Found Footage 3D

The big world premiere for Bruce Campbell's Horror Film Fest was Found Footage 3D, a film years in the making that had gained quite a bit of traction online. Does this film live up to the hype it has created or fall into the same troupes most films of this genre have? Found Footage 3D follows a small group of people wanting to make the first ever 3D found footage film, to make their place in the genre. When arriving at their film site which is a old cabin with a shady past they soon start to realize that there is something actually happening in that cabin to them turning their movie shoot into a actual horror found footage film.

It's a simple enough premise and not something I'd call truly groundbreaking but what this film tries to do is almost spoof the found footage genre. They constantly call out the troupes of the genre in a joking or mocking fashion. The problem is that then the film falls right back into those troupes. You can't mock something so much then make the same mistake the films you are going at do. It's the case of being too meta for it's own good. It doesn't help either that so much of the film is just set ups, character developments, and a good amount of dialog that by the end when the events finally unfold that everything just goes to waste and feels rushed.

Another big problem is like most 3D films I feel like this was just added so they could claim it as 3D. Only at the beginning when the characters were first toying with their new 3D cameras did any of it actually have a 3D feel to it. Otherwise it just gave the normal 3D effect of giving the film a more circular view instead of looking at it on a flat surface. The film will be able to claim itself as the first 3D film but I feel like it wasn't truly worth it. I will say as well that this is the only 3D movie ever to make me feel a little nauseous in a few scenes. The shaky cam along with 3D effects can be hard to take in as well as the few scenes involving two go pros.

I will give it to the film however for having a few good gore scenes along with some very funny dialog. The characters banter between each other can be quite entertaining and is by far the biggest highlight of the film. It is humorous to hear them go on about the horrible things other films do and how to make their own better even if you only end up disappointed in the actions they take. I'll also give them credit for making me truly hate a character that being Derek (played by Carter Roy). (Also bonus points for Scott Weinberg).

Unrelated to the review before the film director Steven DeGennaro did come and speak to a nearly sold out theater for the world premiere of his first full length film. After the movie a full Q&A was held by the director and full cast for the audience to ask about the making of the film.

Overall I really went into this film with how hopes and instead left feeling like this was no better then all the other found footage films being released today. It just boiled down to unnecessary 3D, slow pacing, and being too meta for it's own good.

Score : 3/10 https://apocalypticdemise.com/2016/08/23/found-footage-3d-review/

This is a film very much in the spirit of "The Blair Witch Project", the low budget effort that can properly be said to have started the genre. Quite likely it has a semi-improvised script, at least it certainly gives that impression.

A small group of film-makers - professionals but far from A List - go out into the sticks to make the first ever found footage film in 3D. Almost from the very beginning, things start going wrong in their isolated cabin, leaving aside the fact that there are already certain tensions within the group, personal and sexual. The first question that must be asked is, this is a set up, right, most likely by the guy whose idea it was? Once that has been answered with a resounding no, things can only get worse, and they do.

Not a lot more can be said, except that the viewer can expect a gorefest. The people behind this actual film deserve A for effort if not originality. The special effects are thematic, but don't expect to come away either satisfied or comprehending.

I saw the 2D version but any film must be told by the story, not the 3D gimmick.

The cast is fine, the acting is fine. The problem is there is really no script. While everyone talks about making a GREAT FF film, they have no original idea. The script/story takes place in a cabin. Um, what? They think filming in 3D will make all the difference...but there is ZERO effort on their part to use the silly 3D gimmicks. You never hear or see them trying to make 3D scenes; throwing or poking stuff at the camera. It's so odd because that would have been fun/funny to see.

Instead, there is some bad, splotchy CGI of a black ink stain wandering around. There is no backstory every given about this particular haunted cabin other than a guy killed his wife and left the body in the lake...or was that in the script? Regardless, it's never mentioned again, no watery ghost, etc.

So we're left with them shooting scenes from a movie that has no plot we're able to follow, accidents happen that...are not explained or talked about much. Why does a shovel fall on a cast member? Why does one women get bloody scratch marks on her arm? Why do they go out drinking at a bar and when they return home and find some things "wrong" in the cabin? These are ll tropes used in FF films--and basic horror films--so it's clear they didn't even TRY to shake things up. The climax also is just what we expect, running in the woods in the dark, a final lunge at the camera by the monster.

Because the acting is fine, I was engaged the first 40 mins but then sensed that was it; the premise was set up but they weren't going to do anything but make the same old same old FF film. Which is fine--I like them, but if you're going to boast about making some new and different, that deliver. Or at least try to. Beginning with the title.

As the title of the film might suggest, this is a critique of the found footage genre and makes some good points. Howeverost of the meta commentary comes at the cost of making an actually enjoyable movie.

There are some points that stand out but it probably would have worked better if they had leaned into comedy a bit more than drama. Satire generally works by lampooning its subject so trying instead to show what would happen in real life is a confusion that doesn't come across right. Clearly there are parts where they leave the camera behind because that's what would really happen, but it doesn't exactly make for compelling watching. Instead you could have used comedy to justify ridiculous circumstance and still have made things entertaining and self aware.

Overall this isn't a terrible movie, it just muddies its point and labours over trying to both saturise and honestly critique the genre to the point where it is less enjoyable than it could be. Probably best to be watched academically rather than for fun.

The 3D gimmick is the only selling point for this movie, and it isn't even good. The acting is better than you'd expect for a low-budget horror movie--that's the only reason I gave it a 3. The problem is the SFX are terrible and the bigger issue is that the main characters are completely unlikable. I'm all for a decent found footage film so long as i care about what's happening. I didn't give a hoot about the three main characters. The other three I found more likable, but there wasn't enough there to make them more interesting.

There's also no build-up or suspense, just 90 minutes of people yelling at each other and making bad decisions until the last 20 minutes.

SKIP.