Deciding to hold a Found Footage (FF) day to kick off my viewing of the Paranormal Activity series,I started looking for a third FF title.Seeing Kim Newman give the flick a pretty good review,I was pleased to spot the movie in a local DVD shop,which led to paying a visit to the ranch.The plot:After getting reports of a child being abducted by aliens,the Modern Defense Enterprises (MDE) are sent to investigate.Placing cameras round the ranch,the MDE soon start gathering paranormal footage.As they try to figure out how to deal with the entity,the group discover that they are not the first gang from the MDE to have been sent to the ranch. View on the film:Working on what is likely a pretty tight budget,co-writers/(along with Murphy Michaels/Ken Bretschneider & Adam Ohler) directors Steve Berg and Devin McGinn do rather well at getting the most out of their special effects,with a blue "digital" tint giving the alien and paranormal animals a crisp, eerie glow. Settling down on the ranch,the writers gradually build up the supernatural horror,flying from something moving in the background,to a ruthless alien invasion. Locating the paranormal in a Found Footage format,the writers give everyone an intro to set their role in the investigation. Disappointingly,the writers use the intros to set an oddly calm mood which bolts down any chance of horrific tension invading,as the skinwalker walks on the ranch.

Although the found footage genre has been overdone lately, that doesn't mean you should automatically dismiss a movie when you see it's filmed that way. Found footage is great when IT'S DONE CORRECTLY. That is the case during the first half of Skinwalker Ranch, which made me jump a few times. However, the second half, especially the end, was disappointing and predictable. Also, it really doesn't add anything original to the alien abduction sub-genre. It's just another typical easily forgettable alien abduction film. Better than The Fourth Kind, but nowhere near as good as Dark Skies (which you should see if you like these kind of movies).

First of all, I have read George Knapp's book that this film is loosely based on. I've also heard Knapp speak about the SkinWalker Ranch events. I think the film makers were trying to do a low-budget-big- money-making repeat of Blair Witch project. I gave it a seven because if you read the book, you'll realize that the this is, in reality, one very strange story. The chaotic nature of this film captures the disjointed nature of the phenomena described in the book: bizarre poltergeist-type events, orbs, invulnerable beasts, possible dimensional portals, and UFOs. However, the film wildly exaggerates the actual events as well as concocting many things that never occurred. This was my biggest disappointment with the film because a faithful retelling of the book would have been far more terrifying.

NO, the "actors" did not play well at all. None of them. Any B-movie still has some guy that has charisma, or a guy that at least remembers his lines. This movie has nobody. Anger, fear, trivial discussions - it all feels like hesitantly chewing on plastic. NO, the script was not good. I know, the place exists and it had some of the occurrences portraited here allegedly going on. To line up all those strange events, and throw in some of your own strange ideas, would take up some skill to be glued together in a coherent story. There was no glue. It felt like parody paranormal youtube movies mashed together. Dialogues? Neah! Just a farmer that "wants his kid back" and long, useless selfie monologues. NO, the "paranormal" part was not right. It was not suspenseful and classy, it was not blockbuster glitter, and had nothing to do with "classic" paranormal encounters. NO, do not watch this movie, unless you want to agree with me, and up this review afterwards. NO, you did not count right. :)