Director: Daniele Grieco
Year: 2014
Country: Germany
Alternate Titles: Die Präsenz
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Taking a trip together, a group of friends decide to film their visit to a supposedly haunted castle out in the German wilderness for a school project, only for their stay to be continually interrupted by a haunting series of supernatural activities that threaten their very lives and sanity.
Review:
For the most part, this wasn't all that bad of a found-footage effort. The main aspect that works here is the wholly enjoyable setup of the group heading out to the location which is the entire purpose here. Diving straight in on what's going on without much down-time at all, the purpose of seeing them arrive at the seemingly abandoned castle at the very start of the film which causes this to unleash the expected setups around the castle as they get to experience the marvelous Gothic atmosphere of the crumbling stone walls and decaying ruins of the rooms inside.
This fun build-up allows the film to really start having some fun once it gets into the series of hauntings that play out within here. With some fine setup beforehand about the history of the location and the experiences of the others in the past that have been there, this one gives some rather enjoyable scenes here that play off really well, from the constant off-screen banging that is a major freak-out factor to the shots of the group sleeping in their rooms and focusing on the events around them which are played out rather nicely as that allows the film to really break out a truly terrifying scenario of the fighting between the group leading to the house to start loudly banging around them, interrupting their argument. The need to document everything for their trip also means that their desire to film when least expecting it for some rather creepy imagery. These here are what make this one fun over it's few minor flaws.
The main facet that really undermines this one is the most common and artificial trope of the genre in that it's internal logic isn't always reasonable or consistent. Since the ghostly activity that occurs here gradually gets far more dangerous and fantastic the longer they stay, the reasoning for them being there is incredibly inconsistent as they are so unwilling to accept the truth the group is consistently putting themselves in danger for no real reason other than to keep the movie going. While it generates some creepy concepts with the rotting fruit and the urination at the most inopportune times, yet why they would continue to stay there is truly troubling.
The other rather problematic issue here is the fact that there's just such a repetition of the various scare tactics that it grows old rather fast. The idea of screaming loudly at the camera while we're watching the infrared footage or to hear loud, cacophonous banging out in the distance is all this really offers which means it repeatedly offers up the same type of sequences over and over again and really wears itself out when it features the same kind of actions for it's scare scenes. It's irrelevant how effective they are, but the repetition is what undermines this, but thankfully beyond these issues, there isn't much else wrong here.
Overview: ***/5
While it's not as special as some other found-footage genre films, the fact that it's got enough worthwhile to like about it that it remains an enjoyable enough take. Give this a chance if you're into these type of found-footage films or are curious about the country's attempts at the style, while those that aren't really fans of this genre should look at higher-profile entries before this one.
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