Let me start by saying I wanted to like 'Tickled', and went in thoroughly expecting to do so, after having been left intrigued and excited by a very well made trailer for the documentary. What I ended up finding though, was sadly that I'd seen pretty much everything this had to offer in said trailer. The trailer promised elements of horror and mystery, but sadly delivered zero horror and little, if any, genuine mystery.
The whole thing gets off to a roaring start in the first 20 minutes, setting itself to seemingly be a great ride, hopefully leading to a thrilling conclusion. Sadly, the first 20 minutes are by far the best 'Tickled' has to offer. The middle is filled with just that - filler. The pace slows dramatically and we are left wondering what the significance of what we are actually seeing is. The ending lacked any punch at all and leaves you with a feeling of "Is that it?"
David Farrier tried his best, but was clearly out of his depth in a lot of situations. He's fine when the person wants to talk and is giving a willing interview, but as soon as a situation comes up where the interviewee is being evasive, his attempts to get a word out of them are amateurish and hardly worthy of making the final cut. Also his frequent swearing while giving interviews and talking to the camera are a bad look and take away any sense of class that a documentarian should always possess.
I guess the bottom line for me was that I felt let down. I don't think there was anything here that couldn't have been covered in a '60 Minutes' segment, and warranted me paying money to go and see it at the cinema. The story is quirky enough and has a twist (of sorts), but is that enough? I think I would have felt completely differently had it delivered a knock out punch to end things. Sadly it didn't though, and for me goes down as a forgettable experience that I won't be recommending.
The whole thing gets off to a roaring start in the first 20 minutes, setting itself to seemingly be a great ride, hopefully leading to a thrilling conclusion. Sadly, the first 20 minutes are by far the best 'Tickled' has to offer. The middle is filled with just that - filler. The pace slows dramatically and we are left wondering what the significance of what we are actually seeing is. The ending lacked any punch at all and leaves you with a feeling of "Is that it?"
David Farrier tried his best, but was clearly out of his depth in a lot of situations. He's fine when the person wants to talk and is giving a willing interview, but as soon as a situation comes up where the interviewee is being evasive, his attempts to get a word out of them are amateurish and hardly worthy of making the final cut. Also his frequent swearing while giving interviews and talking to the camera are a bad look and take away any sense of class that a documentarian should always possess.
I guess the bottom line for me was that I felt let down. I don't think there was anything here that couldn't have been covered in a '60 Minutes' segment, and warranted me paying money to go and see it at the cinema. The story is quirky enough and has a twist (of sorts), but is that enough? I think I would have felt completely differently had it delivered a knock out punch to end things. Sadly it didn't though, and for me goes down as a forgettable experience that I won't be recommending.