Bad Ben

It's OK, far from great, but far from terrible. I've definitely seen worse... You know... Like the other two...

Its quite Creepy at times and I like some of the stuff it does but nothing really happens it's like the bits in insidious where you see the ghost in the background but that's the entire film and nothing happens at the end but you can't expect much on really low budget

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..

OK, this guy is the only person in the movie, so you have to get used to him first. I found him kind of hard to sympathize with.

He comes off as a bit of a schlub (almost a dead ringer for actor/comedian Brian Posehn) who wants to document everything about this house he bought at auction as he's prepping it for sale. Right away, odd things start happening - furniture moving, things in the attic, things in the basement, etc.). At first, he attributes it to people breaking in, but he soon realizes there's something more going on as he looks into the family that lived there before and mysteriously left everything behind.

I thought the tension ratcheted up nicely and I was surprised that I got caught up as much as I did.

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.