The Fear Footage 2: Curse of the Tape

The Fear Footage was an unexpectedly fun ride. It renewed my waning interest in the found footage subgenre. The sequel, as is the case with many sequels, does not live up to the original. This one is not an anthology, and it falls prey to the trap that many found footage films fall into: a loooooooong buildup. The tension was the key to the original's success - there wasn't a single wasted minute. We waste many minutes here. Decent once it finally gets going, but that isn't enough to make it recommendable.

Have you ever seen a found footage movie before? If so you'll know they follow a strict formula.

Introduce the characters Take them to a haunted location Weird things happen People go missing They justify why they're still recording Running, screaming, night vision Camera falls to the ground, credits roll

That describes easily 99% of found footage features, they're cheap and cheerful to make therefore indie filmakers with zero money or talent pound them out like hotcakes. The first Fear Footage movie was a great example of this, non-existent budget, zero enjoyment and an all round awfully made movie brought to us by people with no imagination or skill at crafting a story.

Fear Footage 2 is almost the same movie as the first just with minor tweeks. Regardless it still ticks the above boxes and is yet another found footage movie that can be dumped onto the pile of forgettable awfulness with all the rest.

Until this found footage phase ends I suggest you avoid them and watch something with more substance.

I watched the first movie shortly after it came out, I ended my review with the following.

"Please don't make a sequel or anything else unless you're going to go to film school and more to the point stop drowning in shill reviews."

Yes I hated it, truly hated it and was angry that I'd just watched yet another copy and paste clone found footage movie like hundreds of others. It frustrates me that people don't try with new ideas and essentially just remake other peoples films which were bad in the first place. Curse of the tape makes all the same mistakes, of both the first movie and the hundreds of other ghost/haunting found footage movies. It's just SO bad, SO unoriginal and SO much of a slap in the face to movie fans who expect a degree of originality and flair to the films they watch.

If I could rate it lower I would, this is a 0.3 at best. I said it last time and I'll say it again, "Please don't make a sequel or anything else unless you're going to go to film school". At least this one hasn't been drowned in shill reviews all with the same wording and fresh accounts YET.

Fear Footage (2018) is certainly not the kind of movie you'd expect to get a sequel. I stand by this due to its budget, its obscurity and that it was 17 shades of terrible. Easily the worst movie of that year it was a cringe worthy attempt at a horror that had me wincing face palming and angry that I'd given it my time. For some reason I gave this second attempt a try and once again I'm angry that I did and even more angry at the creators for thinking this constitutes as a horror movie. Badly made, badly written, badly acted, there really is no excuse for this. For the love of everything that's good in the world lets not see a third part.

I rented this because across social media I'd seen the movie advertised as scary, creepy and I'll have trouble sleeping afterwards. Having now seen it I can tell you those words don't describe the film at all, words that do are boring unoriginal and feeble. It's as scary as Zombeaver and as well made as Birdemic!