Exhibit A

Exceptional, very easily a top ten found footage film for me. Painfully authentic, horribly palusible, with a third act that had me holding my breath. Ignore the generic title and poster, they do it no favours at all.

Strengthened by compelling performances from its faithful cast, making extremely effective use of its camera to capture all the unfolding drama, and steadily escalating its gradually- building tension over the course of its runtime, Exhibit A is an excellent example of smart, gripping storytelling that also goes down as possibly the most underrated work of its genre.

Set in Yorkshire, Exhibit A follows the day-to-day activities of a normal family that is driven to the unimaginable due to the pressure of their current financial situation. We witness the whole set of events through daughter Judith's video camera, which are set in motion when her dad hides a secret from the family which ultimately leads to devastating consequences.

Co-written & directed by Dom Rotheroe, Exhibit A is crafted with thorough understanding of what it needs to be and the way each segment combines with the next to make road for the chilling finale is truly admirable. Another key aspect that this indie horror ends up nailing is something that most of its counterparts tend to skip over, and that's the attention provided to its characters.

The scripted characters are pretty much like your neighbours next door. The cast portraying them makes them all the more believable, with Brittany Ashworth & Bradley Cole impressing the most in their respective roles of Judith & her father. Where the former brilliantly exhibits the sensibilities of a worried daughter, the latter steals the show with his skillful rendition of a father undergoing a complete mental breakdown, which is unnerving to watch at times.

On an overall scale, Exhibit A is a first-rate example of escalating horror that implements its found-footage style in a riveting manner and is absolutely deserving of a broader audience. An edge-of-the-seat thriller capturing the disintegration of a normal family brought upon by financial pressures, Exhibit A is one of the best offerings of its genre that amplifies its tense ambiance amazingly well to culminate with a final segment that's just as heartbreaking as it is utterly disturbing. An underrated gem. Highly recommended.

This is a found footage film that deviates in that there is nothing supernatural in the eeriness of it. Tale of a family with typical secrets except for the father who descends into his madness. What follows is a realistic depiction of mental breakdown. Slow burn to the end, and a sad end it is. I have nothing to do with this film or anyone with the production. Just a psychologist in America who happens to like these types of films.

The timely story of a normal family disintegrating under financial pressure, eventually driven to the unimaginable. We witness the terrifying events unfold through daughter Judith's video camera, which subsequently becomes Exhibit A.

This film is a slow burning nightmare about real life financial struggles that anyone can relate to. Not many found-footage films are executed in such a realistic fashion as Exhibit A, the drama was raw, the deteriorating family at the center of the story could be the family next door, or even worse yours! The film is an extremely upsetting watch that I will never want to watch again, making it kind of hard to recommend something of such depressing magnitude. The film though stands as a testament that you don't need a large budget, well-known actors or an A-list director to create a movie that has such a powerful impact.

The performances were remarkable and were all too real, the actors made everything seem like a horrifying reality. Bradley Cole gives one of the most gripping, startling downward spiral of a family man since Jack Nicholson's performance from The Shining, absolutely bone chilling! Bradley plays Andy King, a seemingly normal husband and father of two who is a secret lie, which digs him and his family into the darkest side of human nature. Brittany Ashworth gives such a sympathetic and devastating performance that will grab your heart. Brittany plays Judith King, the lonely, shy, with a fragile soul that is confused sexually and may be in the closet. Judith basically documents every moment of the family's day-to-day life, as a result she discovers the dad's damaging secret and his disturbing change in behavior. Angela Forrest gives such an earnest performance; she plays an everyday mom Sheila King, who is excited about her husband's promotion that leads them to put a down payment on beautiful beach house. Aggressive sparks fly when questionable things start to unravel and hidden secrets come to light to disquieting results, an all too late realization for the wife and mother. Lastly, Oliver Lee who plays Joe King, the jokester son who begins to butt heads with his father and starts to truly hate him. He was kind of the comic relief of the film and you relate to his character as he can be you or someone you know, making the last moments all the more horrific and lingering.

Writer, Director, Dom Rotheroe has created a timely, ripped from the headlines, distressing story that happens to be a found-footage horror. He connects with the audience, grabs their souls and throws them in the heart stopping realism of financial woes, which takes a normal father in a downward, sinister direction of the most unthinkable. This was surprisingly a very well made found-footage film despite its limited budget, though a very harsh and sad film that will ruin your day. It was like you weren't even watching a movie, but more like watching evidence at a murder trial, kind of similar to the real life case involving John List of 1971. Nothing you enjoy watching but too absorbing to stop. It's a shame that he hasn't made any other movies since this one, which was released back in 2007. The film deserves more recognition than what it got because it's one of the very few found-footage films that has a lasting impact.

Overall, this film will haunt you to the core, as the drama is all too real. The performances were compelling and heart shattering and the story were raw and have relevance. The last couple of minutes will traumatize you and will make you sick, a film you won't want to return to but definitely gets it's point across. Rent with caution! 6.6 out of 10

The acting in this is terrific all the way around. Since most all FF films are acted out based on an outline and dialogue points to it, you see a LOT of cuts since the actors mess up their "lines." Not here. Other than the natural cuts from scene to scene, there is very little in-scene cutting, meaning the actors delivered and met their marks.

My only problems with the film are that I never really got a sense why the father fell so far from sanity. Many people have gone through financial struggles without losing their minds, and I never got the sense the father was on edge, mentally, to do what he does at the end.

And the ending simply went on too long. It was the one time when the film lagged when usually the end is when these FF films pick up and race toward the climax.

Overall, a really well done job all the way around.