Water Horse

Full disclosure, I am mates with the writer/director Jen, and saw a pre-release version of the film. That said, I am cynical as hell and not prone to blowing smoke up anyone's butt. I'm also a bit late to the party on this one, despite having seen the film ages ago (sorry Jen).

I have a soft spot for found footage films, despite the mental scars I still carry from the OG BWP. There have been a lot of entries into this race over the years, and the quality aint always up to scratch. Maybe film makers think found footage means they can get away with lazy film making, I don't know.

This isn't one of those films.

There was only one moment where I had to pause and move a small, stylized horse sculpture (which normally lives on my bookshelf) to a drawer on the other side of the house-it was looking at me, I swear. Otherwise, I sat through the whole film, which is impressive given my broken attention span.

Lauren Grimson and Dean Kyrwood were awesome. It's hard to buy the performances in this type of film sometimes, these guys did a great job. I also hear that they're lovely people and a pleasure to work with, so extra chops there. Dean clearly needs to get his eyes checked though. Also really liked Barbara Bingham's performance, tiny as it was.

I'd watch this again, which isn't something I can say for most found footage films. I'll have to make sure the horse sculpture is out of the room though. And maybe locked in a cupboard. Years of horror films have taught me you cannot be too careful in these situations.

Trying to look into a mysterious disappearance, a film crew begins documenting what happened to a popular paranormal investigator who has ties to a mysterious lake in a remote part of the country, but when they begin investigating the incidents they find it's connected to a strange curse affecting the area.

This was an overall enjoyable if slightly flawed mockumentary. One of the brightest spots here is the general setup that allows for a solid enough motivation to search for the missing figure. Getting the right mixture of news outlets reporting on the incident and talking heads providing enough detail about her status and reputation so that the use of providing one of her last paranormal research sessions with a partner looking into a haunted house so we get an idea of who she is and what she's about, the experience comes off nicely enough. The search into the final case involving the mysterious water horse statue that's haunting the family offers the kind of fun lead-in to the main genesis of the film looking into what happened at the lake where it's from sets up some really intriguing elements here. As the investigation into what's going on leads the two into a far-ranging conspiracy about the lake and what's going on, this one picks up considerably with quite a lot to like. The investigation turns rather nicely into a fantastic concept about the the strange creature in the lake which is the start of an equally fantastic mystery connecting a mining tragedy, hidden relatives, a town full of disappearing locals, and the reports about a creature living in the area that begins stalking those around the water which is quite fun to see play out. This is what helps to pay off a lot of the earlier exposition of what's happening as the series of plot-threads at play make for a creepy time the more this goes on. With an immensely chilling and creepy ending that resolves everything quite nicely, this one has a lot to like about it. There are some drawbacks to this one that hold it down. Among the main drawbacks here is the decision to present everything as if it's a mockumentary yet instead feels far more like a found-footage feature. The interludes of the news reports, the flashbacks to the past incident involving her mother, and how this ties into the missing paranormal investigator that spurred everything on all feel far more reliant on the traditional mode of storytelling when it didn't need to be. This could've easily been shot as a traditional feature, or just straightforward found-footage instead of being used to go for this mockumentary approach on people we're unfamiliar with so it sets up who they are at the point where it could've been as everything makes more sense to be a traditional genre feature. It's the main issue to be had here holding this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Violence, Brief Nudity, and a sex scene.

I love found footage films but lately I've seen a bunch that were almost unwatchable. Water Horse was not only watchable, it was fast paced and had a plot. It felt like an older film but I can't pinpoint why. The acting for the most part is good. The leads are very convincing as their characters but a few of the side actors weren't as believable. It's sold as a documentary and begins very much like a Netflix doco, then it dives more into the found footage style without talking heads but comes back to that to bookend it later. The filmmakers clearly watch found footage films and it shows. Overall my biggest complaint was maybe it was too fast paced. I was trying to let the last scene sink in but we were already on to the next bizarre experience. It probably needs to be watched a few times for that reason and not everyone has time for that. I had to look her up but Lauren Grimson is amazing. I will have to watch the other films she is in, her portrayal of the lead was memorable to say the least. Giving this seven stars because it's definitely above many similar films but not quite at the top.