Die Präsenz

I have now, like many of us, seen pretty much all manner of "Found Footage" flicks. Some pretty damn good. Some so-so. And FAR too many just flat-out dreadful. However, out of this whole "Hit or Miss" bunch I can't recall one that wasn't made in the USA. That is until I took a chance on a German entry into this past-it's-prime genre, "Die Präsenz" ("The Presence"). And I gotta say, I would plop this one down right smack-dab between "pretty damn good" and "so-so" on the worthwhile-to-watch spectrum.

You will likely join me in finding that it takes a good while before things get crackin' here (Do the Germans have a fascination with prolonged camera shots of watching people sleep? As in, like, SEVERAL such scenes). But once Writer/Director/Producer Daniele Grieco (hey, dude pretty much HAD to do it all on a reported $40,000 budget) fires things up here the ages-old haunted castle terrorized by an unseen and ruthlessly inhospitable entity yarn gets a fairly fresh new spin that should leave you both sufficiently entertained and adequately creeped out.

It is a boring carbon copy of so many movies with this plot and Horribly done. This German version seems it was just made for that' Germany 'with stealing every Part of the movie' Paranormal' and other video documentary style ghost movies and worse than that doing a poor job of it. Mostly a sit and squirm movie that will put you to sleep in your chair or more conveniently a couch when you do fall asleep. Very little of not happens and when it does it is petty crap. Not even worth a view on a slow night. Generic and anemic and just plan Boring !

While I saw a load of scathing reviews on my way into this, I made a point of not reading them. My expectations were suitably low, making a nice surprise possible (but let's be honest, unlikely).

I actually quite enjoyed it.

Sorry to those throwing rotten vegetables at this film, but for what it is, I felt it did the job reasonably well.

It's by no means perfect (or even 'really good') and I'm not going to ladle on the criticism because that'd be like shooting fish in a barrel, also, it's just mean.

What this film does possess, when compared to Blair Witch and the other found-footage franchises is the actual quantity of the paranormal activity (note the lower case letters). The supernatural entity in this is more active, vocal and just plain loud than those I've seen before. While this would make being there even more terrifying without a doubt, to the viewer I always feel that less is more.

With so much crashing and banging etc, with Becky scared out of her wits and the sleepwalking/nightmares that accompany it, that would be all the more reason to just jack it in and get the hell out of Dodge. "If you really loved me Markus, you'd save me from this hell..." (unfortunately not a direct quote from this)

The one piece of 'constructive criticism' I'd offer is that duringthe PA-esque nighttime infrared sleeping scenes, they build up tension reasonably well with noises and camera interference. Why then ruin it with sudden loud music and camera zoomery for a cheap jump? Less is more, young German padowan.

Food rotting from one moment to the next, while their back was turned was a nice little effect. Ditto with the ball disappearing then reappearing.

Rebecca really, really should have told Markus that she didn't like it and she was leaving. Now. With or without him. But no. She moans and is terrified but goes through with it, even though she claims to have felt that the entity wanted to do them harm. Sounds like my ex wife: passive/aggressive.

If you can't stand up when you need to and lay down the law, then I'm afraid that you're kinda asking for it.

Enough of my marriage councelling/pop psychiatry...

Insults/recriminations/threats etc inspired by my review of this please place below:

I like to think of myself as a connoisseur of found footage movies, having listed about 145 of them. They tend to get low ratings here, for the most part, as this one has.

The problem is that some of them can be pretty boring, with one dimensional characters and bad acting and/or dialogue. Some people can't take the shaky cam or hard to see video.

This one however I found to be quite refreshing, if not entirely original. It concerns a trio of friends who go to investigate a haunted castle far out in the German boonies.

The setting is quite creepy, both indoor and outdoor. The action doesn't take too long to get going and things get interesting pretty quickly.

I found it pretty fun to watch and genuinely scary/creepy in just the right places. At 82 minutes, it doesn't slow down for long or overstay its welcome. All in all a fun watch. 7/10.

The Presence is yet another demonstration of just how much the Blair Witch Project (1999) has to answer for. Every filmmaker with minimal funds seems to be choosing this cheap and nasty sub-genre and making a carbon copy of a thousand movies that came before it.

German made it tells the "Highly original" tale of 3 friends who perform a supernatural investigation in a castle. So cue the night vision, randomly moving objects, static, and lot's and lot's of screaming.

I have nothing against found footage per say, I'm just tired of each movie being the same as the last. When it comes to the sub genre I'd say there is a neat little scale, at the top you'd have Rec (2007) and Grave Encounters (2011) and it goes all the way down to Fear Footage (2018) and Paranormal Entity (2009).

At no point does it feel like this is being filmed inside a castle, it's limited to a couple of rooms and quite frankly they look like a combination of a persons house and a barn. I would have liked to see a castle setting, would have made a fresh change from asylums and haunted mansions.

Alike most other movies in this sub-genre very little happens, it suffers with all the usual tropes and cliches and ultimately is boring, lifeless and more evidence that found footage needs putting on the shelf for a while.

The Good:

Nope

The Bad:

Music/sound effects have no place in found footage

Very badly structured

Wasted setting