Blackwood Evil (2000 Video) User Reviews

Interesting idea, but ultimately a poor attempt

[BillionaireBot_88 · 3/10 · 14 May 2010]

Blackwood Evil is about a supposedly haunted house in the Blacklands of Texas, and the four people who decide to try to spend a night inside. It's kind of a cool idea, a camera man, reporter, psychic and a relative of the people who supposedly died in the house enter with video cameras to record their findings.

But the problem with the movie is that the actors are very poor. I know its supposed to make the movie more realistic, but it really detracts from the experience when you're groaning at how badly acted it is. Watch the Blair witch project, then watch this and you'll see what i mean. It's hard to get scared when they do such a poor job of making you feel that this is really happening. Some of the effects are cool, like when they discover Travis' body in a bedroom with a pentagram carved in his chest and legs apparently chopped off by an unknown force. But everything leading up to this pretty much sucks, it takes so long to get going that most will likely give up watching before anything good happens.

Well it had a promising start.

[lost-in-limbo · 3/10 · 31 December 2021]

Found footage horror that plays up the angle of being real footage. This tape (titled 'Blackwood evil') which was supposedly missing since 2000. Mysteriously is delivered to the sunrise Texas TV station. Obviously riding the coattails of "The Blair Witch Project". Only made the following year. Somewhat authentic with its shot-on-video quality and interesting backstory of its haunted house - on the eerie black lands of Texas. Four people; a reporter, cameraman, psychic and asshole land owner all meet up there on December 31st, 1999 for a couple of hours. However the interest begins to waive once the action takes place at the house with an hour worth of languid set-up. Mostly of back and forth bickering and a giggling reporter who constantly likes the sound of her own voice. The last 20 minutes are filled with weak, and limited supernatural occurrences, confusion, hysteria and baffling character decisions. Making it a frustrating, rather then spooky atmospheric viewing.

Recast!

[slavetrent · 3/10 · 1 November 2022]

This could've been ok but the chick that played Jane Fox was SO annoying that I shut it off 3/4 of the way thru and went back the next day. She was still completely annoying. I can't believe that the director let her screaming, whining and fighting with Travis go on throughout the WHOLE movie. If she was planning on being some future TV personality, except for Springer,, she might wanna reconsider. She said she researched so she should've known what she was getting into. Don't any of these people watch the Travel Channel professional hunters. Everyone is clueless. Dont mess with it and it won't mess with you. Ive never seen some not STFU for one second in a movie. She sounded like she was giving birth to triplets.

Shrill

[porkchopis2 · 1/10 · 14 October 2019]

Women whose voices become shriller each time they raise their them should never be cast in a movie like this. With all the high voices and repetitive words AND the moaning the reporter continually does, it will remind people of one of those dreadful holiday dinners where all the family attends just so they can pick on that one weak person who gets upset easily. There is no continuity in the story and the acting is horrifyingly bad but the worst part is trying to understand what all the squealing is about. Good luck with that...

To much shoutinmg, makes it's UN-watchable

[atinder · 1/10 · 12 November 2013]

Blackwood Evil (2000 ), WOW, only one other comment on here, that for the best.

This must have been cash in on TBWP, This is so boring, I could not get into this movie at all, there was not one second, I liked .

There was way to much arguments going on, for most of the movie, saying the same thing over and over again, I Stopped watching, it at just before the hour mark.

Nothing happen in the first 52 minutes at all, just talking about thinks that have happened in the past.

The acting was really bad.

1 out of 10

Can you say rip off?

[johnnygriner · 2/10 · 26 August 2022]

The makers of this, if you can call it, "film" have no idea how to make a movie they probably figured they can make a quick buck off of the Blair Witch Project but they do such a terrible job at it!! It's 5 people walking around in awful lighting arguing non stop!! It's beyond terrible! I'm embarrassed to admit I watched this piece of, I can't think of a word to write about how bad this is.

Horrible, horrible movie.

[zamboni-36633 · 1/10 · 8 December 2021]

Constant repetitive yelling throughout the entire thing. Gave me a headache. The main woman, the reporter, reading her lines from a piece of paper as their documentary is being filmed. It was ridiculous. I wanted the owner of the property to die five min after meeting him. Nothing but yelling and screaming at everyone until the final ten min. Then they all die. That's it. Skip this one. Your life will be better for it.

