Watch Me (2006)

User Rating:

3.2/10   

Director:

Melanie Ansley

Writers:

Melanie Ansley (writer)
Sam Voutas (writer)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

It's death at first sight.

Plot:

Tess Hooper is a diligent and earnest cinema studies student, haunted by a shameful incident from her past...

Cast

Celeste Barry	...	Rigby
Glen Hancox	...	Sanders
George Ivanoff	...	Lecturer
Katrina J. Kiely	...	Jill
Thomas Lim	...	Jo Jo
Frances Marrington	...	Tess Hooper
Tanya McHenry	...	Redhead
Dave Peterson	...	Jared
Sharn Treloar	...	Cop
Steve Van Spall	...	Lars
Sam Voutas	...	Taku

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Beijing, China

Company:

Scopofile

Very Well Made Asian-Influenced Horror Flick

Tess Hooper is working on her film studies homework when her friend Jill brings some videos from the local cult film dealer. But while Tess is in another room, Jill is killed by an unknown power. Tess and the video dealer join forces to find the source of this phenomenon that spreads via e-mail messages.

I have been viewing my share of low budget and microbudget films lately, and while some are decent, many are not something I'd wish upon my worst enemy (I won't name any titles to protect the film makers). When I found out I was going to be watching "Watch Me" I got a bit excited. The film had a plethora of good reviews floating around, and somehow they tricked the Internet Movie Database into giving them an insanely high rating. Now that I've seen it, I can confirm the hype was accurate. This film stands above the crowd in the world of low budget film.

The film's only real weakness was also its strength, so let's just get this out in the open: the creators obviously wanted to make an Asian horror film. They admit to this on their web site and the film is full of things reminiscent of past Asian films. But again, this is both a weakness and strength: while some aspects were clearly derivative and not original (I saw "Dark Water", "The Ring" and a few others copied in here), the way they were filmed showed great skill and talent like I rarely see.

After the first fifteen minutes (where most of the seemingly unoriginal parts were), the movie really took off on its own. The Tess character was a strong lead and the video dealer (who I believe also wrote this film) was decidedly creepy, yet lovable in an anti-hero sort of way.

The camera shots were great, with extra care being taken to get the right angles, the right pace and in some cases the right lighting and coloration of a scene. Had a higher quality camera been used, this could have passed for a mainstream film, in my opinion.

The music was strong and in some scenes drove the film. One song, first played in a scene with Tess running (and used many times again), added to the feel... I was anxious and anticipating some action. I received that action with some of the better gore effects out there in a low budget film (the eyes sewn shut were maybe not as creepy as in "Pelts", but still very effective).

When all is said and done, this is a cut above the rest. That's really the only expression I can use -- I was treated to something more than the average film here. Some mysteries remained that I wish had been solved, but there's no reason to discount a "Watch Me 2"... a film I'd welcome with open arms. If you want to see how low budget films are supposed to be made, watch "Watch Me".