Living Among Us

Not perfect 100% but a good 90%. It was better than the average found footage film. After reading all the reviews about it, I decided to get this film on VOD. I noticed one major thing - all the horror reviewers seemed to like it and the ones that don't specialize in horror hated it. So me being not just a horror lover but a film lover decided it was worth the try. Okay, the trailer got me interested because I love the Crystal Castles song used. I came to some interesting conclusions.

No, this was not another What We Do In the Shadows. I did also see that this was shot before that film ever came out to all the people who keep saying this film copied it. I did my own research and you can see a DOZEN press releases dating back to 2013. That's 2 years before WWDITS ever came out!! But if this had been a ghost found footage film, nobody would be saying crap because every other found footage is about a ghost. The two films were nothing alike in any way, shape or manner. They don't have vampire teeth, the premise is nothing alike between the two. And this uses more traditional filmmaking techniques.

I really loved William Sadler's performance as the Vampire lead. He was so perfect in this with a very diabolical side to him but also so politically correct. Writer/director/producer Brian Metcaf took a tired genre and gave it some new blood, so to speak. You can tell he knows film. It almost has an oldschool sensibility to it with a modern spin. Why didn't I give this a perfect 10? I thought some of the acting was a little off. I thought the cuts got annoying a little at times but now I'm just getting picky. I don't think it will be everyone's cup of tea but definitely the horror fans will love it. My girlfriend loved it and she doesn't even like horror. Well that's probably her old school crush Andrew Keegan was in it as an overly obnoxious vampire.

My score:

Acting - 9 Directing - 9 Writing - 9 Entertainment - 10 Premise - 10 Originality - 10 Visuals - 10

This one would benefit from being filmed in a traditional way rather than being a found footage flick, believability is close to zero - cuts masked as "digital interference / glitches", super HD quality from the "hidden" cameras, not to mention very known Hollywood actors being here. TV scenes are done amateureshly in a way that you clearly see it's just someone on the green screen cut out with some additional lines in After Effects, it doesn't feel like real TV footage at all.

But everything else is actually great - the movie is engaging and interesting to watch and it's definitely not a dragging one, actors do a good job (William Salder and John Heard take the cake with their charisma), the visual effects are great. The ending is not on that level though - a lot of very stupid and convenient things happenning, like when some characters demonstrate sudden weakness and stupidity after showing ultrasuperpowers and showing capability to think ahead of your opponent (not to mention they should already know something about the things the crew has, can't go into details because it would be spoiler, but it should be a pretty obvious plot hole).

I only watched 15 minutes of this but that was enough. The acting was bad, but I don't blame the actors, the director lacked the experience to direct the actors. When the acting is this bad, when the dialogue is this convoluted... it's the director's job to say "CUT!" and then instruct the actors and do another take. I can't watch any more of this.

So no spoilers here. The films cinematography was really great. Found footage films are kind of despised now but this one wasn't bad in terms of camera shakiness and the overall camera work.

The actors were good. The script was not. I could see the actors trying to do the best they could with what they were giving. Certain characters like Blake and Andrew, were good in bringing creepiness to their respective parts. Then other characters like Mike and Benny, while good were not very good protagonists and I actually caught myself wanting the vampires to come out on top by the end of the film.

***************************Spoiler******************** What happened to Carrie???

VERY solid cast. Loved James Russo, John Heard, William Sadler. Those old dogs made this movie and gave it weight! Great story until the third act which went into a typical all-action survival ride.

I loved the premise, I loved the story, I just wish the damn third act had been a little more cleaned up. That said, my friend loved the third act most of all. Maybe I'm just too old, who knows. I will say I didn't get bored.

Not a perfect film, but very entertaining and very watchable. Anyone watching this should agree this is much better than your average horror movie.