Not a good movie.

[walkenlvsme · 2/10 · 3 June 2021]

The worst thing about this movie is the lead woman. She's a manipulative, immature, passive-aggressive, unprofessional, and under rehearsed character. She presents her lines for the "documentary" portion of the "movie" like a high schooler who just threw their presentation together at lunchtime. She badgers the antagonistic property owner in a really just annoying way. He somehow comes across as more likeable than her and I don't think that's what they were going for.

All issues aside with choppy storytelling, terrible sound quality, and noooothing happening for most of the movie and when things did happen, it mostly made no sense, I wanted a ghost to jump out and slap that lady so bad.

Gave it 2 stars because I did watch until the end so there's that.

Good attempt?

[sinnomine-17282 · 4/10 · 14 July 2022]

The idea for this movie was great. Eddie, the cemetery caretaker and the set-up guy who was on screen for just a few moments, gave pretty good performances. Entirely too much dialogue, mostly arguing. The reporter, I have no words for how bad her performance was. The psychic did the best she could with who and what she had to work with. And the role of the not so nice fellow was taken way too far. I'm usually a fan of Found Footage films. If some of the dialogue had been cut and a better actress found for the reporter character, this might have been much better.

Insanely disappointing and irritating. Waste of time.

[yuukinhime · 1/10 · 31 December 2023]

I'll say this first: I'm someone who absolutely LOVES found footage horrors, and when I do research and find a new one, I look into it further and/or try it. I had high hopes for this one when seeing the summary on Tubi, and I was so sorely disappointed (as is the case with many found footage movies these days, sadly).

This one did only a single thing right: looking like genuine found footage.

The rest of it was abysmal. I couldn't watch it through to the end and the only character I was able to tolerate was the psychic, who seemed to be the most professional and mature one of the group.

The cameraman and reporter constantly made immature jokes or comments like they were young children, and the reporter giggled at literally everything (I'm not overexaggerating, it's ridiculous how much she giggled, even during inappropriate times). She was the most immature one of the group, in my opinion. Not to mention, she hounded the graveyard caretaker with questions on a topic he said he wasn't comfortable talking about, then was jokingly passive aggressive about him behind his back when he left, calling him the 'town nutcase'. On top of that, her performance was amateur-level at best; She's a reporter, yet she's having to read off cards despite doing research beforehand as well as tripping over her own words and making awkward pauses in the middle of her sentences? I'm not sure if it was due to the actress being poorly talented or if the director wanted her to act the way she did, but she was the main reason I couldn't stand this movie.

On top of that, the landowner was a massive prick, telling them over the phone, supposedly, that he was fine with them staying the night and doing a story on the place, then meeting them and immediately doing a 180 with how he felt about it, giving literally no explanation as to why his feelings on the matter changed. He then proceeded to treat them all rudely with the excuse that the place wasn't haunted and that he was rich, so he could do whatever he wanted to. His entirety in the film consisted of him making rude comments, provoking the others into verbal fights, mocking them, and telling them to hurry it up and leave yet continuously interrupting their attempts to do so, prolonging their visit. Not to mention, the totally unnecessary fight between him and the reporter with her telling him she saw used condoms in another room, and he could go have fun with those, and him replying with 'Yeah, I'll bend you over'.... REALLY? Was something like that even remotely necessary???? It was absolutely poor taste, even for a movie this bad.

Young children would have been more mature than these people.

Even the paranormal activity of this film was poorly done and there was very little of it. And when it does happen near the very end of the film (after 3/4 of it being bickering, immature comments and repeated insults), it was extremely underwhelming and none of it made sense.

All in all, I feel lied to about this film after becoming excited about possibly finding a new one that was worth watching.

For anyone contemplating this movie, I wouldn't waste your time unless you're interested in the themes stated above.

Considering the following great 1st time FF film

[formyapps-59781 · 8/10 · 24 September 2021]

Considering the producer, director, writer and one of the main actors was all one man; not to mention a family member of his was the one who did the special effects and there were only 5 other actors in the film, all 7 of these people being fairly novice to main stream film, wow! Just, wow. Lastly, with the budget only being (approx.) $5,000.00, I mean, hats off to creating something you all have every right to be incredibly proud of. As you each should be.

