As I have mentioned before, and I feel it bears repeating, I have a very high pain tolerance for horror movies. I'm actually a fan of the "found footage" genre. I will quite happily watch movies that will make other people's eyes bleed.For other movie genres, particularly science-fiction, my standards are considerably higher. But for horror, I am about as discriminating as a swamp rat.THIS movie, "Report 51", was so absolutely God-awful I couldn't even finish it. Every Single Character was so annoying I wanted to bash them with a frying pan right in the face after the first five minutes of the movie, and things went steadily downhill from there.There is absolutely nothing about this movie that is redeemable. Nothing. It isn't even a decently campy-bad. It's just plain old bad.Do yourself a huge favor and avoid at all costs.
... View MoreJust really tried to watch yet another mini-budget 'movie' and despite my good intentions was so disappointed wasting my time on this cruelty for your eyes. Bad actors that seem to be taken from the street , really bad filming and a script that seems to be written in less than an hour with little inspiration of science fiction and thrillers. Blair witch was pretty OK and new in this genre of bouncing around camcorder work but this is just not good for your brain trying to make something from jumping and not focused images all the time. Besides that, the alien cgi's look so badly done also.. So yeah it's a horrible bad movie and if I could vote lower than 1 it would get -10 for sure.
... View MoreSomeone else wrote poorly lit and poorly acted, poorly scripted, not to mention terrible continuity...They were right, it really is a mess of a film...too much screaming, too much running, too many running down tunnels, why did the alien try to come thru the mirror exactly, bizarre to say the least...I didn't care much for the characters either, they were either stupid or ignorant to the fact of a found footage film...for example, when you get to safety, i.e. the inside of a house, you don't then open the bloody door and go out again and start filming the thing you are running from. There are plenty of other found footage films which are ultimately better than this piece of amateurish crap. ..and a note to Stud Lex who reviewed this before me, all I can say is, you haven't seen that many scary alien films if you think the aliens in this are scary. Let alone many films at all judging by your dumb review.
... View MoreThis one is really a big surprise. It's a captivating found-footage movie produced and scripted by director Alessio Liguori and director of photography Giuliano Tomassacci (I guess they are Italian or Belgian because according to its official page the film was shot in Umbria and Antwerp). But very unconventional and quite original considering the genre's standards. First of all I believe this is the first (or at least one of the first, due to the fact that for what I found on the web, even if released only this year, it's been conceived, shot and completed in 2011) that directly blends the POV-mockumentary-style with some others medium like web-cam chats. I'm not going to spoiler anything but there's also a central idea that relies on other video/recording technologies. And in a intriguing way. Also this one is probably the first found-footage that directly deals with aliens and a certain kind of sci-fi. The CGI is terrific and the appearances of the extraterrestrial humanoids are scary and frightening as hell. Furthermore their appearances are well distributed throughout the entire movie, and even if for someone this could be questionable, I think it's absolutely functional to the growing, tangible suspense. Besides the screenplay also leaves great room to characters relationships (kind of a rarity in this kind of flicks) and to the not-so-usual love-story. This adds texture to the general narrative. Anyway great kudos to the cast: actors Michela Bruni, Luca Guastini, Viola Graziosi, Ann Pierssens and Damiano Martina did a fine job. They are all newcomers to me but their strong and remarkable stage roots are pretty much evident considering how fine they deliver the goods in some very demanding, very challenging long-takes. Also it seems that they personally operate the camera and I must admit this is very useful in terms of screen-identification (the shaking of hand-held camera-work could be difficult to stand sometimes but it also increases a lot the sense of frantic danger). They provide some very effective, deep and touching performances, moreover acting in a different language from their own. By the second act, leading stars Bruni and Guastini begin a desperate journey (better say a "run") to salvation that really turns in a considerable and impressive acting tour-de-force. Annalisa Liuzzi's skillful special make-up also contributes to some creepy and harrowing moments. Liguori's direction is top-notch, well structured and effectively conceived in balancing human-feelings, otherworldly terror and action bursts, while Tomassacci's naturalistic yet eerie cinematography seems to evolve with the characters moods and stress their progressive descent into hell. The movie has no original score, just some source music here and here (including, right at the beginning, a catchy song by Emiliano Manzillo and Dirk Harzé – aka 'The Irresistible Johnsons'). I think this is one of the most appreciable quality of the movie, being a found-footage. I've watched other found-footage or mockumentary featuring a score and this always puzzled me. If they pretend to show "real" event, why music? Where does it come from? It's totally unlikely so I really believe they made the right choice in Report 51 avoiding music totally. Anyway there is a great piece of original music exactly where it should be, during the end-titles: a symphonic, vigorously Herrmanesque overture by composer Angelo Talocci that seems to musically recollect all the film's highlights. It seems they spotted the movie following Cloverfield's example, where Michael Giacchino only wrote a track for the end-tiles scrolling. Therefore this is absolutely an advisable movie. Very well made considering this is an indie flick and incredibly scary, with some very thrilling moments. Even if you don't like found-footages I would advice to glance at it: this could offer many surprises and a much unconventional development built around an original screenplay device that drives the whole story (can't say more, no spoiler!). All in all, despite some falls, this has certainly some of the most chilling aliens I've ever seen in a movie.
... View More