This movie was incredibly boring. The premise of the story was supposed to be the main character being a creep and murderous, but, other than that, I feel like I wasted so much time watching this. He's just a creep that kills people. That's it. That's the whole movie.
7 Reviews
Really bad
jmat4024 January 2019
We don't need no stinkin' story
timothygartin6 June 2022
Seriously disturbing, but what was the point?
Armin_Nikkhah_Shirazi23 January 2024
FOUND FOOTAGE begins with a notice telling us that this is footage in the possession of a police within the context of a crime investigation. Then the movie proper begins.
Darius steals a camera from a store with the intent, stated shortly after, of documenting his daily life. It turns out he is a small-time drug dealer and stalker/serial killer and over the next hour and few minutes, we see a first-person perspective of his murder spree.
One one level, this is a well-executed found footage movie: it has an interesting premise, it is very gritty and realistic, and the actors involved do a good job.
The film directly puts us in the shoes of a profoundly evil person, and thereby generates a lot of unease. THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES (2007) did something very similar, but did not have as much violence. It is a testament to the latter movie that it could still be highly disturbing despite most violence taking place off-screen.
Not so in FOUND FOOTAGE: the serial killer fixates on attractive young women, having mapped out their daily routes-what he calls the "grand design" of their lives-and when it comes time to do the deed, which he does with a knife, the film forces the audience to witness the graphic murder almost as if it was doing it. Although those sequences are short, they are very disturbing.
In serial killer movies, part of the point of the film is to convey something about the kind of person the psychopath is. The best found footage serial killer movies, such as MAN BITES DOG (1992), THE MAGICIAN (2010)(another Aussie take on the subject), RANDOM ACTS OF VIOLENCE (2012), CREEP(2014), and CREEP 2(2017) present us with fully fleshed-out characters, where we can gain some insight and learn something about extremes of the human condition.
I felt that Darius was incompletely fleshed out. What we learn about him is that he is a nihilist, something of a coward, as when he is confronted by a much larger neighbor, and that he reduces people to their grand designs. Also, that for someone who reduces people to abstract concepts, he is pretty good at pretending to have warm human emotions when it is required.
Okay, that is a good start, but by the end of the film I was still in the dark about who he really was. If nothing matters, why go through the bother of killing people?
There is a hint that his murders are motivated by feelings of sexual inadequacy (which would explain the knife) but it is never really explored.
The other problem is the lack of a real story. To be sure, there are events late in the movie which happen because they were set up earlier, but the film has almost something like an episodic feel to it, without much of a story arc. Actually, this ties into the character issue, since the best stories also reveal the characters.
So, after the movie abruptly ended, I still felt left hanging, having gone through a little over an hour of the unpleasant experience of putting myself in his shoes with little payoff. For some, the vicarious experience itself is the payoff, and if that describes you, by any means, see it. Just don't expect to learn much from it.
Darius steals a camera from a store with the intent, stated shortly after, of documenting his daily life. It turns out he is a small-time drug dealer and stalker/serial killer and over the next hour and few minutes, we see a first-person perspective of his murder spree.
One one level, this is a well-executed found footage movie: it has an interesting premise, it is very gritty and realistic, and the actors involved do a good job.
The film directly puts us in the shoes of a profoundly evil person, and thereby generates a lot of unease. THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES (2007) did something very similar, but did not have as much violence. It is a testament to the latter movie that it could still be highly disturbing despite most violence taking place off-screen.
Not so in FOUND FOOTAGE: the serial killer fixates on attractive young women, having mapped out their daily routes-what he calls the "grand design" of their lives-and when it comes time to do the deed, which he does with a knife, the film forces the audience to witness the graphic murder almost as if it was doing it. Although those sequences are short, they are very disturbing.
In serial killer movies, part of the point of the film is to convey something about the kind of person the psychopath is. The best found footage serial killer movies, such as MAN BITES DOG (1992), THE MAGICIAN (2010)(another Aussie take on the subject), RANDOM ACTS OF VIOLENCE (2012), CREEP(2014), and CREEP 2(2017) present us with fully fleshed-out characters, where we can gain some insight and learn something about extremes of the human condition.
I felt that Darius was incompletely fleshed out. What we learn about him is that he is a nihilist, something of a coward, as when he is confronted by a much larger neighbor, and that he reduces people to their grand designs. Also, that for someone who reduces people to abstract concepts, he is pretty good at pretending to have warm human emotions when it is required.