Perhaps, because of those factors some viewers will have difficulty getting into the film. However, one might not realize the creativity, time, effort, overall work it takes to actually finish and put out a film as this unique and adventurous as this FF flick. Hence the appreciation of those efforts and the superb quality of this film may ultimately get lost.

For 7 people, none of them really household names before this, basically creating a 'backyard/hobby film' for fun (meaning that in the most incredible way possible) this film was pretty amazing. Not many people who create a film like this ever get their masterpiece onto a fairly mainstream media platform so that the masses could be blessed with the ability to experience their work. Not many films with such a budget, even those with a decent budget, get such exposure. I doubt if many of us could even create such an epic, creatively constructed and executed, hidden gem of a film such as this.

I hope, if this is the 1st film, it is the 1st of many because if this is where you all started, I see it going so much further from here. I mean, this was so amazing especially with everybody being fairly new to the public, with the equipment available, locations available. Really, the adaptability and creativity is just oozing out of the core of those who brought this film to fruition, especially Richard Catt.

Remember that when watching this, one day cult-classic, and enjoy this wonderful film knowing that with the help of 5 great actors and a family member working special effects, all this was created and executed because of one man and his private collection of film/production equipment.

If you're looking for Hollywood level production or go into this with that level of expectation, it's not here...yet. However if you want to sit back and enjoy a great film knowing the effort, motivation and passion that fueled it and support a dream turned reality, you really can't go wrong. In 10 years time when a man walks across a stage to collect his Oscar; a man who's appreciated and likened with men such as Steven Spielberg, James Caan, Tim Burton and M. Night Shalimar you'll be able to turn to your partner and say, "Yeah, I've been a fan of Richard Catt's films since his first, somewhat obscure, cult classic 'Blackwood Evil'''.

So, go one, take a chance and, discover a hidden treasure.

For FF fans: Solid effort!

[Arutha77 · 7/10 · 3 October 2020]

I watched this movie on POVhorror and the 4:3 vhs transfer style add a lot to the atmosphere. I usually grade Found Footage movies on 4 catagories, so I will do so here:

1. Characters: 7 The main characters, a cameraman and the reporter have a chemistry that you would expect from a duo thats used to working together. There interactions are fun and seem realistic and I liked them both. One problem is an early antagonistic character, the owner of a property. This man is supposed to be annoying and derails the documentary, but I feel that because he gets so much lines and screentime, which I feel also frustrates the movie itself.

2. Setting: 7 Rural USA, this starts as a great setting, but the biggest part of this movie plays out in a dilapidated building, at night. The VHS quailty does give it all an extra grimy look, which goes great with the mood.

3. Reason to keep filming: 7 It's a documentary that's trying to capture the paranormal, so this works.

4. Story: 7 This movie is from the year 2000. Just a year after the Blair Witch Project. Sure, a lot of this type of story is cliche by now, but I think this is a solid effort, specially because of when it was made.

Surely a good watch for FF nuts like me!

Two attempts in two years, still couldn't watch it all the way through

[hrundivb_ · 2/10 · 10 November 2023]

I'd forgotten I gave this movie a go a while back, but only made it ten minutes in before turning it off. I tried again, this time, begrudgingly, I made it 46 minutes before calling it quits.

It's not the terrible lighting, poor sound, or dismal VCR quality footage, that was on purpose, I presume. It's the script, and actors. I realize this was a found footage attempt, and as such, some of the dialogue might have been adlibbed. But there had to be a script somewhere. And with novice writers, and just terrible writers, the desperate need to insert 'conflict' in each and every scene seems to be ingrained in their very soul. Screenplay writing 101.

It worked in Blair Witch, unfortunately, almost every found footage knockoff that came afterwards, tried it, and failed. Blackwood Evil failed miserably.

I did not mind the lead woman nearly as much as the property owner. His character, his constant interruptions and insults, killed any chance I had at finishing this film. His snide commentary and the ensuing back and forth was tortuous. Completely unnatural.

Here's a nugget for those aspiring horror screenwriters out there: conflict is good, but when it's forced, and rampant, it's not.

too much talking

[lilserenity-01981 · 6/10 · 2 April 2022]

It would of been good if there wasnt so much jane fox.yelling..bloody and gorey but is it real or not?could not get me to get involved to find it oput so im left wondering.