Should we just stop with the whole Found Footage thing?

So with an Episode of Doctor Who having just tried to do an episode in a found footage style this has made me think about the whole idea of found footage again, basically it makes me ask the question, should we just stop with the whole Found Footage thing? Now I am not claiming that it was the first ever found footage based film but The Blair Witch Project is the first one I can really remember. I remember it more for its advertising campaign and the way they tried to use the advertising and the internet to blur the lines between fiction and reality. I first saw it on a pirate VHS cassette my brother lent me, I had heard bits and pieces about it and have to admit that I was a little confused if it was supposed to be fact or fiction, heck I was a teenage and more likely to believe what I was told or read without really challenging it. The day after this my friends all decided to have an impromptu night out camping in the middle of nowhere, we literally all grabbed whatever camping gear we had, got some drinks and walked till we found some land that didn't seem to be clearly owned or checked by anyone and we set up camp. I didn't really find Blair Witch scary as a film but out there the next night in the middle of nowhere with trees around me well I guess this showed me it must have affected me to some degree as I was turning at the slightest sound of a twig snapping. I remember my friends taking the piss in a jovial manner ribbing me about being scared and then a week or so latter most of them came up to me and said something on the lines of ''Shit me, If I had watched the Blair Witch the day before camping in the middle of nowhere you'd never have got my ass out there.''

I still think Blair Witch is decent yet I have found all of the Paranormal Activity films as dull as dish water, maybe it is the fact I am older and more cynical or that the trick has already been done once and I am not going to be fooled again. Yet sometimes I will be happily fooled, I will watch Penn and Teller perform magic tricks and love every second of it knowing fully well that what they are doing are tricks, that they are fooling me. So why would I be happy to let one thing fool me and enjoy every second of it and yet shrug at another form of entertainment which wants me to embrace it and go along with its tricks? The truth is I don't know.

Yet I have enjoyed some found footage style movies, Diary of the Dead for example which is George Romero's attempt to combine his Zombie films with the idea of found footage. It follows all of Romero's standard Zombie rules, so If a zombie bites you or if you die in any way, that's it your going to become one of them, then there is the fact that you can only kill the undead by destroy their brains. The basic premise of the film is that a survivor has pieced together footage from the first night that the dead came back to life. Maybe I enjoyed this because it was a combination between a Romero Zombie film and a found footage flick. It also in typical Romero style seemed to be commenting on the world, all of Romero's films seem to have some point a sort of political agenda Dawn of the Dead is often talked about as being a comment on American Commercialism and in this way Diary of the Dead seems to talk about how we are all so used to viewing the world through technology now days instead of with our own eyes, and about how the media presents things. I think its a very clever film which has its faults but I also think that it is this Romero factor which makes me enjoy the film and hold it up as something other than just another found footage flick.

So I guess the answer to the question should we just stop with the whole Found Footage thing is that no but the idea of found footage on its own is not enough. Blair Witch worked for me because of all of the websites and rumour mills and all of the work around the film, that was as much of a gimmick as the style of the film itself at the time, the same can be said of Diary of the Dead it was the found footage in combination with the zombies and social commentary of George Romero. The Doctor Who episode had a lot going for it, some decent ideas a good looking monster, a creepy twist at the end and some great acting from Peter Capaldi but they didn't pull it off it just came across as a bit of a mess. I would defiantly give another found footage film a try but if it wants to get a rave review from me then it has to do something worthwhile because the found footage gimmick alone is not enough any-more, its no longer fresh and it is in fact very overused.

Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead: A review and why you should watch it

So I came across Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead on Amazon Prime. Basically  I wanted something to kill a few hours with so I loggod in to Amazon Prime to have a look and see if anything looked good.  I had read nothing about this film other than the little blurb wrote on Prime while I was flicking through the movies. The great thing with these movie subscription type services is that you pay whatever amount it is per month and that covers you for the films you watch, bearing in mind last time I found myself in a rental shop they wanted £2 a film if the film was made in the last sort of three years so that means you only have to watch a few semi recent films here and there to make something like Prime worthwhile.

