Dwellers

Hi Folks! Wanted to review Dwellers today after I saw the negative reviews. Totally unfair!! And, NO!, Mr. Fortier is NOT my brother. HAHA.... Starts out like the film Creep, just a guy wanting to do a little filming and ends up...a dreadful way to go.

For someone interested in auteur and beginning filmmakers, Drew Fortier has put together a nice little horror picture...while the acting SEEMS a little campy sometimes, it pretty much is spot on. No overacting, and believable. Three guys go talking to some homeless (who relate their stories) about why some have disappeared, and the guys go down into an old water tunnel to get some interviews from the homeless. What could go wrong??

I liked the film My Dinner with Andre. Although Dwellers is a different genre, the simplicity and honesty of the acting is refreshing, just like Andre. From a production angle, Mr. Fortier got a lot of production value in his settings for no money at all, $0 spent. The actors were amateur, but that's good in a way. They wanted to be in the film and did well! I have seen much better financed films that left me with no feeling.

Dwellers is a cerebral film. It's about 3 guys lapsing into desperation and weariness...and about a problem in the towns' tunnels that seemingly everyone wants to ignore. Dwellers got under my skin; thank you Mr. Fortier.

Just a note, Mr. Fortier made a documentary called, Attack of Life: The Bang Tango Movie, about his band in 2016. Probably to his shock, the film was never able to get clearance release because the song catalog is tied up by some suits in Los Angeles. To his credit, Mr. Fortier has made the film free to all on Youtube. This is a director who WANTS others to enjoy his art. Dwellers is the next proof of that. See it, sip it, dread the dark.

Certainly one of the worst things I've ever seen. Essentially this is just 5 or 6 people without tans or a BMI under 40 running around an old train tunnel pretending it's a sewer. Supposedly all this takes place in Canton Ohio. Which by it's standards, cast and production is probably true. Just saying.

I have always found something good to say about any found footage film I have seen; no matter how horrible it is, there is always something I can find to redeem it...until now. This is not just an insult to found footage films, it is an insult to films in general. It's not even bad enough to be good, or bad enough to be funny. It's just bad. A total waste of time and money that should have been donated to a homeless shelter.

... but unfortunately it failed to reach that full potential in just about every conceivable way. But still, I liked this movie. I liked it a lot. There is a really great storyline here, somewhat fresh in the over-worked market of the indie-found-footage, and it kept me watching, on the edge of my proverbial seat at times, til the end. But once we move beyond the plot, there's little to nothing there. I could pick apart pretty much every aspect of the film, from the acting to the timing to the direction to the attention to detail to... I've made my point. I chalk this all up to two things: Inexperience and attention to detail. Fortunately, both of these stumbling blocks can be remedied with experience. So keep on making movies, Drew Fortier. I do believe you have one or two really fine films in you.