Found footage features depend on one thing above all: believability. Almost every found footage movie begins by giving you some indication that the footage was discovered and "compiled" by authorities, then later leaked to the general masses. In short, it's a documentary. This illusion is generally effective when dealing with anything possible (floods, natural disasters, outbreaks of disease, serial killers), but becomes weak and convoluted when faced with anything improbable (zombies, vampires, ghosts).
As this is a zombie feature, believability is already at stake. The initial implication that this is "real" immediately makes no impression. It comes off as merely routine.
Shortly after, other factors follow that contribute nothing to believability, and yet continue to be standards in found footage movie making:
1. Too many camera angles to be possible for one camera.
2. Sound is too consistent as the scenes jumps back and forth between angles. An impossibility for one camera.
3. Lighting is too good to be real. It's clearly studio work.
4. The camera continually falls into the perfect position for filming, even though no one is thinking about it or even using it.
5. The fact that the camera is still on!
6. There's even a scene where the camera itself is videoed! Are you kidding me? Really???
7. All the digitally induced fuzz doesn't even look remotely real, or even have a reason for happening.
8. There's a soundtrack. Nice of the authorities to put that in so that viewers of their documentary will be more interested.
Then there's the acting, and the plot.. I'll just sum it all up with "It's unconvincing."
All of these little pieces simply do not add up, instead the movie suffers from the greatest weakness a movie can suffer from: It was boring.
Oh, and it finishes with some grinding electric guitar music, which is the only true constant in zombie films.
As this is a zombie feature, believability is already at stake. The initial implication that this is "real" immediately makes no impression. It comes off as merely routine.
Shortly after, other factors follow that contribute nothing to believability, and yet continue to be standards in found footage movie making:
1. Too many camera angles to be possible for one camera.
2. Sound is too consistent as the scenes jumps back and forth between angles. An impossibility for one camera.
3. Lighting is too good to be real. It's clearly studio work.
4. The camera continually falls into the perfect position for filming, even though no one is thinking about it or even using it.
5. The fact that the camera is still on!
6. There's even a scene where the camera itself is videoed! Are you kidding me? Really???
7. All the digitally induced fuzz doesn't even look remotely real, or even have a reason for happening.
8. There's a soundtrack. Nice of the authorities to put that in so that viewers of their documentary will be more interested.
Then there's the acting, and the plot.. I'll just sum it all up with "It's unconvincing."
All of these little pieces simply do not add up, instead the movie suffers from the greatest weakness a movie can suffer from: It was boring.
Oh, and it finishes with some grinding electric guitar music, which is the only true constant in zombie films.