The acting in this is terrific all the way around. Since most all FF films are acted out based on an outline and dialogue points to it, you see a LOT of cuts since the actors mess up their "lines." Not here. Other than the natural cuts from scene to scene, there is very little in-scene cutting, meaning the actors delivered and met their marks.My only problems with the film are that I never really got a sense why the father fell so far from sanity. Many people have gone through financial struggles without losing their minds, and I never got the sense the father was on edge, mentally, to do what he does at the end.And the ending simply went on too long. It was the one time when the film lagged when usually the end is when these FF films pick up and race toward the climax.Overall, a really well done job all the way around.

This movie came as a suggestion on this very website while I was reading the page of another movie (you know, the usual "users who watched this movie also liked..."), and I'm really glad I yielded to the curiosity of reading what it was all about. I liked some "found footage" films in the past, but I'm not crazy about the genre, still I was triggered by the scarce plot given here, and I just decided to watch it. Now I'm just through it, and I'm still in shock. The first scene is a police label marking the footage we are about to see as found on a murder scene, so there is little to spoil about the plot. The impending doom of those we are about to meet is made clear from the beginning, only leaving in doubt about who is/are the victim/s and who is/are the murderer/s. Then it all begins...This film could be split in three parts, all of which last about half an hour. It takes some patience to get through the first one, as most of what we see is some obnoxious family games and shallow chit-chat, which serves the purpose of building the context and getting to know the characters. So, we soon come to learn that we're dealing with a somewhat clumsy, but warm and caring father, seemingly a good house man all in all, but with the hint of a shadow looming over him (which will be developed later in the film), a tender, over-sensitive daughter kind of confused with herself, a mother who appears to be steadfast in her familiar role, but a little too stiff and bitchy, and an obnoxious son who is in his teens, but mostly behaves like a second grader or so to the rest of his family and in his leisure time. That is, a believable portrait of every day reality in your neighborhood: a perfect surface with its natural, human flaws. Oh, woe is me, will it not last...In the second part, the secret shadow looming over the father begins to disclose, and we start witnessing his descent into weirdness first, and madness consequently. The dis-functionalities of the family, up to that moment quite dull and ordinary, quickly swirl down into a pit of ever growing frenzy, leading to the final showdown, which unravels in the third part.I won't spoil anything about what goes on, but I'll just let you all know that this is not a horror movie, this is a dramatically realistic depiction of a well too known REAL horror. The performances of the four main actors are stunning, the bond that grows between you and the characters is solid, real, you can feel it, touch it. As the story started developing, I found myself despising the boy, pitying the father, caring for the daughter, getting angry at the mother, and then having all these feelings just messed up and turned inside out as the events unraveled. But nonetheless, there was not a single moment when I was not feeling something for all of them. And I think this is one of the greatest achievements a movie can reach.So, be prepared: you will be introduced to four people that you will get emotionally in touch with, only to be overwhelmed by the shocking doom that they will face. On a final note: I stood astonished in front of my TV while the whole of the end credits silently rolled out and left an empty, black screen which lasted almost one minute, with no sound whatsoever. I just couldn't move away or stop the play. This is the level of the emotional grip this film has cast onto me. You have been warned.

I watched this and was engrossed until the last ten minutes. Then I was overwhelmed and just sad because this is the same sad story that seems to be in the news daily.The movie was very well written and does accurate display the destruction of one man and his family. It is serious and to the point and brutally honest. It's "found footage" and it could be your neighbor or relative,which adds to the horror of it.While I do recommend this be forewarned especially if you have ever experienced a tragedy like this. I find it incredibly sad, I can't say that enough, that things like this movie occur every day in real life. I find it more horrific than movies like Saw or Hostel.

Several films have worked with the conceit that they are constructed of 'found footage', most notably Cannibal Holocaust and its bloodless cousin The Blair Witch Project but few have done so as convincingly or to such strong effect as this second feature from British director Dom Rotheroe.Exhibit A uses as its title card a police evidence marker which lets us know that the tape we are about to watch is from a murder scene and that its origin is 'daughter's camcorder'. This is an excellent touch - playing into Hitchcock's first rule of suspense; let the audience know more than the characters. That one card gives the entire film a sense of foreboding, which it would otherwise lack.The film is shot entirely on a commercial camcorder, operated mostly by the actors and the look is completely authentic, there's little here to suggest that what you are watching was filmed for consumption; it's scrappily shot, the camera often moves erratically and few shots seem at all composed, all of which only adds to the air of authenticity.Rotheroe deliberately cast the film with unknowns and he's really lucked out with his cast, especially the heart-breakingly talented Brittany Ashworth (Judith King). What impresses most though is how naturally the family interacts and how, in the early part of the film, they seem like every family; like yours or mine. The intricacies of family dynamics often play out in the background of shots; subtly building the reality of the situation so that when things get more extreme it's deeply affecting.Violence in cinema often passes me by now. I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of times that it's really shaken me up. Exhibit A is one of those times. I'm spoiling nothing by saying that the film culminates in the murder that leads to that title card. It's a 12-minute sequence, shot in a single static take and it is the single most harrowing thing I've seen since the rape scene in Gaspar Noe's Irreversible. It's not that the violence is explicit, quite the opposite, it all takes place off screen but that it is so extended, so brutally intense and so very personal.At a time when most films that see the inside of a cinema will slip from the memory almost as you rise from your seat Exhibit A is a welcome shock. It's an intense and difficult experience but it is one you won't forget in a hurry and one that will provoke debate and discussion among audiences, that would be worth applauding even if it didn't also happen to be one of 2007's very best films.