I was going to turn this off after a few minutes. The acting was not great, but that wasn't what had initially turned me off. No, that was the camera work which really annoyed me. I haven't seen many student film projects, but this was what I felt one would look like.
Cinematography and direction seemed to be a truly absent concept, and there are cheap found-footage films out there that have better film quality transfers.
As I said though, I WAS going to turn it off, but something kept me watching, and that was the story.
The characters were almost caricatures, but they were characters; individuals with personalities, unlike many horror films made these days, filled with unlikeable mannequins that have run straight off of a conveyer belt. If you give Yesterday more than 20 minutes of your time you might become intrigued, interested and a little invested in some of them.
There are a few leaps in logic, decisions made that make little sense story-wise, and heavy-handed plot devices, yet it kept me watching . . . Even when I didn't want to.
According to the Trivia, this film cost 25,000 and used actual film stock. It looks as though the film they used was degraded or found stored close to some illegally enriched uranium but, nevertheless, the budget and method of capturing the story retrospectively added nuance to my viewing experience.
In a world of remakes, I feel this could legitimately do with a few rewrites, a budget top-up and a second attempt at putting it to screen.
Give it a go. It took me two sittings. It wont change your world for the better but there are far worse films out their you could find yourself watching.
