Blue Hour: The Disappearance of Nick Brandreth

This seems like a very lazy premise for a film. And a way to sneak the film past viewers. I'd like to have seen this as fiction. But to open your heart and mind to a situation, only to learn it's a lie? That feels like a cheat. The premise is not even sufficiently novel to sustain its fictional underpinnings. It's a David Paullides gone missing story, draped with mystical sorcerer underpinnings. Happily, I picked up on the mock tone quickly, and granted I rented it while in pain, but I wanted a documentary. What I watched didn't sustain my interest as fiction, and I felt cheated out of the documentary I sought.

And unfortunately this just doesn't have it. Really unique premise, but the acting just kills it. Poor acting is an absolute death sentence for found footage as it just rips us out of the story. You don't need the best actors, as proven by many found footage movies, but just natural dialogue. This you could absolutely tell was reading from a script. Really great use of vintage footage, fun edits and overall concept. Was really hoping to like it, but 30 min in just lost me and wasn't picking up the pace fast enough. More discerning editing and better actors would highly enhance the movie to the next level.

As someone who watched Incident at Lake County on TV when it first came out, and Blair Witch Project in the theater on day one, I can respect and admire a film like Blue Hour. The film follows the directorial and "bad acting" traditions of Incident at Lake County, Blair Witch and even Lake Mungo. The cut scenes with reporters doing a very poor job and horrible acting with police and detectives is right out of all the best classics, and I think is deliberate. You can see the design in how the main characters perform, then in come the bad reporters and worse police.

The cinematography also pays homage to the classics. For those who rated this film badly, you need to watch the classics before you lay down the law with your bad reviews. That rule goes for any film of this genre and style. I enjoyed it and hope to see more in this style from the director.

This Faux Documentary could have been so much better than it was. The story is quite exceptionally interesting and had so much potential that was sadly mostly wasted. The majority of the actors are really vary good and believable. But a few are so bad it ruins entire scenes. The special effects are not bad at all. In fact, they are actually quite impressive for a low budget Faux Documentary. It was way too long for what it was. It could have easily been twenty to thirty minutes shorter and nothing important in anyway would have been left out. I became so bored that I was thinking about other things and at one point I almost forgot what I was watching. Luckily, that was when it picked up and got very interesting. It left me feeling good about the ending. Hence the 6 star rating. In my opinion, it is definitely worth the watch, as long as you go in knowing there are a few almost intolerable scenes.

This is a movie where I found myself staring at the screen in awe as events began to unfold. The first third establishes a disappearance and some general digging by our documentary crew, but the last two thirds are unlike anything I've ever seen, deliered in a way I never expected. This is shot with a high production quality like Horror in the High Desert or The Unbinding.

The documentary itself is compelling enough to feel real and when it takes off, the shock is such a superb experience. Once that wore off, I was left with an intriguing mystery that l'll have to have a second watch to truly understand.