Most people seem to hate the whole 'hand-held' horror movie. "Blair Witch", "Paranormal Activity". The majority of the people i encounter say they hate em'. I however, love the hell out of em'. They're new and original. They offer something fresh to the horror market, because let's face it, i'm tired of seeing the same damn thing over and over again. I mean for Christ sakes, they have 7 'Saw' movies, and 5 'Final Destinations'. And is that wasn't enough, they're remaking all the classics. No matter how many people hate on the concept, i will STILL go and see every single one.
Unlike the other 'hand held' horror movies i mentioned before, this movie takes a much more different approach with it's style of filming. Since this is 'so-called' recovered footage from 1974, it's very grainy, it's frame rate is very slow, and it's slightly damaged. From a third party perspective, that might sound intriguing, and in a way it is. But there were some portions of the movie that got kind of annoying with their jump cuts and white-out techniques. But once you pass the 30 minute mark of the movie, you start to get use to the style they're using and you don't notice it as much.
But the biggest problem i had with the movie was the story. You see, in 'Blair Witch', they at least gave you a bit of back-story to what was going on. This one is all assumption......which i HATE. You can get by with this technique if you were covering something else like ghost, or evil spirits. Even though we know nothing of the subject, we get an idea of what the main characters are dealing with. But when you're in an unfamiliar place like the moon, and you're dealing with alien creatures, you need to explain a little more, otherwise your audience is left scratching their heads. And in this case, i was scratching pretty damn hard. Mainly because i had no idea why they were there, what they were dealing with, and what the governments intentions were. Like i said, it was nothing but assumptions.
And speaking of assumptions, you're going to have to assume what these creatures actually look like, because you never get that FULL establishing shot of what they actually look like. You either get a quick 1/2 second glance, or the film is so damaged that you can't make out what's on screen.
Not only that, you never get the idea of how these creatures operate. What are their intentions? How do they live? What are they capable of? WILL SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE ME SOME DAMN ANSWERS FOR THIS MOVIE!!! However, amidst all the confusion, there is one thing i did like, and that was the level of intensity. There were certain sequences that really had me going. Throughout the entire movie, they did nothing build up more and more. So of course, i was expecting this super grand horror finale'. But it ended in a pretty dull and abrupt fashion. And once again, left me with more assumptions.
Bottom Line......i appreciate the movie for it's different style of filmaking. But the overall plot had more holes than the moon has craters. I think if they explained more and brushed up on some of the annoying editing techniques, then this movie would have been something to marvel at. It was alright, i didn't hate it, but it's not the type of movie i'd go raving to my friends about.
Unlike the other 'hand held' horror movies i mentioned before, this movie takes a much more different approach with it's style of filming. Since this is 'so-called' recovered footage from 1974, it's very grainy, it's frame rate is very slow, and it's slightly damaged. From a third party perspective, that might sound intriguing, and in a way it is. But there were some portions of the movie that got kind of annoying with their jump cuts and white-out techniques. But once you pass the 30 minute mark of the movie, you start to get use to the style they're using and you don't notice it as much.
But the biggest problem i had with the movie was the story. You see, in 'Blair Witch', they at least gave you a bit of back-story to what was going on. This one is all assumption......which i HATE. You can get by with this technique if you were covering something else like ghost, or evil spirits. Even though we know nothing of the subject, we get an idea of what the main characters are dealing with. But when you're in an unfamiliar place like the moon, and you're dealing with alien creatures, you need to explain a little more, otherwise your audience is left scratching their heads. And in this case, i was scratching pretty damn hard. Mainly because i had no idea why they were there, what they were dealing with, and what the governments intentions were. Like i said, it was nothing but assumptions.
And speaking of assumptions, you're going to have to assume what these creatures actually look like, because you never get that FULL establishing shot of what they actually look like. You either get a quick 1/2 second glance, or the film is so damaged that you can't make out what's on screen.
Not only that, you never get the idea of how these creatures operate. What are their intentions? How do they live? What are they capable of? WILL SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE ME SOME DAMN ANSWERS FOR THIS MOVIE!!! However, amidst all the confusion, there is one thing i did like, and that was the level of intensity. There were certain sequences that really had me going. Throughout the entire movie, they did nothing build up more and more. So of course, i was expecting this super grand horror finale'. But it ended in a pretty dull and abrupt fashion. And once again, left me with more assumptions.
Bottom Line......i appreciate the movie for it's different style of filmaking. But the overall plot had more holes than the moon has craters. I think if they explained more and brushed up on some of the annoying editing techniques, then this movie would have been something to marvel at. It was alright, i didn't hate it, but it's not the type of movie i'd go raving to my friends about.