In Memorium

I have to start off by saying that I am a big fan of found footage, especially horror, but this one fell short of the mark.

A man who is dying of terminal cancer and his girlfriend rent a house to live out his last few days. He rigs the house with what seems like 68 or so cameras to capture his demise.

This being a found footage horror movie, there is a ghost, and strange sounds, and a bunch of other stuff that is not worth mentioning because it is all very boring, and not at all interesting. There are no real scares to speak of, one particular caricature of an annoying character, and the ending is of course abrupt without any real payoff.

All in all an interesting premise with a substandard delivery.

It's In MemoriAM. With an "A." Seriously, somebody should have caught this. An actor, a tech, an editor, a producer... SOMEBODY. If you can't spell a word, it probably isn't a good idea to use it in the title of your movie.

The movie gets points for containing some truly creepy moments, but the premise is weak--is there something unique about this sort of cancer, that documentation would be of use to posterity? is it a life insurance thing, proof of illness, SOMETHING? anything? any reason at all the cameras are on except to make the movie?--and the last ten minutes undo just about everything. I won't say WHICH iconic horror film this particular movie takes its ending from, but it's pretty much a direct rip. If you're unfortunate enough to go ahead and watch this thing, you'll see what I mean when you get there.

Again, some half-decent weirdness here and there... but overall it's pointless, unbelievable, and generally not worth your time.

I want to start by saying it took me forever to find this movie. Thankfully, I got to join a great torrent tracker that casually had In Memorium in their catalogue. I was very excited and watched it right away. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm a huge found footage fan. I know they can be a little slow or have a long build up. But in In Memorium, the tension it gets to create in many scenes, fells kind of short. Sort of messy ending, too. Things to watch about this movie are the acting, which is pretty great considering the genre, and the ending scene, although messy, it's more than I can say about other movies around the same tune as In Memorium. I liked the way Dennis' character was built, too.

I get what they were going for here, I think, but the reviews claiming this is wildly frightening or ingenious are nuts; this is an interesting premise executed by mediocre actors without having thought through the premise to anything intense or exciting. I watched it because I watch everything horror, but I wouldn't try to sell anyone who wasn't a hardcore genre fan. The main characters aren't particularly likeable, and the scares are fairly pedestrian without establishing either something viscerally or existentially disturbing. The only other point I'd make is that the "found footage" thing is a little goofy because SO MANY CAMERAS that it comes together as an edited film.

In Memorium is a found footage film just like most of the others. Dennis is a newly-diagnosed cancer patient who moves in with his girlfriend Lily to a creepy house so that he may document the remainder of his days. He gives a guided tour of the house on camera, going through every room one-by-one. The only notable items are run-down swimming pool in the back and a creepy hallway with a "sitting room" at the end, which he does not enter. The rest of the movie is very predictable.

Throughout the film, Dennis begins to blood profusely out his mouth and ends up with some pretty nasty sores on his back and around his mouth. In fact, there is so much blood in the bathroom at one point, it could be confused with A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The actors playing Dennis and Lily weren't terrible. The dialogue wasn't even that bad. Dennis's brother Frank, however, was annoying (he was supposed to be). The scares weren't that scary. It was really the sounds that made the movie in this case. There was a sound near the swimming pool that made me wonder if I had actually even heard a sound. It was well done.

The story went from mildly boring to ridiculous toward the end when we figure out who is haunting the couple. The ending made me wonder why I wasted my time with the film to begin with. After the last 15 minutes of the movie, I don't think I would recommend this one to anyone unless they absolutely love the found-footage genre and refuse to take no for an answer and must watch every single one ever made.