Trace

So, you're having a few beers with your mates, and start to talk about studies etc. One of you says what about EVP, ghosts etc, and as you don't have an ouija board handy, you try out some audio stuff instead. Luckily, the house you're in has a recording studio in the basement, which makes most other basements look stale and musty. So, you trot on down, and then do some recording, think its all for fun, until the next day.

Yep, its a similar story line that a lot of demon type horror films tend to have. Also, think Final Destination, in the way that both films play out. Still, its an interesting concept, the EVP.

Also, word to the wise. If you hear a sound in your apartment/house etc late at night, please tun on the lights. I guarantee the intruders will leg it, or you can see nothing is there. Why, even in this day and age, do people in films hear a noise, and creep around in darkness, asking if anyone is there, when the only residents of the house are calling out that phrase.

Stumbling upon the 2015 horror movie "Trace" by random luck here in 2024, and thus opting to sit down to watch it, since it was a horror movie that I had neither seen nor heard about.

Writer and director Ryan Brookhart put together a fair enough script and storyline for the movie. It does incorporate some rather generic supernatural tropes, but it ultimately proved to be adequately entertaining nonetheless.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, and that is something I actually do enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie. The cast ensemble in "Trace" was good, and they performed quite well in bringing the characters and storyline to life on the screen.

"Trace" wasn't a movie that made use of an abundance of special effects or CGI, but it hardly needed so in order to effectively tell its story. There were some effects, and they certainly worked out well enough to further the narrative of the movie.

It is an adequate enough movie for a single viewing, particularly if you have an interest in EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena). And while I did sit through 90 minutes that the movie ran for, I doubt that I will ever return to watch it a second time. Why? Well, simply because the storyline and script doesn't have the contents to support multiple viewings.

My rating of writer and director Ryan Brookhart's 2015 horror movie "Trace" lands on a five out of ten stars.

First off, this movie isn't scary. It doesn't have any suspense leading up to the kills, a dreadful atmosphere, or a eerily told story. If you're looking for gore, there is none here. Nothing in this movie is gory. If you're looking for suspense, as I said, it's not here. What is here in abundance is bad acting. Throughout the movie I kept saying, "God, that's some terrible acting." If you want to watch a movie filled with actors who aren't any better than you then by all means watch "Trace."

Another thing I didn't like was the swaying cam. That's where the camera isn't shaking but not steady. It kept jarring me out of the movie because it was painfully obvious the cameraman was tipsy. I don't like watching scenes with people lying in bed and the camera is swaying constantly. But that's the type of stuff I saw. The camera was still for less than 30% of the time. I couldn't get into the movie at all.

Lastly, the kills were too abrupt to be scary. That's what I don't like about modern horror. There's no suspense leading up to the kills where you're tensing up, thinking, "Oh, this douchebag is gonna get it." Instead, they victim just gets stabbed out of nowhere and the impact of his death is too sudden to feel any emotion about it. In this movie, some of the kills are off-screen and the ones that are on screen aren't original, innovative, or surprising. The characterizations are so lame and the kills so boring that I couldn't even muster up the strength to say, "Meh." when someone got killed. All in all, there's no point in watching this movie. No suspense, no gore, no nudity, no interesting characters, nothing.

As I said, while this lil' horror flick may not be mindblowingly scary, or add a "new" level of fear inducing cinematic magic, it does however manage to work in delivering a few thrills and entertainment throughout its short runtime.

I know that I'm quite likely to be in the minority with a positive review for this lil' film, but in all honesty I did enjoy this movie, and unlike the majority of horror films these days this one was able to hold my attention throughout. It's a sad day in the horror genre history when one finds themselves hitting the fast forward button more often than not when "attempting" to watch the entirety of a horror film..yet, thats exactly what I find myself doing time and time again when trying to just make it through a film to the end. ..and that is downright pathetic that this is the "norm" for us horror genre fans.. Instead of attempting to make it all the way through to the end of a horror film(and by any means possible even scanning/fast forwarding through large parts of a film)..one should be clicking to check the runtime left and just hoping and praying that it doesn't come to the end because you find yourself loving every minute of the thrill ride that comes from viewing really good horror films.

So, while I am not at all claiming that the movie, Trace falls into the latter category of being a thrill ride that the viewer doesn't want to end, it does however manage to "work" in at least holding my attention throughout, as well as my feeling no desire to scan/fast forward through large parts of the movie.

One of those films you think isnt bad until it just ends with no end to the story. You can guess what actually happened but that's it.