So I sat down to Wyrmwood with an attitude of, watching this is not really going to cost me anything and if it sucks I can turn it off at any second with no sense of buyers remorse or cash wasted, the very second it delivers less than I want I can turn it off. Now this is somewhat of a double aged sword for films because it means that you might take a chance on something you otherwise wouldn't if you were having to buy it or physically rent it but it also means you don't feel any need to push yourself past a boring intro, or see if a dull film gets better latter on, you can instead shut it off the second its not registering with your expectations and move on to something else. So how far did I get through Wyrmwood? I got to the very end, not only that I could certainly see myself watching it again.

Will you like Wyrmwood as much as I did? Well do you like Ozplotation style films featuring an apocalypse like the original MadMax? If so stick with me and answer the next question. Do you like Zombies and zombie films? In simple terms what we have here is the illegitimate love child of Mad Max and Dawn of the Dead. This is something I thought when watching it and then as soon as I had finished and I looked up more info on  the film I noticed this was a comparison the makers had made themselves, to the extent that they had put it on posters and other promotional material for the movie. This doesn't mean it is without its own ideas though. I would say more but I don't want to spoil them.

So I will lay out some of the plot but I am purposely going to drop off mid film and leave you to watch it if you desire after reading this to find out the rest. A Mechanic called Barry who is the central character of the film lives in the Australian outback with his wife and daughter.

Barry's sister is attacked in her garage photo studio by her model and her assistant, who have suddenly become zombies. She handles herself well and manages to get up in the rafters of the building. She calls Barry and warns him to get himself and his family out of the city. So Barry his wife and daughter all put on gas masks and fight their way to the family car. Unfortunately his family members turn and Barry is forced to kill them.

Chalker, another survivor, finds Barry and tries to talk to him but all Barry is intrested in is trying to get Chalkers gun so he can kill himself. Chalker knocks barry out and when Barry comes round he asks Chalker to take him to his Sisters studio, During this time however a military unit has taken his sister captive in the back of a truck that serves as a mobile lab for a strange overly eccentric scientist. Chalker's truck stops working leaving him and Barry to continue on foot. Benny, another survivor, mistakenly kills Chalker. At this point after apologising and offering Barry his shotgun. Benny and Barry team up and come upon a garage staffed by Frank and his assistant. Frank explains that all flammable liquids have become useless and that this will be why Chalkers truck stopped working. There garage is surrounded by zombies so this is when it becomes time to strap on every piece of armour they can find from shoulder pads to crash helmets and hocky masks and get ready to take on the zombies.

I was very surprised to learn that this was the feature film directorial debut of its director Kiah Roache-Turner, it seemed so good and well directed to me that this really blew me back especially when you factor in its $160,000 budget. It does have a very Mad Max feel to it and I think if you like either the Mad Max films or zombie movies then you should really give this film  a crack. I am now about to say something which I know would get me shot in some places but I actually found this film more enjoyable than the latest Mad Max Fury Road. It was less serious, less up its own arse and more focused on fun. I know that some people seem to love Fury Road as being the greatest thing ever while others see it as some kind of Femi-Nazi propaganda, but personally I just saw it as a big explosion festivel that showed you lots and explained very little leaving you to take minor grunts and looks as if they were the deepest of character development. People would argue that it provided you a world full of ideas to think about and make flesh in your own mind but then the same can be said about WyrmWood which itself provides a whole world of possibilities while also explaining more while still leaving enough blanks to let your mind run wild with speculation.

It was originally supposed to have a one night only theatrical release in Australia, opening on 74 screens, but due to an overwhelming response and lots of sold out sessions across the country its run was extended for weeks in some cinemas. This is a film which through its quality and its fans enjoyment managed to push its self rather than being pushed along by a ridiculously high promotional budget. I think this alone tells you why you need to see this film.

My Oppinion of the Ant-Man film

So before Ant-Man came out lots of people seemed to moan and complain that they wouldn't go and see it because well Ant-Man is silly and we all know its going to be rubbish for this reason and that reason. How Ant-Man is silly but everyone thinks Spider-Man is cool. Still some people seem to want to hate this film but well this is my blog so I will be telling you my opinion.

