Stylistically fun, as others have noted... the "1970s era found footage" conceit works well enough, although the explanatory intro at the beginning maybe goes on a little too long. I wonder if the movie would have carried more power without that intro at all, just launching into the found footage. Dastmalchian is good, as is Laura Gordon (very attractive) and others in the cast.
But as a screenplay, this just lacks coherence in the end. I don't think the movie is clear on what it really wants to say, and I don't mind a bit of ambiguity in cinema, but there's a fine line between ambiguity and incoherence. The final act of the movie leans more toward incoherence, I would say. There are certain interesting tidbits in the plot that are never explained, that I figured would eventually be explained; e.g., the "under the tall trees" thing. The story explanations that I read on the movie's Wiki page simply aren't clear in the movie itself. Also, the portrayal of the cult element here felt a little cartoonish and exaggerated, depicting the most ridiculous and stereotypical version of a cult (big hoods, Satan worship, rituals in the woods, running daggers through hands, etc.) one could imagine, and that also detracted from my ability to take the movie seriously. This is always challenging when mixing comedy with serious subject matter, but when viewed as a "seriocomedy", and only that, this is an amusing enough watch, and not overlong.
But as a screenplay, this just lacks coherence in the end. I don't think the movie is clear on what it really wants to say, and I don't mind a bit of ambiguity in cinema, but there's a fine line between ambiguity and incoherence. The final act of the movie leans more toward incoherence, I would say. There are certain interesting tidbits in the plot that are never explained, that I figured would eventually be explained; e.g., the "under the tall trees" thing. The story explanations that I read on the movie's Wiki page simply aren't clear in the movie itself. Also, the portrayal of the cult element here felt a little cartoonish and exaggerated, depicting the most ridiculous and stereotypical version of a cult (big hoods, Satan worship, rituals in the woods, running daggers through hands, etc.) one could imagine, and that also detracted from my ability to take the movie seriously. This is always challenging when mixing comedy with serious subject matter, but when viewed as a "seriocomedy", and only that, this is an amusing enough watch, and not overlong.
Tell Your Friends