Okay, that is a good start, but by the end of the film I was still in the dark about who he really was. If nothing matters, why go through the bother of killing people?
There is a hint that his murders are motivated by feelings of sexual inadequacy (which would explain the knife) but it is never really explored.
The other problem is the lack of a real story. To be sure, there are events late in the movie which happen because they were set up earlier, but the film has almost something like an episodic feel to it, without much of a story arc. Actually, this ties into the character issue, since the best stories also reveal the characters.
So, after the movie abruptly ended, I still felt left hanging, having gone through a little over an hour of the unpleasant experience of putting myself in his shoes with little payoff. For some, the vicarious experience itself is the payoff, and if that describes you, by any means, see it. Just don't expect to learn much from it.
In theory, this would be a terrifying film to watch alone at night, which I did.
cmkeller751 September 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Okay, there really are no spoilers to be given. It's all in the synopsis.
A serial killer, in Australia, records his every movement from the time he steals a video camera to the time we wrap up the ending.
I had my hopes high for this - because honestly, it's actually SUPER difficult to pull off filming a found film movie - that sells and makes viewers believe, or at least QUESTION whether or not it's real. It's cheaper! But that makes it much harder. You can't depend on editing or post production to make anything appear like it was filmed by some sick a-hole. You have to film it AS IF YOU ARE that sick a-hole. It's harder than it seems.
For THAT, I give the director kudos. It DID feel as if the camera was being handled by a complete dolt that didn't know the first thing about filming anything.
But a couple of bumps, while doing so.
What DRUG DEALER would be caught DEAD doing a deal on camera, no matter WHO IT IS? That dealer would have made him turn the camera off before ever saying a single hello to him. 100%. Dealers aren't idiots. They aren't going to trust ANYONE recording them during a deal. Flat out. No way. Bad miss. 👎 You skip that scene entirely... have him show up, dealer says, we aren't talking until that camera is off. Or he makes him leave the camera in the hallway or SOMETHING. He isn't going to just go get his stash and money and do a deal right on film. Come on. Don't insult your audience.
The killings... well, wow. I mean he got good actors...I was ready to puke after the first one, but that may have been the jittery filming.
I think they were almost TOO detailed? If a killer is in the middle of his first kill, isn't he going to sorta forget about the filming at some point? I'm not a killer, so I can't say for sure...but I would think there would be a TINY bit of missed content, by accident, during stabbings. I can't hold a camera and prepare a meal with my other hand, easily. Especially if I'm brand new to both. I can't hold a camera and film myself knitting.
Maybe the director should have had him steal a go pro if he was going to have him film stabbings. I mean he's holding a camera, holding a knife with the other hand...and she can't escape? There are no hands left to hold her down? We are supposed to suspend reality of what the human extremities can do all at once. Fine. We can let that slide... but then...
There is literally NO explanation to why the last 2 died. None. The film makes it seem like he was killing girls he stalked for a long time. Maps of their routes, photos of them, several...and he had obsession as his motive.
But then he just randomly starts killing a girl he just met, and his dealer, and tries to slowly kill his crush? Why??? Pick a mental illness.
Most psychos who are obsessed mentally, will never go off those rails. They are extremely picky, perfectionists, tidy, neat, organized, and seem incredibly put together around those that know them.
I've seen a lot of true crime. Lol
I have yet to see an obsessive compulsive serial stalker/killer just go off start murdering people by random. They are two major different types of mental serial killers - those that kill specific people they obsess with...or random serial killers that do it for the rush...school shooters, bombers, etc...
Jeffrey Dahmer had a type. (Gay minorities)
GACEY had a type. (Mostly young males)
Ted Bundy had a type. (College age girls with long hair)
They didn't just go all random killing people for the hell of it after killing who they obsessed with. The last two kills DID NOT FIT his mental disorder. It was just shock gore.
I think the plus sides were the editing in the beginning and ending to look like it was evidence material was INCREDIBLE. WELL DONE.
It completely disturbed me, at first, as he was acting like your typical obsessive compulsive serial stalker/killer. I mean I was frightened for a while.
When it got unreal - was taking him off that pattern. Just going for gore, instead of the story by the end - was the ONLY reason this movie didn't get better ratings. I guarantee if the director would have stayed on track, have the dealer and crush and friend absolutely SHOCKED to learn who their friend was...instead of how it ended...it would have been better.
