Body Cam

The only scary thing in this film is it's timing, given the current deep unrest around police brutality, but that's it. The acting is very stale, in particular mary blige. At one point she sees an horrific scene, and whilst her rookie partner is throwing up because of it, Mary stands there looking mildly dissappointed as if she's been told McDonald's don't have the flavour mcflurry she wanted. It's permanently night time where they live as well, and very few people seemed alarmed that lots of people of their workforce are being slaughtered. It could have made a big impact but sadly it's a paint by numbers "horror" that brings little of anything new to the table

I had no idea what this film was about when I started watching, but as the story unfurled I began to enjoy it. The acting isn't fantastic, and sadly Mary J Blige in the lead role was one of the weakest performances in the film.

Also sometimes the pace of movement was very deliberate instead of normal and this dissipated the air of unease that they were trying to build up.

The score was ok, it could have been great, but was also underpaced.

All in all I enjoyed watching it, for the decent scenes, good cinematography and good story. But I placed it at a 4 because the acting let it down as did small parts of the dialogue.

Based on the synopsis for 'Body Cam' I really had no idea whether I was going to enjoy this movie or not. It sounded like an interesting premise, but I very rarely enjoy supernatural elements in films. That turned out to basically be my exact thoughts on the film. I really enjoyed the realistic side of the film, but the supernatural side of things - even though it was done surprisingly well - took me away from that and had me rolling my eyes a little. It wasn't overpowering enough to stop me from quite enjoying this little hidden gem of a film however.

It can be easy to forget that Mary J. Blige is actually an Oscar nominated actress. I think of her more for her music, but the fact is that she is a terrific actor when she wants to be. She was great in the lead role here - extremely likeable, never fluffed a line, and had me believing she was a cop from start to finish. Also Nat Wolff was a welcome addition to the film. Him and his brother seem to only like to do films that are quite dark in nature and have an edge to them. Generally when I see either of their names attached to a film I like to check that film out knowing it will likely be good.

The film only really falls down when it stretches the odd scene out a bit too long, and also gets a little dull through the middle stages. There is a scene towards of the film that really took me off-guard by how well it was done though. Very disturbing and certainly the best thing this film had to offer. I really enjoyed 'Body Cam' and would recommend people give it a look. Its IMDb score is currently far too low.

I loved the basic premise of using the police body cam as a witness to some supernatural horror story, and placing the police force at the centre of it.

The film carries its weight alright. You wouldn't be disappointed if all you are after is some passtime as a fan of the genre.

However, some greater opportunity might have been missed along the lines. Maybe the overall feel was too much soaked in racialism. Some more diversity (like, a few decent white cops) could have helped build the story in a better, less politically correct but more "correct" direction.

What with all the recent events following the George Floyd murder, the treatment of Afro-Americans by law enforcement is a hot topic and it is understandable that they have merged the more simple premise with that particular kind of tension.

Still, the same creative team can come up with a better sequel in case they keep the "police body cam" at the center of supernatural horror, and invest less in contemporary topics.

You know, one of that older X-files episodes where the viewer quickly catches what is going on and in the best X-files way the viewer's thoughts are projected through Mulder's believer's intuition. You're just waiting for him to deliver his version of what happened and you know you will agree with him. It really is very close structurally to S1, Ep 6 "Shadows".

Here it takes them an hour and a half to get us to the actual resolution even though everything is very predictable. So you're just waiting for 30 minutes of filler "detective work" and "fresh twists" to end so you can watch the anticlimactic ending you saw 30 minutes ago.

I gave it a 5/10 only for the kinda funny heavy-handed social commentary they tried to shove in, I'm still not sure either it was very smart or kinda sarcastically stupid.

Just pass on this one.

P.S. I'm not sure why the ending is delivered like a happy end when there are obviously heavy consequences waiting for the main lead, she will surely lose her job and probably get institutionalized after delivering her statement (I mean, who is going to believe that?).