Director: Dillion Brown
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Cult
Plot:
After recovering a series of videotapes, the exploits of a cult preparing to go through the motions in summoning a deadly demon that will bring about the apocalypse is featured while a local militia team targets the cult to put an end to a rash of disappearances tied to their hands.
Review:
This was a pretty solid and likable genre effort. One of the better features here is the overall structure of this one setting up the storyline as a multilayered series of scenes designed to focus on the individual segments separately before bringing them together. As a product of the found-footage format, the first half here featuring the cult members abducting the one kind before going around to the various spots undergoing the means of preparing for the ritual manages to start this nicely before turning into the scenes with the cult operating in the desert preparing for an upcoming mission serves this one quite well.
That turns the second half into a quite fun found-footage Action film as the militia group raiding the compound becomes quite fun. This starts with the ceremony taking place in the earliest stages before being interrupted, the series of gun-battles, chases, and general mayhem that arises here is all quite enjoyable to see play out. As the action is accentuated by the series of confrontations here with the militia members confronting other demons and beings in the bowels of their coven home which is chaotic and frenetic due to the found-footage aspect, this brings about some great gore and some fine twists to end this on a high note.
The film does have some issues that hold it down. The biggest issue here is the rather staggered pacing that leaves this one without doing much for long sections of the film. As we spend the entirety of the first two sections here either running around with the cult members escorting the guy to the ceremony or the preparations of those going on the raid, there's barely anything happening here until the finale which can make for a troublesome time here. The other issue here is the decidedly chaotic times throughout here where the found footage as the distracting nature of it all leads to the usual dizzyness commonly associated with the style which all end up lowering this one.
Overview: ***.5/5
An overall enjoyable if slightly flawed found-footage effort, this one comes off quite well as the flaws here aren't enough to overwhelm the positives which are more impactful. This is mostly recommended to found-footage aficionadoes or those that enjoy this kind of indie effort while those who aren't into those factors should heed caution.
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