The Gracefield Incident

Good idea poorly executed. It's never a good sign when the writer, director and lead actor are all the same person.

Yet another found footage/group of friends in an isolated cabin beset by aliens movie; this time trying to justify everything being filmed by, believe it or not, having one of the characters insert a camera into a fake eye which, inexplicably includes a red recording light shining out of the lens ala the Terminator (the record light, even in micro cameras, is NOT in front of the lens and we won't even talk about the potentials for tissue irritation from inserting a home made fake eye - with red yarn for veins - into a soft tissue socket). Oh yes, and the aliens also make everyone's phone magically record for no reason - they must want to make sure they leave some proof of their visitation behind. But the upshot is that it wastes its thin premise with too much running around in the woods yelling about how they shouldn't be running around in the woods yelling; with three male actors whose deficiencies as thespians become more and more apparent the more agitated their characters get; repetitious and clunky dialogue (of the obvious and overt type - characters saying aloud what their responses are or the main guy constantly reiterating "I'm not losing anyone else" because, see, his wife lost their unborn baby in the same accident he lost his eye - which in Screenwriting for Dummies fashion had to immediately follow him saying something like "I'm just happy the baby will be healthy"); and last, but not least, all of the inconsistent alien behavior and random powers and attributes as if they spring from the collected history of ALL movie aliens and NOT a specific species or technologically developed society (and this includes a spaceship design inspired (or just poorly copied from) Close Encounters. I wish filmmakers would think these things through with intelligence and creativity instead of throwing everything against the wall and settling for anything that sticks. I appreciate the constraints of low budget film-making but, in the end, there's still no excuse for stupid.

I think the plot and storyline of the movie was good, but the acting dialogue was way overblown. It made the movie seem very cheap and I found myself being critical of the acting instead of enjoying the movie.

So inconsistent. Tell me, how does a camera move by itself and manage to get different angles? The camera during the main guy's encounter with the alien did. And it had a soundtrack, and audio from his eye camera. And his American accent was terrible. Oh and the film sounded like it was dubbed. I could go on and on with all the flaws. But the director is the writer and the main lead, so there you go. Trying to do it all and falling miserably all across the board.

The Gracefield Incident starts promisingly, it even comes up with a concept to justify the whole thing being recorded and I started to think this might surprise.

Alas it didn't, in fact within about 20 minutes it soon descends into that found footage formula we've had shoved down our throats for the past couple of decades and brings no originality to the table.

Group of 20 somethings go out to have fun in a secluded cabin and become targeted by aliens. That's basically it.

Kudos to them for the sfx because though they aren't fantastic at least they didn't do the usual thing of not showing you anything to keep the budget down.

The film isn't without its moments but ultimately this is just yet another flawed found footage mess.

The Good:

Great twist on the justification for still recording when crap is going down

Nice selection of movie posters

Decent enough start

The Bad:

Becomes real generic real fast

Lifeless cast