Evidence

This was a pleasant surprise....no actually I knew this was going to be a good one when I purchased it off ebay from a die hard found footage film buff. This is right up there will Evil Things for me. For all the haters out there have you seen Episode 50 or the Bucks County Massacre? Now those were God awful found footage films. This film hit all the right notes....decent acting, some gore, creepy tension and some great looking villains. Most people who liked this film liked the last 20 minutes the most but I felt different. I enjoyed the first hour much more and thought the less we knew about what the hell was stalking these kids in the middle of the night the better. I felt the last act of the film explained too much but it still worked for me. Evidence reminded me a bit of Chernobyl Diaries meets Zombie Diaries with a twist. Overall was coasting to an 8 or a 9 but I was let down a bit by the ending.

I first saw this in 2012 on a dvd which I own.

Saw this few days back on a fast forward mode to put up a review before i throw the dvd in the trash bin.

With a run time of around 78 mins, almost nothing happens till one hour n later when the action takes place, everything is shot with shaky cam, lots of flickering lights n more than 5 times the screen goes blank. One cannot make out wots going on.

A girl keeps running n screaming n the ending is supposed to be some big revelation.

I don't kno why such movies are made.

Yet another one of those rare instances where I'm compelled to review a movie because this place unfortunately does not require an IQ test in order to review films here, because if it did, there wouldn't be so many people 1 starring a solid zero budget horror flick because they're confused by...apparently everything. How somebody could be confused by a movie like this is just laughable, it's even more laughable they're not too embarrassed to admit it in a public forum.

As I was watching it it started out as your fairly standard but fairly well paced and creepy FF horror flick, 4 young adults camping in the woods. Weird things happen, sounds in the night. It was all fairly enjoyable but nothing terribly different other then the fact it was horror and enjoyable because lets face it, 99% of horror movies are crap. The pacing is excellent, acting is serviceable, I've seen better and I've seen a lot worse, the atmosphere is excellent, even throwing in a red herring that while completely mundane just really kicks up the creep notch a few. Whoever wrote the script made some great decisions even though it's all very blair witch esque.

I won't spoil it but when you're expecting the standard but acceptable "Everybody dies" ending, the movie completely flips itself on it's head and takes itself in such an unexpected direction and it does it so seamlessly I absolutely couldn't wait to see what happened and where it was going to go. Once things get rolling, like a snowball it just picks up steam leaving the final reel to be pretty much non stop forward momentum.

It's not perfect, there is some spotty acting and in the final reel, the zero budget does show, as the setting isn't very convincing but the shaky camera work and atmospheric lighting do a great job of hiding things.

Don't listen to the haters, if you enjoy found footage, this is seriously a gem. I loved my time with evidence.

Another day, another found footage film. While I was wondering, why this "genre" (shouldn't actually call it that) took so long to take off (Blair Witch Project is like ... really old), a friend of mine stated two points that helped: Paranormal Activity and the fact that digital filmmaking has taken over.

Especially the latter rings true. And because it has become even cheaper to make those movies, some of the money that would have been used for the equipment, can be used for effects or costumes now. Some of which you may be able to see in this movie. While I have stated before that I am not a big fan of found footage movies, I have to admit, that after a somewhat normal/slow start, this movie does kind of take off. Still it takes a couple of breaks in between and isn't really sure what it actually wants. But the delirious pace makes you forget almost any mistake you might have caught, watching this. So this roller-coaster is worth taking (some might feel sick at the end as with the real thing of course)

There's no arguing that this film is well made with a tight script and good direction, however, as is the way with most found footage genre films, is that they really have to have a "believable" concept and storyline, leastways, the storyline has to be one that doesn't come across as instantly ridiculous.

Evidence nearly gets there, but again, the action packed last 60 minutes are just too cluttered with too much going on and too many questions left unanswered.

The worst part of the found footage genre, are the opening character development scenes - they are either hopelessly painful, or, as is the case in Evidence, seamless and pain free with some good dialogue. Far too many of this genre, fall into the trap of not scripting properly, or, leaving the cast to their own devices and letting them ad lib their way through the scenes. Evidence presents a believable introduction and leaves the viewer at ease quite quickly with the characters and their reasons for the documentary.

As mentioned the last 60 minutes have to understandably pack a lot in, trying to provide explanations whilst still delivering the "money shot" - Evidence gets there, just, with some questions still left hanging.

It's advisable to watch through the credits, as the story continues throughout, why this couldn't be built into the main story, you're left to wonder yourself.

A decent Found Footage film - and it should appeal to most who enjoy the sub genre, just don't go into it with too many high hopes.

6/10