I didn't care what was being said by anyone I have a lot of memories of reading Avengers comics in my life,so I knew that when handled right Ant-Man can be a great character and the truth is in some ways I think the film is absolutely brilliant. Everyone wants to see what it will be like when a hero makes the jump from the comic book pages to the silver screen and in this film we get to see both the original Ant-Man Hank Pym as well as the second Ant-Man Scott Lang, they are both very different characters but are equally cool. If you are a fan of the original Ant-Man then despite Pym's mentor role in this film I don't think you will be disappointed Michael Douglas does an absolutely brilliant job in my opinion of portraying him. Pym although a super hero and a genius was also a very troubled man in the comics, he displayed at times emotional and mental health issues, he had anger problems and even struck his own wife. Michael Douglas seems to have all of this down. Equally if Scott Lang is your Ant-Man well in my opinion they picked the right actor for the role. Paul Rudd displays the right kind of personality, you can really get a sense that he knows what the character is like and he also knows what a great opportunity it is to join the Marvel film universe and even despite Michael Douglas's stellar performance he manages to not be pushed in to the shadows.

Is the film silly? Yes at points it gets a little silly, but its also filled with fun action set pieces and I think it finishes well with a good possibility for sequels but without making it feel incomplete as a film on its own. It left me interested in seeing where the character of Ant-Man could be taken and what it would be like to see him interact with more of the Marvel cinematic universe.

Some people have been arguing that Ant-Man has been a failure particularly when viewed alongside Marvels other recent intellectual property. I would argue that Ant-Man should be considered a success for the studio even if it is only a mild one. At $130 million the film was rather a low budget outing when compared to other Marvel films. In the last set of takings figures I saw it had just managed to earn back its budget. Yes you could say that this is a failure because films are meant to make a success with many films being viewed as failures for not making huge profits but lets think about this in more depth. This film introduced a less well known character to a new audience, it will have more than likely helped push the new Ant-Man comics, then there are toy sales,DVD and Blue Ray sales. Also no one actor wants to play the same part forever and with Robert Downy Junior just about finished with Marvel it was important for them to start building up new talent to replace him. Yes Ant-Man has not attracted a huge amount of fans but with the films release on DVD and his inclusion in future Avengers based property the ball has began to roll.

It is also important to remember that as far as superhero movies in general go well it hasn't done that bad, it has after all enjoyed a bigger opening than many of Fox's Marvel based movies, for example, X-Men: First Class and The Wolverine. It will be intresting to see how it does in comparison to Fox's Fantastic Four film, after all the four are a much more well known bunch of heroes having had there own saterday morning Kids cartoons and this being there 4th film outing (even if one of those wasnt officially released).

So for the answer to the question how big will the Ant-Man be, I guess we just have to wait and see.

Insidious chapter 3 Review

Well I couldn't sleep, no idea why other than it was a little hot in my room so I decided that rather than just lay there and look at the ceiling I would watch a horror film. I figured that I would do this in order to kick start my new/moved blog.

I looked at the backlog of films I had waiting for me and decided for no real reason that I would watch Insidious Chapter 3. Now first things first I have seen both Insidious and Insidious Chapter 2, in fact I started writing a review for the first one and don’t think I ever finished it but the short version would be I really enjoyed it, yeah it wasn't the most original of films but it was well done and worth watching. I remember the second one being more of the same but it seemed a lot less impact, I watched it and then more or less instantly forgot it, I still don’t remember very much about it other than a sense of mild disappointment. Coming in to this film I did not even realise that it was a prequel as I hadn't really read around it or thought about it much, it was just sat with Ouija, Oculus and a few others waiting for me to come along and grab one.

