O Misterioso Caso 347

CASE 347 refers to a patient in a mental institution, a former researcher who, by virtue of her family history and interest in abnormal psychology, had undertaken a research and study trip to New Mexico in order to investigate alien abductions, taking along two film-makers to document her efforts. Her two co-workers and a host family they stayed with went missing, and the the film provides a found-footage record of the relevant events.

I think alien abductions are singularly well-suited to the found-footage format, and CASE 347 does take advantage of the intrinsic mystery associated with the subject matter. In fact, there are so few scares up until the final few minutes that the movie plays a lot more like a mystery than horror.

The acting and procession of events are reasonably natural, and the introduction of the Dr. Gustaf Character, by far the most memorable of the bunch, about halfway in provides the movie with a center. There was definitely a potential for more "Show" and less "Tell", but the film still manages to sustain audience interest.

The very last part of the movie was frankly a bit of let-down. It is easy to blame the lack of a budget, but I think there was room to be more creative with the story within those limits.

All in all, this is a very slightly better-than-average found footage movie, but still not quite something I would call "good" without reservation.

"Case 347" is a low-budget, found-footage film. The acting is not good, and the visuals and sound can feel amateurish. The movie does offer a few legitimate scares (I won't spoil anything by saying what those scenes are). However, those scares are too few and far between. The biggest issue, by far, is that the movie spends too much time explaining stuff. For example, anytime our protagonists see or witness something weird, they have to spend about 15-20 minutes talking about what they saw, or they'll interview someone to explain the incident. These scenes are just basically talk, where nothing happen. Midway through the film, we also meet a Doctor named "Gustaf," whose character long-windedly explains stuff about aliens; it was almost like Gustaf became the focus of the film. The movie should've spend more time focusing on scares and horror instead of exposition.

How many more of these lazy filmmaker "found footage" atrocities must we endure. I have yet to see one that is of any real value. I can give a two-year old a camera and come up with enough on it to put together a found footage movie. Enough already. Make a real movie or get out of the game.

One thing I cannot stand are people who hate found footage movies yet for some reason keep watching them and leaving reviews. Are your lives that boring and meaningless? We get it. You hate found footage. Good for you. Do everyone a favor and stop leaving reviews for them like the gem above. No matter if it's good or not it's going to get one star. You are just skewing the movies rating so the people who DO like them can't get an accurate feel if it's probably good or not. It does nothing but annoy the rest of us. From the looks of your review it doesn't seem like you even watched it.

That being said I won't spoil anything. If you enjoy FF this one isn't a gem but it's almost there. It's missing something. It's no Grave Encounters or Possession of Michael King but still definitely worth a watch.

This film has an identity crisis. It isn't sure what it wants to be and veers into a few too many subplots. I'm a sucker for found footage movies and I'll wade through 100 stinkers to find one gem. This is ALMOST a gem, but not quite. This was a rewrite - for tightening purposes - away from being a standout. As it is, it's better than most low budget found footage films.