Dead Voices (2020)
The biggest space on the poster of Dead Voices is occupied by the well-known Canadian actor Lochlyn Munro who surprisingly doesn't even have five minutes' presence in the entire film. That is one way to build an audience!
Two sisters document their efforts of trying to contact the spirit of an ex-boyfriend, with the help of a psychic, who is believed to have died in Iraq.
The storyline has the potential to hold a horror fan's attention till the end. But William Butler has turned this pseudo-documentary into a fiasco by making the "found footage" aspect of it completely unconvincing. In a number of scenes, the respective actors (Lauren Albo and Angelica Briones) portraying the sisters aren't really living their parts. In others, they are passionately into their characters, brilliantly displaying emotions like deep sorrow and terror. That one scene they share with Lochlyn Munro as a psychic medium trying to connect to the spirit world is rather awkward as a result of their individual expressions which come off as forced. The writer Jacob Kyle Young plays the main muscular psychic and shows a more genuine connection with the spirits than Munro's character does.
Perhaps the director tried to give this found footage horror the clarity of a regular one as the shots are exceptionally steady even when the person holding the camera is going through some tense moments. Normally, footages recorded by someone while walking or running with the camera in hand are a lot jerkier than what Dead Voices exhibits.
The first half of this blunder is enough to kill the audience's enthusiasm. I wonder who wants to suffer from Dead Voices.
