Mr. Jones

Mr. Jones is a relatively fresh take on the found footage format, with an intriguing premise which involves the occult and has a Lovecraftian vibe to it.

As a horror fan, I was at least hoping for something interesting, if not scary ('cause I think found footage films lost their touch a while ago). Unfortunately, the film fails to provide any thrills throughout its brief running time, and ends up being very annoying (especially in its second half).

Mr. Jones himself is probably the most interesting aspect of the film, and manages to build up a bit of tension with his appearance, but whenever he goes offscreen we're back to a flat, suspense-free movie. Both of the main characters were okay and acted quite well, but they were given very little backstory, thus ending up being unsympathetic. But hey, at least they weren't screaming all the time...

Another good thing about the movie is its somewhat captivating first half which is presented as a documentary about nature (though switches its main subject to mr. Jones when the main characters become aware of his presence). But the second half betrays its found footage format and turns into a trippy, nightmarish mess. It's an unwelcome change of pace because it tries too hard to scare and fails.

Anyway, if you're planning on watching it, lower your expectations considerably or you will be disappointed. If you don't like found footage horror films, or trippy experiences, then I suggest you skip it.

If you've seen any of the reviews, you already know this movie seems to abandon all reason in the last half so i wont bother but to me the entire plot felt like it was thrown together last-minute like the screenwriter failed to do their homework and threw this together in 10 minutes. A couple moves to the woods to make a nature documentary (because the world doesnt have enough of those?) But almost instantly abandon their entire plan after the male lead loses his car keys and decides to go rummaging through their neighbors basement. There was a very brief suggestion that the male lead has some sort of mental disorder but that led nowhere and had no impact on the script. The female lead somehow recognizes the crap in the basement to be the work of some unknown reclusive artist, so they decide instead to ditch their documentary and go about making a film about "Mr Jones" instead. The husband decides to fly off to interview random ppl about mr jones and leaves his wife alone in the woods for 2 mo with no means of communication. The film initially markets itself as yet another found-footage movie but abandons that format so often it feels almost annoying. Im sure the art dept had fun creating tons of weird and creepy totems but unless you have a thing for scarecrows, you probably wont find this movie entertaining.

Right up until its final act, "Mr. Jones" (2013) amazed me by how good it was. Here was a creative, thoughtful and extremely frightening found-footage horror movie. It was so damned good that I was surprised that I hadn't heard about it before.

The story idea was fresh and interesting — a young couple moves to an isolated forest cabin, only to discover that a mysterious neighbor is "Mr. Jones," a legendary anonymous folk artist. This hermit produces grotesque artworks — "scarecrows," totems and dreamcatchers that he then mails to apparently random recipients around the world. Not all of them are pleased with their macabre gifts, and their benefactor's identity and motivations become the stuff of urban legends. (Try to imagine H.R. Giger with a modus operandi like Banksy.) There is a lot more going on here than a cliché yarn about a supernatural bogeyman.

The script is smart, the story is well developed, and the tension builds slowly and effectively as the tale unfolds for our two protagonists. My only quibble is that the couple does incredibly stupid things, and are cheerfully curious about discoveries that should scare the hell out of them. But that is a failing of so many horror films that I decided not to let it bother me.

Then the movie loses its way. I'm disappointed to share here that this otherwise great film suffers because of its disjointed, meandering and consequently frustrating climax. It's too long, it's too confusing, and it spends far too much time repeating redundant shots and scare-moments.

We see one character, for example, pursued by multiple adversaries … repeatedly. Well, these adversaries stop being scary when the viewer eventually arrives at the conclusion that either A.) they can't catch this person or B.) they can't hurt this person.

At another point, a character must do something urgent, but receives contradictory instructions from different sources. This plot development could have been damned unnerving in the context of our story, but it's nearly lost in a confusing barrage of repetitive images and sounds. Writer-director Karl Mueller strives to immerse the viewer in a kind of surreal "nightmare." But he makes a mistake that is common for surreal horror films — portraying confused and disoriented characters does not always require the viewer to be confused and disoriented. A shorter, sparser, cleaner script would have saved what might have been a classic.

Oh, well. This movie was still fun enough. Again … much of it is quite excellent. And another viewer might not be as turned off by its conclusion as I was. I still recommend "Mr. Jones," if a little reluctantly. I'd rate it a 7 out of 10.

Found footage with a twist? How many times have heard this one? Too many times to count. And not only was I skeptical, the movie kind of showed me that it was as I expected (which means not very good). But if you can stay with it through the end, you might get something of a "reward". By that I mean the really wicked ending, that is kind of psychedelic, even without the use of any enhancing drugs.

The effect is built up during the movie, which takes it sweet old time. Something that is sort of boring. Plus the characters are not really helping, doing what other horror movie stock characters do: wrong decisions, even when faced with consequences. But again, the ending almost makes up for that, if you like weird.

Convoluted tale of a young couple who drop everything to move to a house in the woods for a year while the husband films a documentary starts off sort of interesting but fails miserably in the last 30 minutes.

Scott and Penny notice "totems" or scarecrows around their property and eventually follow an enigmatic man famously known as Mr. Jones, who has been documented since the 70s. As they investigate further they are drawn into a nightmare world from which there seems to be no escape.

Unfortunately none of this continues to be interesting as the director seemingly abandons the found footage format for the last third of the movie and seems to use this ending part to experiment with different filming techniques.

I lost my interest and felt it dragged on and on and even though I barely understood what was going on, I didn't really care anymore. At least the female lead was a lot of fun to look at.