In Memorium

I have to start off by saying that I am a big fan of found footage, especially horror, but this one fell short of the mark.

A man who is dying of terminal cancer and his girlfriend rent a house to live out his last few days. He rigs the house with what seems like 68 or so cameras to capture his demise.

This being a found footage horror movie, there is a ghost, and strange sounds, and a bunch of other stuff that is not worth mentioning because it is all very boring, and not at all interesting. There are no real scares to speak of, one particular caricature of an annoying character, and the ending is of course abrupt without any real payoff.

All in all an interesting premise with a substandard delivery.

In Memorium is a found footage film just like most of the others. Dennis is a newly-diagnosed cancer patient who moves in with his girlfriend Lily to a creepy house so that he may document the remainder of his days. He gives a guided tour of the house on camera, going through every room one-by-one. The only notable items are run-down swimming pool in the back and a creepy hallway with a "sitting room" at the end, which he does not enter. The rest of the movie is very predictable.

Throughout the film, Dennis begins to blood profusely out his mouth and ends up with some pretty nasty sores on his back and around his mouth. In fact, there is so much blood in the bathroom at one point, it could be confused with A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The actors playing Dennis and Lily weren't terrible. The dialogue wasn't even that bad. Dennis's brother Frank, however, was annoying (he was supposed to be). The scares weren't that scary. It was really the sounds that made the movie in this case. There was a sound near the swimming pool that made me wonder if I had actually even heard a sound. It was well done.

The story went from mildly boring to ridiculous toward the end when we figure out who is haunting the couple. The ending made me wonder why I wasted my time with the film to begin with. After the last 15 minutes of the movie, I don't think I would recommend this one to anyone unless they absolutely love the found-footage genre and refuse to take no for an answer and must watch every single one ever made.

Its an interesting concept, the idea they did with this film was good enough to get me to watch the whole thing, still left feeling disappointed. I was not a fan of the work of Eric Mcdowell (Dennis) and Levi Powell (Frank). The ending deserved something better. Movie left me asking questions that should have been answered. Johanna Watts did a great job portraying Lily. In the end, she was the only character i sort of cared about. A for originality of story, D for casting and F for the script. Camera work was actually pretty decent. 3 stars out of 10 is me being nice. A better script and acting could have made this movie special. Instead it is just another low budget horror movie that is not scary.

I consider myself a huge horror fan - I like everything from slashers to psychological thrillers. But I'm incredibly picky about what films I consider to be classics: The Exorcist, Rungu, The Mothman Prophecies, Session 9.

So when I was looking over the schedule for the International Horror & Sci-Fi film festival and saw this film's premise, it filled me with hope. I saw the screening, hoping the film wouldn't suck, and within the first 15 minutes all of my fears went away and I was left with an amazing experience.

I won't spoil anything but I'll leave you with this: This was one of the few films I've ever seen that made me grab my wife's arm in fear and - at one point - almost turn away from the screen. (Audition is the only other film to hold that honor.) The atmosphere and tension that the director creates is incredible.

If this film is playing at a festival near you, don't hesitate to see it. They haven't announced a DVD release yet but I'll be adding it to my collection as soon as they do.

It's In MemoriAM. With an "A." Seriously, somebody should have caught this. An actor, a tech, an editor, a producer... SOMEBODY. If you can't spell a word, it probably isn't a good idea to use it in the title of your movie.

The movie gets points for containing some truly creepy moments, but the premise is weak--is there something unique about this sort of cancer, that documentation would be of use to posterity? is it a life insurance thing, proof of illness, SOMETHING? anything? any reason at all the cameras are on except to make the movie?--and the last ten minutes undo just about everything. I won't say WHICH iconic horror film this particular movie takes its ending from, but it's pretty much a direct rip. If you're unfortunate enough to go ahead and watch this thing, you'll see what I mean when you get there.

Again, some half-decent weirdness here and there... but overall it's pointless, unbelievable, and generally not worth your time.