He had a 3rd victim already in the works. The blond he began stalking...why didn't he stick to that, all the sudden he's a completely different type of serial killer?
Try again. Really. There is so much promise but the execution (especially the ending) was a failure. Stay focused on your story you are telling and don't derail. It will do a lot better. I promise.
A serial killer, in Australia, records his every movement from the time he steals a video camera to the time we wrap up the ending.
I had my hopes high for this - because honestly, it's actually SUPER difficult to pull off filming a found film movie - that sells and makes viewers believe, or at least QUESTION whether or not it's real. It's cheaper! But that makes it much harder. You can't depend on editing or post production to make anything appear like it was filmed by some sick a-hole. You have to film it AS IF YOU ARE that sick a-hole. It's harder than it seems.
For THAT, I give the director kudos. It DID feel as if the camera was being handled by a complete dolt that didn't know the first thing about filming anything.
But a couple of bumps, while doing so.
What DRUG DEALER would be caught DEAD doing a deal on camera, no matter WHO IT IS? That dealer would have made him turn the camera off before ever saying a single hello to him. 100%. Dealers aren't idiots. They aren't going to trust ANYONE recording them during a deal. Flat out. No way. Bad miss. 👎 You skip that scene entirely... have him show up, dealer says, we aren't talking until that camera is off. Or he makes him leave the camera in the hallway or SOMETHING. He isn't going to just go get his stash and money and do a deal right on film. Come on. Don't insult your audience.
The killings... well, wow. I mean he got good actors...I was ready to puke after the first one, but that may have been the jittery filming.
I think they were almost TOO detailed? If a killer is in the middle of his first kill, isn't he going to sorta forget about the filming at some point? I'm not a killer, so I can't say for sure...but I would think there would be a TINY bit of missed content, by accident, during stabbings. I can't hold a camera and prepare a meal with my other hand, easily. Especially if I'm brand new to both. I can't hold a camera and film myself knitting.
Maybe the director should have had him steal a go pro if he was going to have him film stabbings. I mean he's holding a camera, holding a knife with the other hand...and she can't escape? There are no hands left to hold her down? We are supposed to suspend reality of what the human extremities can do all at once. Fine. We can let that slide... but then...
There is literally NO explanation to why the last 2 died. None. The film makes it seem like he was killing girls he stalked for a long time. Maps of their routes, photos of them, several...and he had obsession as his motive.
But then he just randomly starts killing a girl he just met, and his dealer, and tries to slowly kill his crush? Why??? Pick a mental illness.
Most psychos who are obsessed mentally, will never go off those rails. They are extremely picky, perfectionists, tidy, neat, organized, and seem incredibly put together around those that know them.
I've seen a lot of true crime. Lol
I have yet to see an obsessive compulsive serial stalker/killer just go off start murdering people by random. They are two major different types of mental serial killers - those that kill specific people they obsess with...or random serial killers that do it for the rush...school shooters, bombers, etc...
Jeffrey Dahmer had a type. (Gay minorities)
GACEY had a type. (Mostly young males)
Ted Bundy had a type. (College age girls with long hair)
They didn't just go all random killing people for the hell of it after killing who they obsessed with. The last two kills DID NOT FIT his mental disorder. It was just shock gore.
I think the plus sides were the editing in the beginning and ending to look like it was evidence material was INCREDIBLE. WELL DONE.
It completely disturbed me, at first, as he was acting like your typical obsessive compulsive serial stalker/killer. I mean I was frightened for a while.
When it got unreal - was taking him off that pattern. Just going for gore, instead of the story by the end - was the ONLY reason this movie didn't get better ratings. I guarantee if the director would have stayed on track, have the dealer and crush and friend absolutely SHOCKED to learn who their friend was...instead of how it ended...it would have been better.
He had a 3rd victim already in the works. The blond he began stalking...why didn't he stick to that, all the sudden he's a completely different type of serial killer?
Try again. Really. There is so much promise but the execution (especially the ending) was a failure. Stay focused on your story you are telling and don't derail. It will do a lot better. I promise.
Raw and Brutal if a Little Formulaic
rob-haskins21 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This is a short (66 minute) film. Premise is serial killer steals camera, then records himself killing. Think The Last Horror Movie or Maniac without much of a plot. The raw character of the movie makes it pretty creepy and I enjoyed it, maybe because it really had very little plot-just random, brutal violence.
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