I'm not a fake review, you can see I've reviewed a lot of movies and I frequently review very low budget films. As the title says, it is a surprisingly very Meta film. Is it great? No, but it is interesting and hasn't left my mind after 3 days. I think this film is going to suffer for a few reasons, first of all it is made to look really bad on purpose. Second it was hard to get through the first 15 minutes, because the film on the titular DVD was so bad, but all of the fake extra features are very entertaining and tell us a story of Their Own. The third reason is it is NOT a horror film, there is absolutely no Horror in this movie, until maybe the end, even then, not really. If you are looking for a micro-budget film that is trying to do something unique, you might like "The DVD", if not, stay far away.
"The DVD" is a weird, almost found-footage style sort of drama/documentary. But I don't think that properly categorizes it, it's just weird. It's never really boring, I would say it generally falls into the so bad it's (mostly)good category, and that seems to be by design. There were times I wanted to punch the "film makers" portrayed in this movie in the face and then some. It is definitely a parody of sorts it is lampooning the film industry, it definitely lampoons those trying to break into the industry, but fail miserably, and it is about those who are full of themselves and don't care about other people's feelings. The two filmmakers portrayed in this film are very disrespectful towards women and people in general. While it doesn't come out right away as the film progresses it becomes more and more apparent.
There is a sort of twist at the end but it is very slight, I almost didn't catch it myself, and if you make it through to the end I'll be impressed, not because it is bad. but because of the low budget and exploitative nature of the film. Because this falls into the extremely low-budget category, if a typical movie goer stumbles into this, they are probably going to be really put off. I don't think they're going to like it at all, but I felt it was a very creative movie and a very clever satire, it's just not going to be for most people.
There is definitely more going on under the surface then it seems at first glance, and unless you make it to the end, it is unfair to rate this film at all, because by the time I made it to the end my perception of this film and what it was about took a full 180 turn, and then sum. I didn't even catch some of the stuff going on here until I turned the movie off. Again I would not classify this as horror, I would classify it as a very strange sort of drama/thriller/found footage/mystery and with virtually no budget. A movie about those who are trying to break into the industry and fail miserably, but don't realise it. The subtle satire of this movie will likely be missed because of the intentionally poor production values. Especially in the first 15minutes I wanted to shut it off due to the shaky camera, but you will later realize that shaky camera is an important part of the story, and so is every other film-making faux pas in this film believe it or not. Once again, although this film is heavily flawed, it is an interesting piece of Meta film making, and it hasn't left my mind after 3 days.
Overall for a micro-budget film, I thought it was worth watching and it's more than it initially appears to be when you first watch it. But again a lot of people aren't going to like it and they're not going to catch the subversive and satirical nature of this film. And I don't say that to be hoity-toity, I say that because a lot of times when people watch movies they are looking for a less bizarre approach to film making, especially if they think it's a horror film. So when they end up going into a movie that clearly isn't horror in any conventional sense of the word, but rather disturbing and strange movie that is very poorly shot intentionally, they're going to hate it. Yet, if you enjoy bizarre, offbeat humor, and if you can sit through the first 15 minutes I think you'll find it to be quite interesting if you enjoy micro-budget films.
God Bless ~Amy
