Unaware

I was first introduced to this amazing found footage film "UNAWARE" when submitted to the 2011 Indie Horror Film Festival where if won Best Feature & Best Special Effects. When I first started screening the film I was a bit skeptical of the quality, but it is indeed a found footage film so I gave it some time. The first 30 minutes had me convinced it wouldn't amount to much, but then the creepy clues of something so much bigger started to appear. These quick peeks and clues certainly captured my interest and built much suspense along with the couple in the film. I don't want to spoil it, but the pay off is great! In this film you get compassion, you get anger, you get suspense, you get shock, you get scare and you get satisfied!

"One of the best found footage films to ever cross my desk" ~ Willy Adkins / Breaking Fate Entertainment

UNAWARE is another found footage style movie with a sci-fi rather than horror angle. Another reviewer was right on the money when he said that ALIEN ABDUCTION: THE MCPHERSON TAPE which was ten times the film this is; not a perfect film by any means, but one which had plenty of incident and creepy stuff going on throughout to recommend it.

By comparison, UNAWARE is very dull and threadbare. At least half of the running time has nothing going on apart from the dull two protagonists wandering around and chatting. There's supposed to be mystery here, and a sense of pervading horror at something nasty in the garage, but it doesn't really work. It feels instead like the characters are just treading water and waiting for the good stuff, which never arrives anyway (the budget is so cheap that we just see a couple of things in the distance and that's it). Despite being beautifully shot - the camera-work is refreshingly non-shaky and the locations are great - the lack of incident and narrative makes this a very tedious watch.

I couldn't even get past 30 minutes of this film. The first ten minutes is nothing but footage of them in a car. He's mumbling so I turned up the telly, but then she was shrieking so I had to turn it back down. The next ten minutes are of them walking around the grounds, having a really boring conversation over dinner and him proposing in the most boring way. Then he decides to go poking around in the barn. Even this was boring. I gave up at this point and turned it off. I'm all for a slow burn, but only if something is grabbing my attention in the meantime. Chemistry, good acting, something. But no. There was nothing at all. I don't know what the world is coming to if this drivel won awards.

A couple decides to drive out the country to surprise visit the boyfriend's grandparents. He decides to bring his camcorder to film the trip. Once they get there they find that the grandparents are away for the weekend, but decide to spend their trip there anyways.

They get bored and the boyfriend decides to explore the barn, a place he has never been allowed to enter since childhood. Once inside they discover a secret, which other reviewers have revealed by I will not.

I enjoyed the first half hour of this as most found footage films of this type have some build-up and this one looked like it would be heading in an entertaining direction. However nothing much happens until the last 20 minutes or so and that is not very entertaining, and not as scary as the filmmakers intended it to be.

The leads were likable and their conversation flowed and did not seem forced. However their actions near the end didn't make very much sense. The end itself was very abrupt and did seem forced.

I have seen worse found footage movies, but this one could have done with more and better scares, and a more well developed ending.

I was on board for a hot second with this one. I love alien movies and found footage genre type stuff. This, however was lacking in almost all areas that you would expect to find in something described as "is it real?" type genre film.

I find it mildly unbelievable that anyone could actually think that this movie was the real deal or any 'found footage' film for that matter. It's a movie. It's been produced and been shown in theaters, obviously it isn't going to be real. Anyways, what's more awful than that marketing idea was the atrocious acting. I kept waiting for it to get better and for something to actually happen but I couldn't even bring myself to believe in the story because they both were so bad. The woman playing 'Lisa' was probably the worst, however 'Joe or Joel', I could never really tell, was not anymore spectacular. Their chemistry was horrid, their motivation completely irrational and scripted beyond belief, and their reactions to each other and to the events were barely able to be taken seriously.

If you want something to preoccupy your time for a bit then you can watch this but honestly I wouldn't expect anything more than something your friends could put together with a less than stunning hand-held.