Director: Tom Costabile
Year: 2017
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Arriving in Los Angeles to visit her cousin, a New Orleans woman intending to document the entire trip finds that her former lover's wife has spread a voodoo curse onto her trip and forces her to confront the very torments of Hell in order to fulfill the curse.
Review:
This wasn't that bad of a found-footage effort. What really works nicely for this one is the rather interesting setup here that still comes off rather nicely here even despite the clichéd set-up. Going from the idea of a person looking to escape a curse only to find it's followed them doesn't give this one much to go on, yet the way it starts off with the innocent trip and the meet-up with her friends give this such a strong beginning into the eventual encounters with the supernatural encounters. Once it starts going into the idea of her being tormented by the temptress, this one has a lot to like here with the initial shock-jump of the ghostly figure hovering over her bed that's only visible on the camera, the freak-out by the palm-reader while they're walking along the boardwalk and the paranoia she experiences while constantly out in the city which really works nicely here.
That makes the final half even more impressive, with the utterly twisted and dark abduction sequence in the house where the supernatural entities appear to torment her before chasing her around the apartment filled with the satanic signs and bloodshed along the walls and finally dragging her off into the alternate dimension which is where this really has some fun. These scenes of here in the dimension with the demonic beings is where this one shines, offering all forms of demonic tortures with the demons shown tormenting people for ages as they not only abuse them but also go for dismemberment or straight-up cruelty in what they end up dishing out on their victims while putting her through all sorts of tortures and torments as well. Given the severity and the duration of these scenes, it goes a long way towards making this a lot of fun with such a dark and twisted finale alongside all the other positives here.
There's not a whole lot wrong here, as the main issue is the reasoning for the revenge here. This one makes absolutely no rational sense why they target her as the explanation is actually more in line with punishing her partner rather than her for what she did so that really makes what happens to feel rather nonsensical. As well, the other big factor against this one is the found-footage aspect of the finale, which makes no sense at all. Considering the situation at hand and the players involved in the scene, it makes no sense who's holding the camera recording it all nor why they'd be so invested in holding onto a video camera at all during the time, leaving it all rather confusing why this section was being recorded. These few questions are what hold this one back.
Overview: ***.5/5
A generally enjoyable and over-the-top found-footage effort that has a lot to like and not too many flaws at all, this emerges as a solid under-the-radar entry that's immensely worthwhile. Fans of indie efforts or aficionados of found-footage genre films will definitely want to take a look at this one, while those who aren't into either aspect should heed mild caution with found-footage proponents giving it a wider berth.
Comments
Post a Comment