Frogman

Chuck the Movie Guy on TikTok recommended this poorly acted, terribly paced, and awful found footage movie. He pushed this garbage for weeks to get people to rent it and it was awful. The guy is a conman. Look, I'm not a smart man but I know when I'm being fed a bunch of BS. I rented this movie off a bunch of recs from social media people (the ringleader was Chuck the movie guy) that got an early viewing of it. All of them said it was a "banger" "slaps" or "fantastic" lol no it most certainly was not. Air was awful. The people that saw this early must have gotten paid of getting something in return to hype this up because again, it was GOD AWFUL. Don't waste your money. I will never again rent any movie based off of a rec because they got an advanced copy of it. This was awful and this score is at an 8 right not and will most assuredly will DROP to a 2 or 3 within a month when actual viewers review this movie like me instead of friends and family giving it a 10. Junk movie.

Starts off quite slow but the last 30-40 minutes or so is absolutely bonkers. The movie feels surprisingly longer than its very short runtime due to its slow start. There's definitely some unnecessary filler. You can really feel the low budget but some of the practical effects work is surprisingly good. But the ending. OMG the ending. The ending literally had me shake my girlfriend in absolute shock. 😂 It's not necessarily a super creative conclusion but if you are having fun with the movie and its lore, it really punches you in the face. I went into this movie embracing the absolute absurdity of the titular "Frogman" and if you embrace its insanity, you'll have a good time. It's definitely a decent watch if you can tolerate the found footage look.

I'm gonna preface this by saying I have a soft spot for B-Tier Found Footage films. I've loved em since the good old days of Lost Tapes, and I still love them. Frogman hits a similar vibe as to that old show.

The acting is meh, the cinematography is pretty bad (even by found footage standards), and it definitely overstays its welcome by about half an hour.

I will say that the practical effects of the monster and a few of the scenes near the end are actually quite good, especially covered up by the handheld camera appearance of the film.

I don't review films really as there are plenty of reviews to form your own opinion, but there are so few for this one that I though I'd put in my two cents. It's a fine film to sit down with for an hour and half and laugh and cringe at the poor acting and filming, but it does have plenty of nostalgia factor for those like myself who grew up on the Lost Tapes.

When the movie started, I was really enjoying it. My friend was talking and it bugged me because I found I wanted to be engaged - even if the concept was a bit silly or whatever, on the face. I thought the first reveal of the Frogman was fun, and was looking forward to the rest of it.

But found footage films are all about the thrill of immersion - feeling like this somehow could be real. If it's done right, it can make something average feel very impactful (see - Blair Witch Project). Unfortunately, Frogman suffers from some bad acting at times, but especially from 'film effects' that don't make sense. If we're watching 'found film' it doesn't make sense within the world of the movie to have glitches and flashbacks and psychological effects - so you get pulled out immediately. Unfortunately the end of the movie suffers a lot from this so I found the ending just a letdown because of it. It's too bad, cuz I wanted it to be good.

There are two key elements to making a Found Footage film work. The first and biggest one is obviously the ending. Everything is leading up to that moment that is going to explain why the footage needed to be found.

The other part though is the build up. Even though most Found Footage horror is on the shorter side of runtimes generally, there is still a long time where the audience has to follow these characters around in anticipation of what is going to happen. The build up has to be tense and has to fill us with a sense of dread. We have to be worried about what is to come. This is where 'Frogman' lets itself down.

The build up wasn't very good at all. It was never established why anyone should be afraid of 'Frogman' (or even if anyone was, for that matter). Everything in the buildup just felt like filler. Yes the characters had a little bit of charm but that wasn't nearly enough.

It leaves a massive weight on the ending to basically carry the entire film, and it simply couldn't do that. 5/10.