21 Days

Found footage film of yet another crew of people investigating a reported haunted house. The twist here is that no one has ever stayed in this house for 21 days. The explanation for this: it takes 21 day for the soul to be possessed. (This isn't a spoiler as it is explained early in the film.) Thus starts the expedition of being sealed in the house for 21 days. Wow! and what a 21 days it was. Spotty depiction of the 21 days as they randomly jump days. Not even typical scares as this film tried to create jump scares without any jumps. Ho hum. I don't really understand why this was even attempted to be made into a film as the concept wasn't a big departure and they did so very little with it. You can do much better than this film.

If you're looking for anything particularly original from "21 Days" don't waste your time. There really isn't much original. It's a haunted house story. The house has apparently had several owners over the century plus since it's been built. None of them have remained in the house for more than 21 days - and some have ended up dead after leaving. So three young film-makers decide to take up residence in the house, to last the 21 days while documenting their experiences. So, yes, it's also a found footage sort of movie, although it's not all found footage. But there's not really much to this. There are the traditional "things that go bump in the night" sort of events, but really nothing much frightening happens until the last 15 minutes or so. It's a little bit creepy at times, but no more than that. The cast was entirely unknown (to me at least.) I do't think I've ever seen any of the three leads in anything until this. They were all right. Nothing more.

There were some bizarre things about this movie. It opens with the three interviewing a local town historian about the house. I wondered how the local town historian had actual family photographs of the people who had lived in the house - including the most recent family. That in itself seemed a bit weird. And with the house in foreclosure why would the bank allow these kids to do this? And why would they be allowed to literally barricade themselves inside the house so that no one or nothing could get in or out. Sure it works as a plot device - but wouldn't even the local town authorities have some objections to that based on a fire code or something?

Like most movies featuring found footage, there's no real resolution to this. Just a lingering mystery. But because it's a very ho hum movie that doesn't really set itself apart within either genre (haunted house or found footage) it won't be memorable enough for the mystery to remain with you for very long.

Use it as a time waster - but it's no more than that. (4/10)

This is a little bit of the paranormal activity MARKED ONES film as well as that movie itself and GRAVE ENCOUNTERS. I gave the filmmaker credit for creating a backstory for the film so that it is a complete story instead of some jump scares and then the camera drops.

I know many filmmakers make their start in the found footage genre since it's relatively cheap to film in. So, if you're going to do a FF, then make the effort to make it different. In this case, the film succeeds. Locked in a haunted house for 21 days with cameras everywhere, how does an object move from the barn to the house? Creepy...but ultimately, why? Just the spirits/demons playing tricks and if so, on us or the characters? Nothing is really made of this event other than "WTF?" If it kept occurring, with more dangerous items being transported, it would have added a nice twist. Other than that, we get the doors closing, furniture jumping about, etc. All good stuff, always creepy, but we've seen it before.

The problem with ALL found footage is the last ten minutes. People screaming and cross talking over themselves. It's always a mess and this is no different. The good this is there is a coda that explains a bit more so your last image isn't a dropped camera.

There are some terrific ideas here that I wish had been explored more--they were different and could have taken the film in a different direction. But I liked it and enjoyed my time with it!

The title said it all. The lead was obnoxious, the supporting cast was terrible, it followed every possible cliche, the dialogue was the hottest of garbages, and 5 year old special needs kid could have written a more coherent storyline having a molly seizure. Instead of watching this movie, just go kneel in front of the nearest toilet and bash your head in between the rim and the seat for 90 minutes.

Idiots (aka Actors with a bad script) want to find out why everyone is moving out of a haunted house before the 21st day after moving in. They decide to locked themselves in and record everything and become Ghost Hunters. From there it tries to be "Paranormal Activity" but suckier. Pass on it.