Sx Tape

This is the first film I've watched in a long time that I kept checking the run time to see when it would finish. The only reason I watched it all the way through was because I'd spent so long watching it and waiting for it to get better, I thought I might as well see it through to the end.

The lead female character, Jill, is incredibly annoying she literally says nothing of any meaning throughout the entire film - just nonsense and clichés like at one point while driving pretty aimlessly around Los Angeles, she says, "This is where all the stars go to die.".

Apparently, her boyfriend (behind the camera) is an 'artist' and he's doing an 'art project' which basically involves filming Jill acting dumb and being totally 'edgy'... Her idea of edgy being stuff that we've all seen before (and probably done before too).

It's a boring film. If you're looking for something similar, but better, watch Grave Encounters, or even Grave Encounters 2 - both are extremely similar in location and theme and, although they were also filmed on a low budget, they're far superior to this nonsense.

I've given it a 3 out of 10 because the acting isn't the worst I've seen, it's just a bad script, annoying characters and a dodgy plot.

2013? How'd I miss this all these years????

What a great found footage movie!!!! It's got skin! It's got a very fun girl in it, at least in the first half. Then she kind of gets sorta not fun. You got the dumb boyfriend who never turns off the camera. I mean it is almost perfect. Well except the concept is of course way overused and all that, but geez it's a found footage film!!!

Oh and did I mention the girl is fun???? Oh and the very end, oh man that's gotta hurt. LOL 5/10.

A young couple embark on a road trip to an abandoned hospital with the man filming everything along the way. The woman is a painter and the idea is to scope out the hospital to hold an art show there at a later time.

When their car is towed, they call a couple of friends to pick them up, but plans change and they all re-enter the building. This is when bad things start happening as supernatural forces begin to manifest.

The characters are so annoying and their decisions either do not make sense or just plain drive you crazy. Too little happens too late and what does happen is not very interesting. If there were more supernatural goings on and the characters were more likable I think I would have enjoyed this a lot more.

A girl is interviewed by the police. He mentions a tape, that her boyfriend is dead and that two others are missing.

And now we get to see the tape. Basically a guy films his girlfriend at all times. She's a painter, free spirit, fun-loving, wild and very cute. We follow them one day as they mess around, go to a coffee shop, into a store, then drive around as he shows her a place that could be used for a fancy art exhibition of her work. The place is an abandoned hospital. She of course rushes in through the fence and goes inside. He's reluctant but joins her. And of course everything seems fascinating to her. Incubators, children's toys, old beds. She gets on one and he restrains her. Then he leaves here there for a good while. A ghost appears and enters into her of sorts. At some point she starts bleeding profusely out of her nose. As they leave, he car is being towed so she calls a friend. A couple arrives. They of course wants to see the place. So even though the girl was freaking out earlier now she goes back in. They start tagging the walls. This new guy is a complete jerk and a bully. He even has a gun with him and gets very touchy with the girl even though his girlfriend is right there. They separate, run into each other again. Our first couple meets up, discovers the archive room and she finds some tape and a file and starts bleeding again. Meanwhile camera guy finds a room with cameras and sees what actually happened to the other couple and why they are missing. But his girl flips out once again. At the end we get some more background story of the place and its patients.

sxtape has one big advantage over all other crappy found footage tapes. It's centers on an attractive girl. If you are going to make a lame POV movie, that's what you want, your camera on a pretty girl occasionally in erotic situations. And this movie for the first half hour is fun and entertaining. But from there it goes downhill when the other couple arrives an we get nothing but abusive and obnoxious behavior. While the background of the hospital and the patients is interesting enough the movie unfortunately settles for psychological terror, which is never particularly scary let along interesting. A decent effort to rehabilitate the dreadful POV horror subgenre that doesn't go far enough.

I see the reviews are harsh, I won't be the one to break the ice on a quite good one, in order to attract attention or mislead people, but for someone who never was into found footage movies, I got to say this one kept me still, watching, waiting for more.

It starts slow, some nudity, some jokes and builds up to the key point in around 20 minute. From there on, it grows more and more and starts to deliver. Sure, nothing mind blowing, but considering the fact that zombie movies and found footage are spreading like a virus lately, once you do find a good one, it's good to get things straight. In my honest opinion, SxTape is a good example and here are the reasons: 1) acting was good; 2) characters were typical and natural; 3) once the tension makes an appearance it stays there; 4) one or two good scares (let's face it, found footage can't really be scary anymore;) 5) the twisted situation involved.

So all in all, I would recommend this one, if you don't expect too much out of it, it will be OK. Somehow of a "Grave encounters", maybe better, dunno exactly. Anyway, if you do go in for it, enjoy!

Cheers!