The Upper Footage (UPPER)

The Upper footage is a movie that blurs reality and fiction. It reminds us the monsters are not always scary men lurking in dark shadows, nor are they the creatures of childhood nightmares, more likely they are the people we may think we aspire to, who maybe we all could too easily become. It is a riveting story of an all too familiar reality, that is so believable director Justin Cole was able to use the real media to help further blur the lines we cling to in order to feel safe as we sit back and get our fill of our favorite genre.

The film is billed as being an edited 90 version of 393 minutes of found footage covering the events of one night in the lives of a group of affluent young socialites. It is a story of privilege, money and affluence gone horribly wrong. We watch as this group shows their colors, in overindulgent petty behaviors that eventually lead to an accidental death and that's where things get really interesting.

So many things about The Upper Footage are done incredibly right. Justin Cole starts with a story that we have all heard, and gives us an all access pass to the entire event. That in itself wouldn't mean much if the acting was flat, or if the dialogue felt scripted. Somehow, everyone comes together to make this feel very organic, lending incredible believability to the film. The marketing is another point that needs to be mentioned as Justin Cole effectively used our ceaseless desire for dirty news via tabloid TV, getting shows like Entertainment Tonight to bite on the "leaked footage" resulting in a blurring of the lines between art and reality. He further plays into that gray area, by not naming any of the actors involved in the film and has even pixilated his own image on the net, giving a true air of mystery to the entire production, and leaving you questioning what you just watched.

I found that all of this played together beautifully well. I was beyond impressed with The Upper Footage and would highly recommend you take the time to check this film out. The film shows how effective the found footage genre can be. It pushes boundaries, and our sensibilities by taking it to the ugly but real conclusion. This film had me literally shaking with anxiety for a moment at the end, I have never before had such a reaction to any film I have watched and I promise there have been a lot. I am already looking forward to what Mr. Justin Cole has in store for us next!

First off let me say I'm a fan of the found horror footage genre. Having watched not only the popular ones such as Blair Witch, Grave Encounters, REC, etc. I also really enjoyed watching the less well known Haunted Poland, Severed Footage, Exhibit A, etc.

Often I find the ratings of found footage films rather low as they are not to everyone's taste. However, with UPPER I couldn't understand what all the hype is about. At best I give it a 4/10 as I am a fan of the genre.

This film distinguishes itself from other such movies by its astoundingly shaky and out of focus camera. For instance, in the last third of the film, when they are driving towards Greenwitch, there are about 5 min of unfocused black screen with only shouting in the background. I was about to brush this off as an irritating feature due to the lack of night vision of the camera - when suddenly it is revealed that the camera does have proper night vision.

As for the plot, there isn't much. Basically it's obvious that something will go wrong. There was quite some tension among the "friends" to begin with that I was't surprised (contrary to some) that there would be a whole lot of arguing when something does hit the fan.

To be fair found footage films aren't famous for their plots, however the tension in them towards the end is always palpable. UPPER on the other hand left me rather board all the way through. I honestly can't find any comparison with for instance the Blair Witch Project, which towards the end got me very freaked out. UPPER is in the drama genre and weak at best.

My advice, watch this if you are a fan of found footage films, otherwise skip. Definitely not worth a second look.

"The Upper Footage"

It wasn't just bad, it was annoying.

Had it been made prior to "The Blair Witch Project" and just a short film made by a group of friends with a good camera, it would be OK.

I want to state all kinds of negative one-liners but that's not being objective and will get ignored. s in the Found Footage genre were was, "The Blair Witch Project." Quite a few of my co-workers thought that Blair Witch was real. That was due in part to the multimedia campaign elements such as the website.

The Spanish film, ".REC" was great. It was engaging from beginning to end. Not that a real budget necessarily matters but it had about $1.8 million and the money was widely spent.

I found V/H/S to be better than this and that movie received poor reviews. It was crudely filmed but then so was The Blair Witch project but it wasn't dishonest.

I was misled by the list of positive reviews by Internet critics on the Vimeo site as well as the user reviews.

I'll stop short of accusing the film makers of using their own people as shills. For all of the dishonesty, lack of creativity and lack of entertainment value, I'm giving this a 4.

