I was doing one of those movie liveblogs that I occationally do.. but then I realized that I was watching a shitty movie that isn’t actually a ‘found footage’ film but a shitty excuse to be part of the genre search for it on netflix.
It’s a “faux-documentary” but not along the lines of Noroi or the poughkeepsie tapes (WHICH WAS DISAPPOINTMENT FOR ITS OWN REASONS). It’s more like Cannibal Holocaust where it’s very obviously fiction but with some ‘found footage’ shots thrown in. There is bg music, third person camera shots, etc. The documentary ‘footage’ is shown as the cameramans shots are occasionally shown but it cuts away so quickly and is so poorly used that it is really ineffective... I suppose I’ll prattle on about it for a bit since it’s picked up a little.
I’m about 40 minutes in, they’re in some facility.. they’re setting up cameras after their Medium was attacked, oh and one of their guys has disappeared.. but they’re not to concerned. At least now they have still footage of the rooms to flash back and forth too while they show the rest of the group looking around/SET A BED UP IN A ROOM BECAUSE THE MEDIUM IS SICK. They might wanna leave. Of course they have the host of the documentary who is way more concerned with setting up a base and getting decent shots but she is just coming off as a bit dumb/obvious than even a good bitchy host who’s putting her crew in harms way for ratings.
THEY STILL HAVE NOT BEGAN TO LOOK FOR THEIR FRIEND, ONLY THE CAMERAMAN IS CONCERNED. Oh, and you’re in a place with vengeful ghosts unable to pass over to the other side, and their innocent “Expert” apparently knows what’s going on. According to Ruth the Medium.
Ah. So it’s a russian facility to see if psychics could read enemies minds, stuff like that. Use eletricity to increase psychic abilities, etc etc. This Yuri dude knows exactly what was going on and brought them there to tell their stories.
So they heard their friend and are finally looking for him, i’m sure they won’t find him alive or in good condition.. if they find him at all. OK WAIT. The cameraman has his camera and your STILL showing 80% of the shots from third person?... HRGNH.
Ruth is seeing the ghosts in blurry ghost vision still and mumbling about spirits filling the whole place... while Yuri creepily watches her. Of course the host and cameraman have disappeared down a long dark tunnel because that’s the most clever of places. It’s getting progressively smaller and cramped so they won’t be running back through that too easily. Oh and Yuri isn’t goign to let them leave because you obviously need a human badguy when facing off against evil ghosts...
holy shit they found him hahaha oooo this is where the camera comes in handy because it’s got night vision on it. cue blurry freak out shots of some monster ...... FLAILING AROUND A FLOPPY DUMMY IN THE DISTANCE THATS SUPPOSED TO BE THEIR MISSING FRIEND DAVD.Unfortunalty the night vision, blurs and shakeycam couldn’t disguise the floppy dummy arms. Welp, David’s dead.
SEE.. despite the raggidy andy there, this is a lot more tense to watch it JUST through the nightvision camera... its loud and confusing and chaotic....except then the camera blinks in and out and then it goes back to Ruth and Yuri. WELP thats the end of the good 5 minutes of the film.
So whats Yuri’s story?.. ah, girl he was in love with was psychic and he believes she was brought there and killed. COMPLICATED GRIEF YURI, THATS WHAT IT IS. oh shit, they’re alive still ahaha.. and yuri has a gun. mmmmm whatcha say~
Oh, that was a lucky break. The ghosts decided to shut the doors on Yuri, they’re probably not big fans of crazy russian guys running around with guns. I hope its his dead girlfriend that kills him, at least that’d be karma. ah boo, it was the badly rendered ghost guy who did it. They didn’t even get to show the ragdoll body either.
At least they could try and leave now, there is a lot of evil noises coming from everywhere though. Ruth is going to hold off the ghosties and.... well one or both of these guys will get out. or maybe they’ll die horribly and Ruth will defeat the angry ghost and go home. I don’t really care either way, the camera man is probably the most likeable character but not so much where i’d be sad if he got his face eaten by a ghost. ... wait so it was seriously just this one ghost? like the hundreds of others are there but their not angry and killing anyone.. just the one dude. you’d think there’d be a fuckton of angry ghosts there.
THEY ACTUALLY WENT BACK FOR HER?! ... AND SHE DID IT?! NO ONE ELSE IS GOING TO DIE?! ... well that’s a bit disappointing. They’re saying its safe now.. but i’m hoping the 15 minutes left in the movie say otherwise. ... oh dear the cameraman is going off on his own and host lady is going to wattch the footage of what happened..
lemme guess, the chick got possessed and she didn’t help the dude pass on at all so she’ll kill the cameraman and host lady might just run for the hills..?? oh wow it actually looks that way. Cuz why have a Medium if they’re not gonna get possessed right? YEP. Cameraman (whose name is apparently Matt) is dead. Run bitch. or.. uh.. wakeup back in the evil cell/room..
OK THIS ENDING IS TAKING TOO LONG. if it was tense and drawn out that’d be cool but this is just... ahaha she’s seeing the ghosts of all her friends, maybe she’s dead too. I hope shes dead.. by the looks of it she probably is. That’s unfortunate.
So it seems that a grand total of 15 mintues of this film is pretty decent. The rest of it is incredibly forgettable. They REALLY shouldn’t have called it a faux-documentary though. gives you expectations about how its done stylistically. A better description would be something like “a team of british documentary makers travel to the woods of siberia to investiate they mystery surrounding 34 bodies found there 12 years prior” I would have had better expectations then I think.
