Bad Ben

Nigel Bach has done the impossible, to produce and star solo in the done to death found footage/haunted house genre and make itit rath enjoyable. As a genre, it won't do what it really should have done a few years ago and vanish, but, Bad Ben perhaps shows that there is still a little steam left in it. Bad Ben looks like it was made on a shoe string, and that is perhaps it's charm, Bach is incredibly likeable in the solo role, and has enough charisma to make the film rather enjoyable. Not bad at all. 6/10

I actually saw this years ago when it was first released and really enjoyed it.

I thought I would revisit it now and actually put in a review.

+1 Star For Being One of the more entertaining 'Found Footage' movies out there.

+1 Star for still years after it remains, one of the better 'found footage' movies out there.

Really well done considering it's basically a one man show and Nigel has gone on to do many more projects since!!!! A fun watch. For me anyway. I could see why some would find it boring but I enjoyed it.

Honestly, Im not quite sure how to score this film..

Bad Ben is a very low budget film starring one man, Nigel Bach, who appears to also be the director and bizarrely, it seems the entire film is shot in his actual house. Its a found footage film. Its a Paranormal Activity style scary film. Seriously, everything about Bad Ben sounds, well...bad. But here is the thing - Bad Ben was oddly entertaining and held my attention for the entire duration and I still can't work out why.

Despite the low/non-existent budget it is shot fairly competently and doesn't suffer from the poor cinematography and terrible lightning that a lot of the low budget horror flicks I have subjected myself to over the years often do. The acting is okay, sort of, and Nigel Bach's character Tom Riley was very amusing in the way he went from mildly irritated to outright angry at the ghost's refusal to leave his new home.

Look, I'm not recommending Bad Ben. Part of me wants to but I just can't. But, if you're curious and want to get in on a potentially cult movie from the ground floor then, well, give it a go I guess. And if you like it, I hear this is the first in a trilogy. Yes, that's right - a trilogy. Good heavens.

Ive scored it a 3, but could quite easily score it higher. And some would possibly score it much, much higher and in a way I can kinda see why..

I should point out that I'm one of those rare breed of people that absolutely loves found footage films. But it's possible for them to be so awful, they're un watchable. Many of the recent ones I've seen have fallen in, or close to, that category but I was very happily surprised by this.

You can see that the one and only guy in the movie is an 'amateur', so to speak but he does a fine job of keeping you captivated throughout, simply by playing 'normal'.

The insistence of filming everything is questionable at times, particularly when some genuinely scary stuff starts going down, but I find people choosing to stick around once the scares go through the roof questionable in most films so can't complain too much here.

As somebody else said, the actor reminds me of that US comedian from the Big Bang Theory and Sarah Silverman Show and even sounds alike, adding to the comedy element of this movie.

I have a question though - what in %@*&'s name was Bad Ben at the end there?

I hate found footage films as a rule of thumb, and if I review them it's either because they really suck or because I actually didn't mind them. This film falls into the latter category.

I went into this film not knowing it was a solo film and a first venture, it was available on Prime and I was bored. I only found out the rest after, which made me extra impressed!

This film is simple, the effects are (generally, there is one that stands out rather negatively, you'll know it when you see it) are subtle and pretty well done. The reason for all of the cameras is pretty solid, and it's not one of those over the top "And then I was PINNED IN THE CEILING BY AN UNSEEN FORCE!" type of things. It's refreshing in it's simplicity.

While I wouldn't call it believable, the vast majority of this film feels more realistic than others of the genre and that's a nice touch. Although a bit more knowledge on the occult might have helped.

Not perfect, not very scary, but still much better than a lot of found footage films of late.