Only because the male anti-hero actors were good. Not being sexist. The females were just one dimensional.

If "The Upper Footage" entertains you then great. I can't stand Ranch dressing, avocados or curry but don't criticize others who do.

If you enjoy found footage films and never watched ".REC" have a look at both the Spanish original and the American version with Dexter's sister, Jennifer Carpenter. The American remake did justice to the original.

If you watched this on Vimeo, the Joss Whedon film, "In Your Eyes" is a better choice for your first Vimeo rental. A nice romance, low key, great acting with characters you liked.

Roger Ebert was the last of the educated and credentialed, objective professional critics. The rest have zero credibility whose one-liner reviews are from a copy/paste cheat sheet.

I think the marketing for this movie was GENIUS. They definitely fooled many media outlets with its convincing story. The movie itself is quite simple to be honest. Not that its a bad thing. So the story follows 4 friends (3 guys and 1 girl) who pick up a girl while they are out in their limo and bring her home. After a lot of partying and whatnot, they decide to do cocaine that they bought earlier that night.

Unfortunately, the new girl takes too much and dies of an overdose in the bathroom. Everyone flips out and now we have our story! The death itself actually doesn't happen until about halfway through. The whole half basically just shows them in the limo and in the apartment where they party. Whether you like the characters or not, you get a sense of how they are by the time the death happens. Once the girl dies it becomes incredibly intense. They start arguing about what they should do and it's kind of scary! It's one of those movies that makes you ask yourself, "What would I do in this situation?"

This movie isn't necessarily a horror movie, but it is scary because it's something very real and possible in the real world. How many times do you hear of people having an overdose in the news? This is basically a fictional first-hand account of one of those events. I think it serves as a lesson to our young generation of teens who need to be able to control themselves when it comes to peer pressure.

Like I mentioned earlier, it's a very simple premise, but I think that is an advantage of this movie because if it got too complicated, it might not seem as real. I think that was the goal of the filmmakers, to portray something very real and convincing. That's how Blair Witch Project was back in 1999, which is a movie I hear was a great inspiration for this movie. The story for that was incredibly simple. A group of 3 friends go into the woods for a school project and then they get terrorized by ghosts.

That movie, along with this, had an established "mythology" to back it up as context. Blair Witch had the "legend" and this movie had the publicity it got years back when a video was uploaded online showing the girl who overdosed. Although I don't know if this can be as successful as Blair Witch, it has potential if given the right opportunities. I wish the filmmakers the best of luck in the future because they think differently than most filmmakers who want to create a horror-esque movie, especially in the found-footage genre.

While the movie itself is not ground-breaking with the found-footage genre, the back-story definitely is and I respect all they went through to make this happen. If you like horror movies or found-footage movies, I think you should totally give this a shot! It's great that in the beginning they provide you with a timeline of everything that happened.

While the Found Footage Horror sub-genre has had its bouts with both failure and outright amazing hits and select cult followings, nothing quite like 'Upper' has been done before. Sure we have had Horror films deal with snuff and the hardcore limits that surround it (such as in 'A Serbian Film' or 'the Poughkeepsie (sp?) Tapes', but not like 'Upper'. The realism behind the camera is almost *too* real, and while we don't get much in the form of character movement or insanely huge plot twists we do get ferocious paranoia and an insane lack for personal disregard.

The film starts off with a couple sentences surrounding the background of the case and how this all supposedly got started (I say supposedly because as of this time it has not been confirmed whether or not this is in fact a real death or a well-played Blair Witch Project hype-up). From there it goes into a quick montage of images and voice overs until we get to the footage itself. Slowly but surely things get started as two of the main characters go in search of drugs. From there it all goes downhill as the partying turns from a fun relaxing night into a careening downfall of regret, fear, and paranoia.

Even the closest of friends and the tightest of circles can be broken down sometimes, and all it can take is one brief misunderstood moment in time to set things in motion. 'the Upper Footage' is definitely THE movie to see for those enthralled with the Found-Footage sub-genre, however if you don't like constant shouting and shaky cam then sit this one out because no one wants to hear you bitch in a review about how you couldn't stand it. You should know that by now, figure out what you like! :)