Saw 'The Gracefield Incident', being fond of horror regardless of budget (even if not my favourite genre) and being intrigued somewhat by the idea. Was also a bit apprehensive, because of having a general dislike of "found footage" films. Being behind on my film watching and reviewing, with a long to watch and review list that keeps getting longer, it took me a while to get round to reviewing it.
Unfortunately, despite not reading any reviews purposefully before watching, am going to have to agree with all the reviewers who disliked 'The Gracefield Incident'. It doesn't even start off good, with an opening that immediately betrays inexperience technically and narratively, and rapidly got even worse by a second half that makes one not want to keep watching. Never judge a film without seeing the whole thing and wanted to give 'The Gracefield Incident', so gave it a fair chance. There are worse "found footage" films, but on top of looking cheap there is nothing new or interesting and it does contain some of the worst sound editing, script, camera work and acting seen in a long time and ever.
Setting is spooky, but wasted by the cheapness of the rest of the production values.
However, so much brings 'The Gracefield Incident' down. Everything is doused in inexperience and the direction fails to generate any tension or suspense with the direction of the actors being abysmal and continuous struggles in making things coherent. Too much of the soundtrack is intrusive and ill-fitting, made worse by the excessive, terribly and cheaply recorded and obvious sound effects that just cheapens the mood. The "found footage" camera work is enough to make one physically ill and has no coherence.
Where 'The Gracefield Incident' most underwhelms is the writing and story. The writing is incredibly lazy and so cringe-worthy taking it seriously is impossible, it's awkward in dialogue, very confused as a result of not tying things up or going into full detail and doesn't feel complete.
Story, one can actually be forgiven for mistaking the film as plot-less, suffers from a very limp pace apparent early on and gets slower and slower until an interminably dragged out second half. It further suffers from feeling too much like a short film stretched out with a lot of useless padding and repetition.
None of the characters are likeable, little is learnt about them and they are annoying, the inconsistent, utterly face-palming stupid and illogical motivations and decision making bring them down further. The acting ranges from bad to downright terrible, a lot of sleepwalking and histrionics and that they don't seem to care about their situation let alone frightened of it is especially obvious.
For a film billed as a horror, there is very little interesting and nothing remotely scary. They are too few and are far too predictable, anaemic and weakly timed to make impact, with the lifelessly dull pacing and obvious sound effects cheapening them significantly.
'The Gracefield Incident' doesn't engage let alone thrill, and a lot of it is silly to unintentional hilarity and doesn't make sense with a fair few loose ends. No creative moments and the poorly used aliens look goofy and lack any kind of menace. The ending is a head-scratcher, both in confusion and how little it feels like an ending.
Overall, the potential was there but the execution far from was. Really awful, unless you're curious about seeing it it's best to avoid this. 1/10 Bethany Cox
