I watched Blair WItch in 1999 because I was attracted to this new genre of found footage .The jerky camera angles made it seem more amateurish and not done by a professional camera man which added to the excitement factor. Of course they also added a publicity stunt that this was an actual real found footage film and the characters had all disappeared which turned out to be one of the most famous hoaxes when the actors who played the characters turned up and revealed that the whole movie was fictituous. . They worked it perfectly and made a ton of cash .
So just like with reality shows when Survivor first aired, the floodgate of found footage films just erupted but unlike Blair Witch , the concept was no longer original and the excitement faded because we all know all of these so called found footage films are fictituous and not real even if they say otherwise like based off actual events. And now 20 years later we have yet another cheap , poorly produced found footage movie "The Haunting of Grady Farm " . The characters are the same stupid group of people you see in every low budget crappy horror movie that is direct to DVD. There's also a lot of subliminal images on the found footage that shows the demise of several characters for a split second before it actually happens . WTF? The whole premise of an actual show within a show doesn't work , it looks so phony and badly acted with some woman claiming to be a doctor and talking about the Grady farm as well as interviews from various people.
They are supposed to be filming for a TV show about hauntings yet they have these cheap cameras and who exactly are these people?, they look like a bunch of college kids on spring break. They go to a place that is private property without getting permission into a wooded area that has been reported as unsafe and have beem told that people have disappeared there too. Ok,it's a movie but for once would it have been too much to have the writers have an actual idea of what to do ? No, they do the same thing as all others have done , gather stupid people of college age and have them do the same stupid things , run and shout in the dark -of course go off alone and of course dont bring any weapons or at least hire some security. There is no suspense when you know everyone is going to die ,it's just a matter of waiting the boring few minutes of jerky camera angles and static to see someone get grabbed by an invisible entity or see a blur on screen which is supposed to be the monster. Oh and speaking of cameras, in one scene you see two of the characters being spied and filmed by someone but you dont know who since all they show is a hand on some bushes. And there are also other video cameras who's footage would indicate that they are at least 20 feet off the ground and they are in random places in the middle of the woods ,who set those up because it sure wasnt our dumb band of idiots. Was it the hillbilly they find in the dilapadated house ? Who was he? It's never revealed if he was a Grady and why was he there alone ? He obvioulsy knew about the evil creatures in the woods and tried to help the kids by telling them to be quiet until morning when it would be safe but no, they run away screaming into the dark and when 2 of them return , the hillbilly is dead on the floor ,it isn't revealed how he died ,was it a blast from the shotgun he had in his hands or something else?You dont know because all you see is blood and his feet and one of the characters grabs the shotgun offscreen.
Too much formulaic garbage that the writers use. It's the same tired stupid college age kids doing the same stupid horror movie cliches . At least put a little more into the writers budget and hire someone who has more than an ounce of brain.
So just like with reality shows when Survivor first aired, the floodgate of found footage films just erupted but unlike Blair Witch , the concept was no longer original and the excitement faded because we all know all of these so called found footage films are fictituous and not real even if they say otherwise like based off actual events. And now 20 years later we have yet another cheap , poorly produced found footage movie "The Haunting of Grady Farm " . The characters are the same stupid group of people you see in every low budget crappy horror movie that is direct to DVD. There's also a lot of subliminal images on the found footage that shows the demise of several characters for a split second before it actually happens . WTF? The whole premise of an actual show within a show doesn't work , it looks so phony and badly acted with some woman claiming to be a doctor and talking about the Grady farm as well as interviews from various people.
They are supposed to be filming for a TV show about hauntings yet they have these cheap cameras and who exactly are these people?, they look like a bunch of college kids on spring break. They go to a place that is private property without getting permission into a wooded area that has been reported as unsafe and have beem told that people have disappeared there too. Ok,it's a movie but for once would it have been too much to have the writers have an actual idea of what to do ? No, they do the same thing as all others have done , gather stupid people of college age and have them do the same stupid things , run and shout in the dark -of course go off alone and of course dont bring any weapons or at least hire some security. There is no suspense when you know everyone is going to die ,it's just a matter of waiting the boring few minutes of jerky camera angles and static to see someone get grabbed by an invisible entity or see a blur on screen which is supposed to be the monster. Oh and speaking of cameras, in one scene you see two of the characters being spied and filmed by someone but you dont know who since all they show is a hand on some bushes. And there are also other video cameras who's footage would indicate that they are at least 20 feet off the ground and they are in random places in the middle of the woods ,who set those up because it sure wasnt our dumb band of idiots. Was it the hillbilly they find in the dilapadated house ? Who was he? It's never revealed if he was a Grady and why was he there alone ? He obvioulsy knew about the evil creatures in the woods and tried to help the kids by telling them to be quiet until morning when it would be safe but no, they run away screaming into the dark and when 2 of them return , the hillbilly is dead on the floor ,it isn't revealed how he died ,was it a blast from the shotgun he had in his hands or something else?You dont know because all you see is blood and his feet and one of the characters grabs the shotgun offscreen.
Too much formulaic garbage that the writers use. It's the same tired stupid college age kids doing the same stupid horror movie cliches . At least put a little more into the writers budget and hire someone who has more than an ounce of brain.