Bright Falls
Bright Falls
| 27 April 2010 (USA)
Bright Falls Trailers

After arriving in the small Pacific Northwestern town of Bright Falls, reporter Jake Fischer is plagued by blackouts and finds disturbing evidence of his activities. Tying this to a mysterious epidemic sweeping the town, he plans an escape. Prequel to the game Alan Wake.

Reviews
WakenPayne

When I usually watch video game movies whether they're the "adaptations" that continue to give them bad names when really they have better plots then most action movies - just poorly carried out by a producer or something or the fan films which generally are very good - even if at times newcomers don't get the plot or characters, it might seem way too hypocritical to say this about movies made by fans for fans but I judge an adaptation, prequel mini-series or whatever on the merits of an adaptation and as "will newcomers get lost".In Bright Falls, this is probably the best I have seen do this. I mean while Mass Effect: Red Sand was good at this too, it doesn't have as interesting of a plot as this does.Speaking of, a reporter named Jake Fischer has gone to Bright Falls to write for an article (I really don't know whether it's newspaper, magazine or online) on Dr Emil Hartman's new book. But when he gets there he hits a deer only for it to vanish and then he begins to have black-outs where he doesn't know where he is when he wakes up half the time and he might have done something terrible while he has been blacked out.Okay, in terms of what people who enjoyed the game will not like it's pretty trivial but I'll go down a list. First of all, a couple of people in Bright Falls talk at one point or another as if there is something wrong with the town, which even though there is they shouldn't know about it because the evil spirit that's doing everything makes people forget the ones fighting it even existed. There is no Old Gods Of Asgard and even though it might sound as if I wanted to hear Poets Of The Fall sing in this mini series it set up the atmosphere for the town and there's no Taken, which would make Jake question his sanity even more-so then black-outs.Whereas if you aren't a gamer or don't own an Xbox 360 then this is actually a decent story that may be interpreted as someone's decent into madness (hell, the black-outs could make people easily believe it's split personality disorder) so if this kind of story is one that you like then I suggest checking it out.In terms of just plain technical elements this is done well on it's own merits, for a web series it actually looks really good. I mean it's the usual standard stuff that you'd expect for the 2 locations of "small country town" and "woods" but it does look great in places.If you want to watch this either fan of the game or not, then this is for you. If you like the game then this is an interesting little continuation of the story and if you're not then it can easily be looked at as a short movie about a guy slipping into madness. I'd say if you want to watch it I'd say go for it.

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Morbius Fitzgerald

I managed to complete the whole of Alan Wake in half a week. I decided to take a look at this unofficial prequel. Its not as good as it could have been but it was still good.Firstly I think Sam Lake would have written this story a bit better but the writers did know what they were doing with this.On the subject of the game, you could watch this without knowing a single thing about the game and you'd STILL get the same experience. Alan Wake has only a minute of screen time, 10 seconds with every episode except the last one.The plot? Jake Fischer is a reporter interviewing a Dr. Hartman on his new book. While he's in Bright Falls he begins to have blackouts. He tries to piece together what happened.Christopher Forsyth does a good job as the reporter as does everyone else in the cast.My complaints? The supernatural side of the game is not displayed. If we saw the Taken and Barbara Jagger, that would have made Fischer question his sanity even more, hence more interesting. Another one which is huge in my book, why are there no Old Gods Of Asgard records? They played the part of a plot device to the other Alan Wake games, why not the miniseries? I know that the Americans that made this would have been unlikely to have paid the airfare for Poets Of The Fall to come down to America and record a song but that would have been fantastic.Overall, I recommend this highly to fans of the game.

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Cober

Well, I watched it at night! And it worked! Just got myself an Alan Wake game and stumbled upon these series by chance.It's great opportunity to be engaged by the dark movie's atmosphere and be introduced to some in-game persons.It's kinda scary watch it an night, not because of some special effects, but because of obscurity and dark fears nesting deep down inside the soul of each other human being.Directing is good: it says not much, just enough for your ming to start working. Guessing.Worth watching!

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Jennifer Taymour

Bright Falls is better than some of the most popular series on TV today. It does in a few short episodes what might take a full series an entire season.The performances are exceptional and the mysteries are frightening and engaging. I'm blown away by this series and hope to see more of it soon. Every episode was truly scary at some point - not bad fabricated scares or horror movie clichés but the kind of scary that gets under your skin and stays with you. I found the plot really easy to follow, which made the strange digressions and weird encounters all the more engaging. I never felt like they were for a trivial purpose - there's a definite, frightening order to the way the main character interacts with the townspeople and the things he finds out about the town and himself.The last episode paid off on all the mysteries set up without telling us specifics and without letting up on the creepiness - if anything, in answering questions, it also raised bigger ones, and scarier ones that make me want more!Bright Falls is how a series should be!!!

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