The Gracefield Incident

I created a profile purely to rate this film as terrible. Like, truly awful. If I could go back in time and punch myself in the dick for ever wanting to see this film, I would. The acting is terrible but I can see the story working in some way. if it wasn't in this film. do yourself a favour and watch something else.

Blair Witch meets Paranormal Activity without anything scary or interesting happening. This Very Low budget movie has the worse actors money can't buy and two hand held cameras throughout the entire movie. Folks, Do Not Waste your time on this one, I did it for you, you're welcome. Oh so BAD! Zero stars would be a better rating for this crapolla!

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

A shame that the acting was so wooden (particularly from lead role Mathieu Ratthe) and all narrative was so over explained and needlessly dramatic (even in non dramatic moments). Because there were some good scary moments. And at no point did it make me want to turn off. But the need for the main character to explain everything in shouty monotone, particularly toward the end, and to jump to conclusions with no seeming explanation did get a little tiring. Completely didn't care about any of them. Except for the dog. Who no one seemed to care about at all. Poor dog. Best actor of the lot.

Yet another found footage/group of friends in an isolated cabin beset by aliens movie; this time trying to justify everything being filmed by, believe it or not, having one of the characters insert a camera into a fake eye which, inexplicably includes a red recording light shining out of the lens ala the Terminator (the record light, even in micro cameras, is NOT in front of the lens and we won't even talk about the potentials for tissue irritation from inserting a home made fake eye - with red yarn for veins - into a soft tissue socket). Oh yes, and the aliens also make everyone's phone magically record for no reason - they must want to make sure they leave some proof of their visitation behind. But the upshot is that it wastes its thin premise with too much running around in the woods yelling about how they shouldn't be running around in the woods yelling; with three male actors whose deficiencies as thespians become more and more apparent the more agitated their characters get; repetitious and clunky dialogue (of the obvious and overt type - characters saying aloud what their responses are or the main guy constantly reiterating "I'm not losing anyone else" because, see, his wife lost their unborn baby in the same accident he lost his eye - which in Screenwriting for Dummies fashion had to immediately follow him saying something like "I'm just happy the baby will be healthy"); and last, but not least, all of the inconsistent alien behavior and random powers and attributes as if they spring from the collected history of ALL movie aliens and NOT a specific species or technologically developed society (and this includes a spaceship design inspired (or just poorly copied from) Close Encounters. I wish filmmakers would think these things through with intelligence and creativity instead of throwing everything against the wall and settling for anything that sticks. I appreciate the constraints of low budget film-making but, in the end, there's still no excuse for stupid.