Unaware

I was first introduced to this amazing found footage film "UNAWARE" when submitted to the 2011 Indie Horror Film Festival where if won Best Feature & Best Special Effects. When I first started screening the film I was a bit skeptical of the quality, but it is indeed a found footage film so I gave it some time. The first 30 minutes had me convinced it wouldn't amount to much, but then the creepy clues of something so much bigger started to appear. These quick peeks and clues certainly captured my interest and built much suspense along with the couple in the film. I don't want to spoil it, but the pay off is great! In this film you get compassion, you get anger, you get suspense, you get shock, you get scare and you get satisfied!

"One of the best found footage films to ever cross my desk" ~ Willy Adkins / Breaking Fate Entertainment

I have been going through a "found footage" binge recently devouring everything in my way. I can look past all the petty issues people have with the genre. I've seen tons of movies with terrible reviews that I thought deserved 8 or 9 ratings. But this movie is one of the worst,and believe me I've seen some stinkers.

It is basically a really lame version of the "McPherson tapes" but lacking any of its charm. The characters are unlikable,and do unbelievable things(even by found footage standards).The basic formula for a good film with no budget is good character development , tension building,and strategically placed scares,this film does NOT deliver.

The most annoying couple in Found Footage history combined with a truly imbecilic plot make this a challenge to sit through....

The barn obsessed 'hero' is such a Putz, you wonder why anyone would want to spend more than 10 minutes in his company (even the 'alien' seems annoyed)

'Unaware" does occasionally have some riveting dialogue:

Joe: I'm going back to the barn

Lisa: no...come back to bed, babe

I couldn't even get past 30 minutes of this film. The first ten minutes is nothing but footage of them in a car. He's mumbling so I turned up the telly, but then she was shrieking so I had to turn it back down. The next ten minutes are of them walking around the grounds, having a really boring conversation over dinner and him proposing in the most boring way. Then he decides to go poking around in the barn. Even this was boring. I gave up at this point and turned it off. I'm all for a slow burn, but only if something is grabbing my attention in the meantime. Chemistry, good acting, something. But no. There was nothing at all. I don't know what the world is coming to if this drivel won awards.

UNAWARE is another found footage style movie with a sci-fi rather than horror angle. Another reviewer was right on the money when he said that ALIEN ABDUCTION: THE MCPHERSON TAPE which was ten times the film this is; not a perfect film by any means, but one which had plenty of incident and creepy stuff going on throughout to recommend it.

By comparison, UNAWARE is very dull and threadbare. At least half of the running time has nothing going on apart from the dull two protagonists wandering around and chatting. There's supposed to be mystery here, and a sense of pervading horror at something nasty in the garage, but it doesn't really work. It feels instead like the characters are just treading water and waiting for the good stuff, which never arrives anyway (the budget is so cheap that we just see a couple of things in the distance and that's it). Despite being beautifully shot - the camera-work is refreshingly non-shaky and the locations are great - the lack of incident and narrative makes this a very tedious watch.