybe it's just because I am jaded or bored with these kinds of movies but yeah I am not impressed with this movie at all! And the heavy metal music is seriously giving me a headache.

I first heard about this movie several years before it came out. Saw some teaser trailers online and it really got me interested. I had no idea when it was supposed to be released and I scoured the internet dozens of times for any bits of information I could find on it. My excitement and anticipation could not have been higher. So when I finally saw it on a streaming site a few years ago I immediately watched it. Holy crap was it a let-down. It turned out to be nothing like the teasers I had seen previously. My disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined. There is absolutely nothing even remotely scary in this film. The very annoying characters spend most of their time wandering aimlessly in the desert and the cinematography felt like someone spent half a semester in an art-film class and then dropped out.

Dark Mountain is beautifully directed and filmed, it really took me by surprise. This isn't another nauseating, shaky-cam mess. There are a lot of terrific shots and brilliantly edited moments -- especially, the opening montage as the characters drive to the Superstition Mountains. The glitches that periodically disrupt the footage are also particularly effective.

When the characters arrive at the mountains, a growing sense of unease builds. Soon, they are lost, confused and frightened. The actors are all well-cast and give strong performances -- their descent into hysteria and madness is completely believable.

Dark Mountain is terrifying and thrilling, with memorable scares. Highly recommended.

If you're going to make a found footage movie in which your sound is already more difficult to hear than a standard film, please add Closed Captions. (Turning the volume up for hard of hearing people is not recommended when there are loud booming jump scares.) There is no reason not to do this. I couldn't hear the actors and turned the movie off despite the nice scenery and intriguing premise, and it's a shame because I love found footage and was excited to watch this. Please think of this in the future.

The positive reviews for this movie are mind-boggling. The characters were poorly developed, the script was unnecessary, the scares were cheap, the plot was driven by gimmicks and the climax was non-existent. This film possibly had the worst ending I have ever seen, it certainly posed more questions than it answered, but I'm not sure what those even are. Just as the story began to take shape, though not a very interesting shape, the credits rolled. I searched for something positive to say about this film, though I came up with nothing substantial. I do remember being entertained at first, somewhat interested, even confident that the movie would take off. That never happened. I recommend you skip this film, even you are an avid viewer of found footage/mockumentary films.