Death Cast

"Death Cast" is one of those "actors discover the film they are making is really happening" movie. The film begins with the auditions of six young actors who are cast in a horror film that will be filmed by hidden cameras and drones. They drive out to a isolated house where they are told to start acting and never break character and it will all be filmed. However, when they get there they discover that it is all too real and need to fight for their lives...

Lots of issues. Despite the drones and hidden cameras, what we get to see and how really strains credulity. Characters make totally irrational choices and a lot of the dialog is stilted and unnatural. The kills are pretty tame, and one of them occurs completely off camera which is inexcusable and unforgivable especially as we spent time in the room where it happened so we know there is a camera in there.

And yet... after a while, something about "Death Cast" grabbed me. In a clever touch, the movie is not presented as "found footage" but as the finished product of the filmmaker, with nice touches like the face of everyone except the victims being pixelated. I like the way that it subtly plays with horror movie tropes without pushing it in our faces -- for example, the "find your friend who you thought was dead but isn't" trope and the idea that the girl who's supposed to be the final girl doesn't really know how to act like a "final girl."

And at the end, I was rooting for the good guys and against the bad guys... always a bit of a challenge in these films. And I really liked that the movie committed to its plan and didn't wimp out at the end. Mild recommendation, and I definitely suspect you will like it more as the movie goes on, so give it a chance.

This film begins with 6 young actors auditioning for a part in an upcoming movie. Upon being accepted for their respective roles they are all given scripts to rehearse on their own. A couple of weeks later they are all driven to a secluded house in the woods where filming will start. However, unlike other movies, they are all informed that there will be nobody filming them at the site. Instead, the director has chosen to place remote-controlled cameras inside the house along with cameras mounted on drones for any filming outside. So, once they are dropped off at the house, they are the only people there. What they don't realize, however, is that the picture they are making is a "snuff film" and that all but one of them will be murdered. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an interesting film for the most part which suffered somewhat from an abrupt and disappointing ending. Likewise, being a low-budget production, it experienced the usual problems associated with films of this type, such as a weak script and uneven acting. It did, however, have a couple of attractive actresses with Danielle Stratton (as "Stefanie") probably standing out the most. In any case, while this may not have been a bad film necessarily, it certainly could have been better in several respects and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

You know for the most part it could have been a half decent budget horror picture to waste an hour and a half on on a rainy weekend. A group of young actors and actresses take a part in a horror movie and are shipped out to the country for your typical young kid out in the woods horror type activities. And then things start getting real. Ok, been there done that before but its at least holding my attention. The actors./actresses aren't really bad but its clear that any talents they have are being wasted by a lack of a real script. Nothing unique happens for about an hour... and then it just ends. No questions answered, no reveal, it just ends. I assume that the director thinks its artistic ending the movie like this but IMO its just lazy. There's really no reason to watch this.

There's killings and blood but no real gore. An attractive cast but no nudity.

Bad acting, badly written characters. Weak as a slasher movie, simple kills with minimal makeup effects dispatched by unmenacing killers. The house in the middle of nowhere is the kind of horror movie cliché The Cabin in the Woods (2011) made fun of. A potentially interesting concept becomes dubious, potential wasted.

The story is a movie within a movie. The main characters are actors who play parts in a horror movie. Little did they know that the producers would make the horror real. One trick I did like: The movie starts out full screen, then when the actors are playing the characters in the horror movie, the screen goes letterboxed. Then when the first actor gets killed for real and the other actors realize they're in real jeopardy, the screen goes back to full screen. Neat visual trick to separate the inner movie from the outer one, the actors playing characters from them behaving in their real lives.

This is a twist on found footage, where the producers are purposely making a movie about killing off the actors in a movie. But the actors aren't in on the gag, so it's kind of reality television with deadly consequences.

The concept has potential, but the story doesn't pan out. Maybe with better writing and acting, this could have been something. Hopefully this is a stepping stone to the writer/director producing something better next time.

Another "Amateur Night at the Bijou" attempt in the vein of "found footage." There is nothing new here--no interesting ideas, no ORIGINAL ideas, horrible acting, horrible direction--horrible all around. I cannot believe how stupid these caricatures were written. Reminds me of the commercial where all the kids make the wrong choices. "Head for the cemetery." Skip it; you won't be sorry.