The Warning

It was made in 2012, at Wimbledon Film & Television Studios. Despite many opinions that would be boring - really, there is much talk... - the film is realistic, like in real life (I experienced myself much stranger things in my real real life...), all actors very good players, and I say this objectively, not because I do a role in the film, Doctor Reegan (starting minute 47.44). Very good cinematography by Haider Zafar. Original, good story, well done! Do not get swayed by the opinions of hatred and envy of some fools who have no clue how to make a film...

It seems this film has had multiple titles, but I believe it's been settled on The Warning. A found footage film coming from the UK that mainly consists of surveillance footage mixed in with hand-held footage in between seeing back-story footage taking place in a hospital. Although it has a somewhat slow and rocky first half, the film picks up slightly in pace and ends just the way you'd expect it to, not just because you know from the narrative in the first shot telling you so, but because if you choose to watch this film, you're pretty much an expert on how found footage themed films end. Hence the 'found' to your footage. Although it's not the greatest in the genre, it's still somewhat entertaining if you're into this style of film. If you absolutely loathe this style of horror film then don't even give this one another thought because again, nothing new and nothing super special. Just a good Ol' fashion FF film for the fans that get a kick out of this style of horror.

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This is a Warning!!! Do NOT watch this film!! if you are browsing IMDb for found footage horror & stumble upon this film, you'll see the score & think 'Maybe' 'it might be OK' do not fool yourself into thinking that the score is wrong or you would like to make up your own mind. This is Grange Hill horror. The acting in my first school play was far superior. The ideas for films you have whilst sitting on the toilet are better, Uwe Boll movies have more intelligence, you could make a movie on your old N95 Nokia phone & it would look like The Exorcist in comparison to this. Don't kid yourself into thinking 'it could be so bad it's good!' it's not! honest!! please do yourself & the world a favour by heeding the words of the film itself, the clue is in the title. 'WARNING' 'WARNING' WARNING' It's too late for me friends, i can't get my 80 minutes back, but there is still time for you. Help the world, bury this film deep, deep into the heart of the sun & pray it never returns. You will thank me later, i promise.

THE WARNING recounts in found footage format events at a hospital on December 20th, 2012, one day before there the Mayan long calendar ends its 5126-year cycle. A baby was abducted and then hidden by a nurse, who then jumped out of a window to her death after yelling at a shadowy figure that it could not have the baby or control her. A detective then puts the hospital on lockdown. As he interviews the staff and patients, it becomes increasingly clear that something is not right at this hospital.

What works heavily against this movie is that for most of its running time, it plays like a police procedural mystery, but because we only see it through either the security or videotape footage, it keeps us, the audience, suffiently at arms-length that we remain uninvolved.

Generally, the very point of found footage films is to provide a vicarious experience to the audience that is more involving than that provided in the narrative footage, and if that is not the goal, then usually there is some other discernible overriding purpose for that choice. I was unable to recognize any reason why the movie was shot in a format that is actually undermined by the plot.

This is not helped by the fact the plot itself is at times confusing. Even when the movie attempts to clear up things toward the end, questions remain, mainly because, as best as I can tell, events are left wide open to interpretation. For example, the villain is either a possessed patient or a "pure evil spirit" is responsible for what is happening (or maybe the evil spirit is the manifestation of the possessed patient in other locations?).

The tie-in to the Maya legend is rudimentary at best, and most paranormal events seem to happen without real purpose. By the end of the movie I was still unclear what exactly the warning was about.

As with many other found footage movies, WARNING picks up significantly during the last 15 minutes, and that is the best part of the film. Had they put some kind of a plot device to have the entire film move at a fast pace (e.g. The Baby will die in a few hours if it does not get meds or something like that), then that might have overcone the arms-length effect. As is, I think only hard-core found footage fans might derive enjoyment from this.