21 Days

This is a little bit of the paranormal activity MARKED ONES film as well as that movie itself and GRAVE ENCOUNTERS. I gave the filmmaker credit for creating a backstory for the film so that it is a complete story instead of some jump scares and then the camera drops.

I know many filmmakers make their start in the found footage genre since it's relatively cheap to film in. So, if you're going to do a FF, then make the effort to make it different. In this case, the film succeeds. Locked in a haunted house for 21 days with cameras everywhere, how does an object move from the barn to the house? Creepy...but ultimately, why? Just the spirits/demons playing tricks and if so, on us or the characters? Nothing is really made of this event other than "WTF?" If it kept occurring, with more dangerous items being transported, it would have added a nice twist. Other than that, we get the doors closing, furniture jumping about, etc. All good stuff, always creepy, but we've seen it before.

The problem with ALL found footage is the last ten minutes. People screaming and cross talking over themselves. It's always a mess and this is no different. The good this is there is a coda that explains a bit more so your last image isn't a dropped camera.

There are some terrific ideas here that I wish had been explored more--they were different and could have taken the film in a different direction. But I liked it and enjoyed my time with it!

The fact that I rented this from the local library for free is the only reason I'm not mad I had to fast forward to the last 30 minutes for entertainment. I watched the first 30 minutes and I couldn't take it anymore. They tried hard but yet again I ran into the fact I can't give it an A for effort. Nothing new here just the same old doors closing, blankets moving and a device going off etc... I was able to understand the end without watching the middle of the movie. It just felt like a lot of filler to me. If this was the first found footage I would have seen (this is far from my first and I typically enjoy these films) I might have liked it better. But in the end it was boring and you can find plenty more found footage movies that are a lot more worth it. I feel for you if you paid money for this I really do. The box got me with this one. I really had hopes for it and nope...

If it wasn't for the three pretty young faces filling the screen, there would be nothing salvagable at all about this film. Terrible over-acting, along with shoddy dialogue and a propensity for profanity from the main character seem to the be the only strengths to this piece.

It feels like the producers were aiming for a Blair Witch meets Paranormal Activity product, but in the end they fell woefully short of either benchmark. There were quite literally no scares, and nothing at all to make you feel any sort of compassion for the characters.

The sole redeeming quality of this film was the inclusion of Whitney Rose Pynn, who at least brought some real emotion to the story.

But as has been stated in other reviews, as is the case with all of these found-footage films, in the end the whole mess degenerates into a cacophony of shaking images, screaming voices layered over one another, and nothing you can really see to tell you what is actually happening.

High time for the found footage craze to be over. This should be the nail in that coffin.

If you're looking for anything particularly original from "21 Days" don't waste your time. There really isn't much original. It's a haunted house story. The house has apparently had several owners over the century plus since it's been built. None of them have remained in the house for more than 21 days - and some have ended up dead after leaving. So three young film-makers decide to take up residence in the house, to last the 21 days while documenting their experiences. So, yes, it's also a found footage sort of movie, although it's not all found footage. But there's not really much to this. There are the traditional "things that go bump in the night" sort of events, but really nothing much frightening happens until the last 15 minutes or so. It's a little bit creepy at times, but no more than that. The cast was entirely unknown (to me at least.) I do't think I've ever seen any of the three leads in anything until this. They were all right. Nothing more.

There were some bizarre things about this movie. It opens with the three interviewing a local town historian about the house. I wondered how the local town historian had actual family photographs of the people who had lived in the house - including the most recent family. That in itself seemed a bit weird. And with the house in foreclosure why would the bank allow these kids to do this? And why would they be allowed to literally barricade themselves inside the house so that no one or nothing could get in or out. Sure it works as a plot device - but wouldn't even the local town authorities have some objections to that based on a fire code or something?

Like most movies featuring found footage, there's no real resolution to this. Just a lingering mystery. But because it's a very ho hum movie that doesn't really set itself apart within either genre (haunted house or found footage) it won't be memorable enough for the mystery to remain with you for very long.

Use it as a time waster - but it's no more than that. (4/10)

It's incredible to me that people keep putting up money to make films that have been made 100 times over the past 15 years since the Blair Witch Project. The originality and extremely low budget and high grossing revenue of that film has spawned so many pieces of crap that people keep pumping these films out like link sausages.

The plot and style of 21 days is no different then any other film of its kind....it seems, anyone with a camera and a slightly different take on hauntings and morbid curiosity to debunk ghost stories has a plot and with a few bucks, make a film. Unfortunately, we, the horror genre fan has to sit through an average of 80-90 minutes of the same Drek!

We keep on getting suckered into watching films that have no originality or narrative value and we find the same story told over and over again just dressed up differently.

Acting mediocre, lighting horrible, originality....none!

I think I'll use my hand held and get my buddy who is a sound expert and works as a freelancer and find an old barn and write a script in a day and try and make a million dollars.

Please, someone, make a good found footage or self shot horror film worth watching. I paid nothing to see this film and still feel I was ripped off!

Flat out crap!!