Browsing the DVD section of my local supermarket today, I came across Paranormal Incident. Reading the cover notes, I thought, ooh, a new found-footage film for my enjoyment. It's a pity that the film turned out to be a little disappointing, despite its ambition. Oh, and the DVD cover erroneously titled the film as 'The' Paranormal Incident. It's just Paranormal Incident. Shame on the UK distributor! What we have is a found-footage film folded into a traditional movie. The sole survivor of a paranormal investigation is being interrogated in his hospital room as we are shown the camcorder and CCTV footage recovered from Odenbrook Sanitarium. Being the sole survivor, John is also the prime suspect in connection with the disappearances of his friends. As he tries to recall what happened, he is shown how the dark forces that prowl Odenbrook picked off his comrades one by one.
The main problem with this film is the format. Is it a normal film or is it a found-footage film? The producers are to be commended for trying to take the genre in a new direction (as Eduardo Sanchez has done with the soon-to-be-released Lovely Molly), but the ambition outreaches the filmmakers' ability, it seems. While the acting is decent and the shaky-cam footage is decent, the 'regular' movie segments are quite pointless (and the climax is, frankly, stupid). The director seems to forget how many people there are in a scene from time to time, as there are more hand-held camera shots than people. On a couple of occasions, the 'found-footage' is being filmed by nobody at all, as we see hand-held footage of attacks from a third person perspective when there is supposed to be only one person (and the ghosts/demons/whatevers) in the scene. That bug-bear of found-footage, the pointless musical score, also comes into effect on occasion.
That said, there are some good scares, but I felt that they should have simply made a regular found-footage movie without the pointless 'traditional movie' inserts.
The main problem with this film is the format. Is it a normal film or is it a found-footage film? The producers are to be commended for trying to take the genre in a new direction (as Eduardo Sanchez has done with the soon-to-be-released Lovely Molly), but the ambition outreaches the filmmakers' ability, it seems. While the acting is decent and the shaky-cam footage is decent, the 'regular' movie segments are quite pointless (and the climax is, frankly, stupid). The director seems to forget how many people there are in a scene from time to time, as there are more hand-held camera shots than people. On a couple of occasions, the 'found-footage' is being filmed by nobody at all, as we see hand-held footage of attacks from a third person perspective when there is supposed to be only one person (and the ghosts/demons/whatevers) in the scene. That bug-bear of found-footage, the pointless musical score, also comes into effect on occasion.
That said, there are some good scares, but I felt that they should have simply made a regular found-footage movie without the pointless 'traditional movie' inserts.