THE GOETIA DIARIES is a found footage movie structured as a series of regular vlogs. The protagonist wants to learn how to summon demons in order to be clearer about his goals. I must admit that I can't quite follow this reasoning, but whatever. He documents his progress on his vlog, and as time goes by, he becomes increasingly entangled with dark forces beyond his control.
As a movie, this is pretty bad. The ending is essentially given away right at the beginning, thus deflating any tension. The cinematography is amateurish, and the acting of many of the players is not great. One notable exception is Lawyer B. Douglas II, who appears to be as colorful a character in real life as in the movie, but if true, it means he was not acting, either. The movie ends on an anticlimactic note despite a twist at the end.
I would have rated this film lower, but it turns out it does stand out positively in one respect: for someone who knows very little about the occult (like me) it is quite educational! Now, I don't believe in any of this stuff, but as a psychological/anthropological phenomenon, it is interesting to me.
When a movie presents some kind of myth, I usually go on the net to check to what extent it is based on real myths (ha, a new oxymoron). The regular vlogs in this film do provide quite a bit of information on the lesser key of Solomon, as best as I can tell, it seems to check out.
Alas, this documentary masquerading as a movie masquerading as a vlog still has to be evaluated as a movie, especially since the film takes the occult seriously. And as a film, this did unfortunately not work.
