Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!
Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
Red-Barracuda The found footage film continues to be the go-to-guy when it comes to low budget horror film-making. A lot of people are fed up with the sub-genre and it is easy to understand why as, aside from the shaky-cam being capable of inducing headaches, there is also a certain over-familiarity about a lot of them. I consider myself to be fairly forgiving of these types of films myself though and do think the general set-up is one which can result in effectively sinister films when approached correctly. It would probably be fair to describe Apocalyptic as a bit of a mixed bag though. As it never escapes from a certain predictability inherent in found footage and does wind up with the kind of ending that an awful lot in this genre have. But it was still nevertheless a film which was successfully creepy and did keep me interested. Set in Australia, the story has documentary film-makers travel deep into the country to meet up with a religious cult to make a film about them. As could be predicted, these people prove to be very strange and some troubling events follow.As is common with horror movies, character decisions here are often somewhat illogical, with the film crew hanging around for longer than they should and letting some things slide which they shouldn't. But I guess this is part and parcel of these types of movies to some extent. What was more of an issue for me was the central figure of the cult leader, who unfortunately was fairly badly acted by David Macrae, ensuring that this pivotal character had no charisma at all. I think it was quite damaging, as this is a leader whose actions are so extreme that they require some charisma in order to explain others going along with them so readily, such as the nightly ritual in which he chooses a different woman to sleep with every night, including a (very) young girl. These creepy details, along with the odd behaviour of the women cultists and what is discovered in the woods in the dead of night, are the kinds of things that make this one stand-out though and ensure that it does make some impact. It's a bit too basic and limited overall to be regarded as anything great but it does still offer some off-centre elements and ideas, and it never outstays its welcome.
begob Foundish footage of normal folk confronting weird stuff in the woods.Strange rumours are heard by nosey people with cameras. Enquiries are made, the task is set. The car is left in the middle of nowhere, and a journey into Hell begins.Not much to add. The heroes/inquirers aren't of much interest - he's geeky with a conscience, she's ditzy and ambitious. The villain is well played, although his apocalypse is vague. The scares are not too scary.I say foundish footage, because the geek escaped with his camera near the end. As far as I could tell he didn't get captured. Maybe I missed it. I didn't really care.Most interesting aspect was the mist. I guess they got lucky on the day.The end is uninspired, although they did find a use for trembling cam to suggest the coming of ... THE APOCALYPSE!
rushknight In general, all found footage films require you to lower your expectations. The very nature of this method of filming is to eliminate the need for special effects, large crews and complicated staging."Found footage" is synonymous with "Expect less." That being said, the exercise in minimalism has a tendency to refine and strengthen plots and is more demanding on the actors. So there are strengths that arise.This film shows few of those strengths. The acting is not abhorrent, it's reasonable, but still remained unbelievable. It felt as though it was trying too hard. My personal feeling is that the acting failed because the plot itself was unbelievable and didn't really hold it's own. There are simply too many holes in the idea. Tiny little questions that you end up asking yourself that pull you out of the illusion. "Why did he say that? Why did they do this? Why would ANYBODY do this?" Every found footage film's greatest challenge is a battle with common sense. If the actors don't behave in the way that any normal person would, then the illusion is destroyed. There are simply too many places where common sense doesn't prevail.That and the predictability of the plot kept making me wonder why the actors didn't see it coming. It was fairly obvious which direction this was going to end up going.And lastly, poor choices by the editors. Your movie can't appear to be real when the camera angles keep shifting but the SOUND doesn't alter.It came off as weak. Or even worse, it was unremarkable.
Red_Identity I kind of expected better just because of the very positive user reviews here on IMDb, or else I wouldn't have had high expectations. It's mildly effective, not at all original. Doing films of this cult-type is very popular, just last year we had The Sacrament, and that one was definitely more effective, even if more of a rehash of the Jonestown events. The acting here is really good though, and probably pushes the film even higher. The cinematography is nice, for a hand-held, and it's also pretty realistic so there's props for that. Ultimately, this just isn't very original and doesn't do much new to like it a lot, but it's decent enough.
