Artefacts

Maybe it's because I'm Belgian, but I actually really liked this film.

So the film doesn't have a well-developed storyline, but those who really bother about that don't seem to get the point of this film. All this film attempts to do, is to create a totally paranoid atmosphere for an hour and fifteen minutes... It attempts to do so mostly by focusing on the emotions of pretty regular young people, creative camera angles and a creepy soundtrack. In my opinion they most definitely succeeded. It might have helped that I smoked a joint on forehand, but I really felt on the edge throughout the film.

After coming to the realisation that the film was shot on a very limited budget and in a very limited time frame, I was really impressed.

ARTEFACTS tells the story of a woman who realizes that her circle of friends are killed off one by one by their evil doppelgangers.

ARTEFACTS feels very much like a short movie stretched out to barely make it a full-length feature. The production values are low, there is not much of an explanation given why things happen, which is particularly frustrating because the doppelgangers behave inconsistently. Consequently, there is not even a point in trying to guess what is going on. Finally, the concluding speech by the Doctor is just baffling in that it seems totally out of place, almost as if it was lifted from some unrelated romantic drama.

It is much easier to get away with lack of explanation in a short film, because the economy of time only permits audience to be drawn to other possible aspects, like the ambience, emotional appeal, aesthetics etc. Without getting disengaged or bored. A longer film can pull this off, but it is much harder, because the parts that make up for absence of sense have to be especially strong. This film has nothing to make up for the absence of the plot explanation, so basically we get a cat and mouse game without rhyme and reason.

The one aspect of this movie which stood out positively was the noise that doppelgangers make as they approach; it is genuinely unsettling, and, given how simple the sound effect is, I am surprised that I had not seen (heard) this in other movies.

Overall, this is not really a worthwhile film unless one is a evil doppelganger movie completist.

Some movies which make much better use of the concept:

1. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978)

2. THE STEPFORD WIVES (1975)

2. THE BROKEN (2008)

The movie's only an hour and fifteen minutes long, and a portion of that's taken up by the end credits, so it's very short. The end credits mention something about a Belgian Tax Shelter, which may explain this movie's existence.

The DVD cover, incidentally, has nothing to do with the film.

It did actually hold my interest up to the "ending." People are being killed by their doppelgangers, who appear accompanied by odd static. The police find metal "artifacts" in their bodies. There's an amusing web search at one point where the heroine searches for "artefact in bodies" or something like that. That would bring up a lot more results than she gets, and she actually finds more or less what she was looking for.

But anyway, in the end the artefacts and the doppelgangers are not explained. Nor is the non-explanation satisfactory in any way. I might have given the movie a 6/10 or 7/10 if it sustained the interest with the ending, but the failure to have a resolution really damaged it for me.

The special feature indicates this was shot in 12 days for $100,000 with a cast of 10 and 20 locations. It sounded like they originally wanted the actors to work off the synopsis rather than use a script. For a movie on a limited budget with a limited shooting schedule, that's a real mistake. The dialogue and acting in the film is actually fine, it's the plot where the film falls flat at the end, with no wrapup. I'm not really sure where the $100,000 went. Maybe just towards paying the cast and crew? They do blow up a car....

The special feature does offer a very little additional information about two of the characters that one could not possibly get from the film. However, the director either really did not have an explanation, or plays coy. Supposedly, budgetary restrictions kept them from offering a real ending. They're open to the possibility of a sequel or a remake. I'm doubtful whether they'll get that opportunity.

I liked the story but it leaves a lot of loose ends. That bothers me. It hints at a sequel or a series but I'm totally unaware that anything came of it. The story is fairly new to me which gave it at least 5 stars. I didn't give it 10 because I get irritated if it's just part of another untold story.

There is nothing good or enjoyable about this film. Shot somewhere in Belgium with American actors or Europeans trying to put on American accents (I heard slips here and there)this flick initially looked like it may have some potential. I'd say within the first 2 minutes I realized that I may have had a better time just taking my rental dollars and flushing them down the toilet. This movie was dumb, dumb dumb! Again, the actors (lol) took this script so seriously and try so hard to deliver academy award performances. Awkward dialog (of what little was said), terrible music sound track which was primarily made up of loud drum beats and electronically processed noise, all mixed together to bring you one of the worst and disappointing films made in years. Lots of running in between buildings and no horror scares at all. The ending of this film was probably one of the most self serving and poorly written I've seen in a while. Amateur film making at it's worst. I wonder if anyone at RedBox actually watched this movie. My advice to RedBox is too pick better movies!! Watch them first before you place it for rental in your vending machines. We can forgive BlockBuster since they have a huge selection and there's bound to be a bomb here and there but RedBox has a miniscule selection and should be more careful.