Imagens do Mal

Adjusting to a new life, a disturbed man receives a vintage camera as a present only to find the pictures he develops seem to predict the future with a series of accidental deaths, and when his fiancée appears in one of the pictures he tries to change history to ensure she stays alive.

Overall, this was a decent if entirely forgettable affair. One of the few enjoyable elements to this one is the fact that there's quite a decent mystery angle employed here with how this one plays out the camera's purpose. Since it's acquired in a manner that doesn't necessarily offer the most intensive knowledge of the situation, the eventual discovery of its history and how it was tied to the past atrocities has a really intriguing and occasionally chilling method to be featured here. As this becomes a bit more chilling with the connection of the incidents in the photographs and his race to prevent them from happening, it does have a somewhat decent storyline at play here. The other rather enjoyable aspect of this one comes from the way the film builds up its series of accidents as there's a lot to like with these scenes. Starting off innocently with the coincidences including the death at the playground he walked by to the construction site accident, it soon gives way to slightly more chilling scenes including the incident at the public swimming pool or his heroic attempts at the apartment as being a somewhat entertaining series of action scenes to give this some life. That it changes over in the later half to his attempts at saving her drive this into some rather shocking and brutal scenes that generate some solid gore and action scenes in the final half. These here manage to hold this up over its many flaws. Much of the film's problems stem from the central issue associated with films of this type of storyline in that it's entirely based on the obliviousness of characters to recognize the central danger. As we know from the beginning how dangerous the camera really is, the fact that nobody else recognizes this makes the film more of an exercise in frustration than terror as we spend more time trying to ensure they get rid of the cursed object than keep it around. Once it becomes obvious that the special pictures are coming true, the need to hide its powers becomes less and less obvious which basically renders the film far more a suspenseless slough through expected terrain rather than a terrifying ordeal. That manages to tie into another big problem here in the extremely dull pacing that pops up here. Not only is this film a product of not having an appropriate plot line to stretch out for as long as it does, but the fact that the majority of it's running time is spent devoted to an area that frustrates viewers leaves it cold. As these scenes go about running through these predetermined ideas that really deserve outside forces be brought onboard to help determine the cause of it all, these manage to really infuriate by going through so many scenarios that should've required something else come into play beforehand that film is troubling more often than not. The other big problem here is that a large portion of the accidents occur off- screen and reported later, making it hard to really get any real sense of fear out of these scenes. Overall, these are the issues that hold it down.

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

I saw the world premiere at the 2017 Florida Film Festival and was very impressed with the idea of the film - its presentation - and impact.

Jack Zeller, played very effectively by Christopher Denham, is a psychologically damaged photographer back from Afghanistan. He is evidently suffering from PTSA and is trying to get back to doing what he loves - professional photography. As an encouragement, his fiancé, Claire, buys him a vintage (WW II era) camera (naturally made in Germany.)

One chilling aspect of the camera is that a camera repair store announces that "this camera is not capable of taking photos."

Nevertheless, Jack gets a gig working for her real estate company and takes 10 rolls of film of various settings and properties with this "unworkable" camera. When the film is processed, there are surprising photos which I will not describe (you can imagine since this is a horror film.) How he reacts and tries to deal with these photos is the tension in the movie. The plot is different, well conceived and exciting.

The music and sound effects add measurably to the feel of the film and effect of the events being portrayed. Overall it is an excellent effort from first time director Aaron B. Koontz. I look forward to future efforts by Mr. Koontz. If you get the chance to take in "Camera Obscura," please do - very worthwhile.

The acting here is really quite poor, even Christopher Denham is far from the quality of his performance in Billions. The premise is quite fun in an obvious way, Photographer with PTSD, starts to unravel further when he finally musters the courage to start shooting again with an old camera that has as much baggage as he has, capturing things on film that may not be there... yet. It's really just a series of tropes, but despite its flaws it's oddly enjoyable and for all its predictability it does manage to raise the pulse, but there's no edge.

*Apologies for the poor title to this review, I needed a laugh after this.

'CAMERA OBSCURA': Four Stars (Out of Five)

An indie horror flick about a veteran war photographer with PTSD, that sees future deaths in the photos that he takes (on a vintage World War II era camera). It was directed by first time feature filmmaker Aaron B. Koontz, and it was written by Koontz and Cameron Burns (Koontz and Burns also served as producers on the film). The movie stars Charlie Denham, Nadja Bobyleva, Catherine Curtin, Chase Williamson and Noah Segan. It's a very creepy and disturbing little indie horror flick.

Jack Zeller (Denham) is a professional photographer, and war veteran, who's dealing with some severe mental issues (due to his time in Afghanistan). To help him get through these mental problems, his fiancé, Claire (Bobyleva), buys him a vintage camera at a work auction. She then gets him a job taking photos for the real estate company she works for. When Jack gets the photos developed though, he starts to see images of future deaths in them. When those deaths start to become a reality, Jack becomes even more mentally unstable as he tries to figure out what to do about them.

The movie is extremely creepy, and it only gets creepier as it goes on. Denham gives a great performance in the lead, and he really makes you feel what it's like to go mad. You keep wanting the character to stop doing the things he's doing, as a result of his madness, but he keeps doing them anyway. It's a really disturbing and dark movie! Very effectively directed, and written, by Koontz and Burns. If you're a fan of really dark horror flicks, you should definitely give this one a try.

Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://youtu.be/hAV3iy1JkJ8

Movie had a good premise and started off quite well but soon went down the toilet with its over the top gore, poor photography and confused story.

The music was actually not bad; very reminiscent of John Carpenter and in many places seemed out of place , the plot was confusing - was he actually a psycho and imagining everything which i presume was the end game there wasn't much explanation at the end and it seemed to end too soon. The over the top gore actually began to make it look like a comedy and we started laughing at points when we really shouldn't have!

Some poor acting and bizarre plot holes didn't help.

Overall it could have been good but ended up in the bargain bin bucket!