The Fear Footage

I heard about this film via an Instagram account for said film that followed me. Upon hearing a bunch of negative reviews made on the film set to destroy its IMDb rating, I thought I'd give my honest review of the film.

I didn't know what expect from this film, other than its premise being a police officer gone missing, so it was quite a fun surprise to experience. I was not expecting it at all to be like V/H/S with segments in reminiscence of Paranormal Activity, Silent Hills' PT, and the 2016 clown sightings.

Marketing Like most found footage films, they try to make this look real, but the marketing for this film went all out. The Blu-Ray I purchased came with an evidence wrapping. The contents were notes and letters warning about the footage, and a disc where the art design is just a white disc with bloody-red fingerprints on it. Very minimalistic yet low-key terrifying.

Wraparound segment Leo Cole is a deputy sent alone surprisingly without a partner to investigate a house that somehow appeared out of nowhere, according to a 911 call. His investigations soon leads him to a hellish nightmare that ends with a loop of doors and rooms, much like the cancelled Silent Hills demo. This one builds, as it is the wraparound. One part including a child's diary is pretty intimidating, and finally pays off during the film's exciting climax after the "Speak No Evil" segment. The scares felt like they were well-earned in this.

"Birthday Party" This one is probably the weakest thing of the four. Not much happens in this one that is memorable. It is a unique idea, adding to the already-real-and-terrifying clown sightings of 2016 (with an actual news clip of it.) However I was confused by the relationship of the mother and son, as she was saying "no nightmares" as if that was something he could control, unless if she meant no complaining. The scares were okay, but nothing special.

"Storm Stalkers" The better one of the four. Some of the decisions made by these characters were silly, like running into the woods when there are strange figures after them. This was all redeemed by the terror that ensued as black dressed figures chased after this man into this weird underground place with scary fun results. The scares in this one also felt very well-earned and refreshing.

"Speak No Evil" A man sets up a camera after hearing strange sounds in his backyard. A lot of the scares in this were cheap, but the climax felt just as scary as the previous segment.

Overall, great film. Don't mind the negative reviews of this film and form your own opinion. It's a low-budget film, but try to not think of that. If you can turn your brain off and have fun, this is the movie for you.

Though a horror fan I've failed to see the merit in found footage movies though liking anthology films I decided to give this a chance and regretted it by about 10 minutes in. It's a badly lit unoriginal crapfest that should be a free movie on Kings of Horror and not a paid rental. Then I go and look at the reviews and lo and behold it's loaded with 10/10's from fresh accounts with no other activity! Believe the negative reviews and trust me when I say it's awful not the positive ones made by the creator and his friends/family. Not scary, not well made, not watchable.

With each number going down from 5 it's a toss up from expecting to much or complaining to complain. It's found footage it's nothing new it has a formula and this wasn't the best but it's a long way from the worst.

Uglier than Blair Witch More poorly written than Skew Less original than Paranormal Activity

This is by far the worst found footage movie I've ever seen. The genre still has legs and there are still original movies using it but these creators decided to play it safe and remake the same tired plot thats been done a thousand time prior. Difference is they decided to make it an anthology which did the film no favours at all and just gave them an excuse why there is no character development or movie depth.

I love found footage, and I love low budget films, but this one misses the mark at nearly every turn. It's an anthology with a interwoven story tying everything together, like the V/H/S movies do. The first segment here has a few decent scares, but they are jump scares. The rest of the segments were an absolute chore to get through and incredibly disappointing. The story that ties them all together actually has a really cool premise that is pretty creepy. The issue was that by the end, when it actually starts to get creepy, I was so checked out from being irritated and bored. The only redeeming part of this film was ruined for me. I gave this film 3 stars because the interwoven story actually had creativity and potential.