Followed

The movie isn't really all that bad, the actors make it interesting enough.

Once I started paying attention about them being "followed", I thought b-o-r-i-n-g and egregiously predictable...

I was wrong! Great ending. Do try and sit through it!

Where do I begin? There's the found footage angle that is so played out. The only justification for using it these days is if the director is able to come up with a new way to put it good use (e.g. Chronicle, Cloverfield, etc.) otherwise it's plain distracting and a nuisance. Or a cheap gimmick. Followed (2015), starring nobody memorable, directed by M. J. Anderson and written by Casey Cambell, both newcomers who have a long climb ahead of them if they plan on making something remotely original have strung together 83 minutes of suspenseful narrative and uneven dialogue that keeps building and building but goes absolutely nowhere. The final plot twist, the only plot twist, is as unsatisfying as they come these days. It's hard to tell where all the praise for this movie comes from. All I know is that after watching this movie I felt utterly bewildered and confused. It was so bad that had I seen it in theatres I would have demanded they give me my money back. Actually, I would be the one leaving the theatre in a frenzy while muttering curse words under my breath.

I actually enjoyed this movie. Filmed as a home movie, it follows a young couple, David and Rachel, as they take a road trip from Chicago to Las Vegas. Along the way, David, who plans to propose to Rachel, begins to worry more and more that they're being followed, and that Rachel is the intended victim of a relentless stalker.

There's some wonderful scenery as they travel, including the Grand Canyon, and all the actors are quite natural and believable. Though there's not much action, there is some real suspense, and the couple is likable and you are drawn in to caring what happens to them.

However, just as the movie begins to seem as if it's endlessly spinning its wheels, and you wonder if anything's ever going to happen, there's a clever, surprise twist that, I think, most viewers won't see coming. There's also a little epilog that finally reveals that one missing piece of crucial information we needed all along.

If you like found footage movies you might enjoy this one, otherwise I'd leave it alone. Basically it's just a home movie, a pretty boring one too, for the first hour. Not until the last 20-25 minutes does the movie even have any action. If you can handle movies that end up not making much sense, go for it. But the ending doesn't fit in with what was going on in the found footage.

Really great style manner of telling the story. It was thrilling and original and the performances did well and really fit the style it was shot in. We've seen this kind of found footage film before but this was a fresh take on it. The chemistry between the leads is great and really feeds the tension that builds through the course of the film. Music was a little heavy at times but not so much as to distract or take away from the film continuing in the direction of the narrative (figuratively and metaphorically I suppose). The ending, while not completely a surprise (although surprise was not the goal here), does a great deal with little. Definitely a must see for suspense and even horror buffs for the road-trip gone awry aspect. In a larger sense, it's a must see perhaps more for the possibilities it might inspire in other movies even outside of the genre.