Basically despite being called chapter 3 (which I hate and will talk about latter) it is a prequel set before the haunting of the Lambert family apparently two years before the start of the first movie. The films main character is a teenage girl whose mother has recently passed away, now she lives with her father and her younger brother, the father seems to be having a hard time as well and sort of relies on her to help take care of her younger brother. She has also found her mother’s passing hard and has been trying to talk to her and contact her. She visits Elise Rainier the spiritual medium from the first two films who reluctantly agrees to use her spiritual abilities to try and contact the girl’s mother. Elise is unable to complete the reading due to a demonic presence but she sends the girl away warning her to stop trying to contact her mother by telling her that when “you call out to one of the dead, all of them can hear you."  Soon after the reading, she begins to notices more and more supernatural events occurring. 

OK now I have set the story up and given a hint of the kind of film this is I will try and talk about how I felt about it without giving to many spoilers away. First the main thing people probably want to know is if this film is scary or not. This is not always an easy question to answer as what terrifies one person might have very little effect on another. Now bearing in mind it’s a fifteen you instantly know not to expect Evil Dead style buckets of blood but this film certainly uses what it can to try and catch you off guard. Yes some of the scares are jump scares which some people love and others hate but it doesn't purely rely on them, it uses a mix of tools to create an uneasy atmosphere. There are jump scares but then there are fake moments where the tension rises and rises and you can almost feel a jump scare coming and then nothing, this means that when it does pull a quick scare you will really fall for it as you never know which are the real and which are the fake. There are also scenes where one moment you can see the main character and the next the camera shots become the view from her eyes, you can see what she is seeing as if you are in her place, you can see things darting from the shadows or crawling towards you and it is done in what I feel is a very interesting way. Some of the situations it puts the lead in are things which are based on child hood fears many of us have had, the creature in the shadow, the thing you cannot see but you can hear, sure some of it might not be original but in my opinion what is there is really well used.

The standard of most of the acting is not about to win any Oscars but I do think that for a film like this it is very good, there is an excellent use of light and the sound is also brilliant, there was literally a moment where the sound alone had me cringing. I would give this film a 7.5 out of 10. I don’t think seeing it is going to change anyone’s life or make them rethink what a horror movie should be and for that reason I don’t feel I can give it a higher score but if you want something to watch to entertain you, something you can put on turn the lights off and just enjoy with a bowl of popcorn then you could do a lot worse than this.

I could end things here but I need to say that I hate the title though. Insidious Chapter 3, why do we need the Chapter word? Wouldn't Insidious 2 and Insidious 3 have worked just as well? Do they really think that the word chapter does anything? Maybe it is an attempt to make us think of it all as one giant story instead of multiple connected stories?  Or to make us think of it as some kind of higher art, closer to a great book perhaps? I suppose I would have called this film Insidious: Origins but I guess that would prevent them from making a film set before this, no idea if they will ever try that but maybe they just like the idea of keeping their options open. All I can hope is that if they make another one it’s as good as this and that they don’t hit the well too many times.

This Blog has been set up to allow me to continue to post my own projects, game reviews, horror movie reviews, polltics and news related rants plus  other bits and pieces. 

I have no reason to try and sugar coat my coverage of bad games or films unlike some websites I am sure we can all name. I am also not afraid to claim either a game or film is brilliant even if others have not been so kind. I also dont care if other people dont agree with me, we all have opinions and life would be pretty darn boring if they were all the same.

I have started this blog to replace my old one which will soon no longer exist due to the site it is hosted on being shut down.

First and formost my name is Kerr9000 and I like to think of myself as a sort of Historian of Video games and horror films. I am also a writer of short horror stories. I have also from time to time made the odd youtube video and I have previously made Podcasts for video game websites.

https://www.youtube.com/user/kerr9000/videos

Is the link for my youtube videos, there has not been a new one for some time though.

As for podcasts the last two I did can be found on the links below, they are both about Video games, one of them includes a debate about what games children should and should not be allowed to play.

https://archive.org/details/PodcastZeroX13

https://archive.org/details/ProjectZeroX14

I will end by saying if you have made it over here from my old blog then I am glad (please bear with me if I repost old stuff as Id like to keep it around online), if your a new reader then hey hi nice to meet you. Here is to the future hopefully I wont need to move this blog again for a long long time.