Crowsnest

OK, the "found footage" movies have run their course. There are better ways to add realism to a movie without giving you a headache.

This is a very familiar plot, young kids ignoring the ominous signs and outright warnings to turn around. If they weren't so likable, you would be happy to see them get killed. Yes, I found them, especially the girls, realistic and enjoyable to watch. In turn, I rooted for their survival and felt their fear.

Yes, it was annoying to see so many foliage and foot shots and bouncing video but the tension survived. If it was shot like a normal movie I think it would receive a much higher rating.

The violence was sudden, shocking and effective. The acting was adequate and the plot, while far from original, still kept you invested. Worth watching, just try and ignore the filming method.

Every time a toilet lozenge like Crowsnest floats across my screen, I think "Hurray! The final nail in the Found-Footage coffin." But given that Found-Footage is built around cheap production value, there'll always be another film student tossing another steaming heap of footage on this craptastically cliché genre, where we suspend our disbelief of multiple camera-operators shooting every moment while they run for their lives.

Leaving aside the format, and ignoring the horrendous After Effects post-production gimmicks (can't anyone do practical blood squirts on set anymore?), this movie is a crime against film-making for 3 reasons:

• Almost 1/2 is stupid back-story about stupid people on a stupid beer run • The plot is a mash-up of The Hills Have Eyes and Duel (but with an RV!) • You've read better dialogue on Twitter, from nicer people.

That said, the acting is not terrible, and the music is awesome. Well, one-half of that is true, and you can decide which.

Five young friends go on a trip into the country and what happens to them is discovered on a video camera. Yes it's a very familiar plot but just because it's familiar doesn't automatically make it bad.

I did find the jerky camera-work a bit off putting at times but the cast is relatively likable and all put in natural performances which is not always the case with these type of films. I found a number of scenes to be very tense and well filmed although some of the choices made by the group seem ridiculous, who knows how you would react under extreme terror.

This is currently rated 3.6 (406 votes) but is far superior to a lot of recent horror films like for example the awful 'The Woman' which have much higher ratings. Maybe it's the lack of extreme gore or torture ( though this does contain a few graphic scenes) that makes people vote them low. Either way I now ignore IMDb ratings in general for horror films as they are not a good indication of whether a film's good or not.

I enjoyed this film for what it is, it's no masterpiece but it's a very good effort for the genre and worth watching.

Crowsnest (2012)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Five friends go out to the middle of nowhere for no good reason when they are menaced by a RV who just happens to have cannibals inside. CROWSNEST is the latest "found footage" film and it's also one of the worst. I must admit that I'm a fan of this genre but at the same time we are getting so many of these pictures and none of them are really setting themselves apart. There are many problems with this one including the fact that it's pretty much just DELIVERANCE, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST and WRONG TURN thrown together. There are even a few scenes lifted from THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT including the entire "talking/crying to the camera." I think on all future found footage movies is one big rule that shouldn't be broken and that annoying supporting characters screaming at the guy with the camera to turn it off. There's probably ten-minutes worth of footage here with people screaming about him filming everything but we, the viewer, knows he's not going to turn it off or else there would be no movie. So please, future filmmakers, quit these scenes because they're quite annoying. Another problem with this movie is that the five characters really aren't all that likable so it's hard to care about what happens to them. Add in the fact that they're rather annoying at times and you're left with even more reasons not to like or care about them. The performances are fairly good for this type of production and I will say that director Brenton Spencer at least handled a few of the scenes well. One example is when the kids first chase the RV and then this plan backfires on them. CROWSNEST features some gore, a lot of screaming and the typical found footage trappings but sadly it's a pretty boring affair.

Four immature, childish millennial douche-bags try to drive to a cabin to party, and on the way, they meet some psycho hillbillies. They make survival mistake after mistake. Most of the time, they are screaming at each other like naughty little girls while the one person in the movie you want to see survive -- the little sister -- gets hurt.

I personally like found footage and psycho hillbilly movies, but almost nothing happens in this one. If you like puerile man-children and their idiot girlfriends screaming at one another in the woods, then this is the movie for you. If not, you can do better.