Hooked Up

I could not even finish this film, and I've sat through some pretty bad ones.

Within about the first two minutes, i was already sick of the two guys involved and was hoping some ghost would pop in and kill them right then and just put the film out of its misery! Unfortunately, that did not occur.

Granted, there are quite a few bad movies out there in the "found footage" genre, but I can say without hesitation that I was mad at myself for even trying to watch some of this movie. Those are minutes I can never get back and felt annoyed at how wasted they were.

This is just a movie that I'd put in the "never should have been made" genre.

Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time like I did. I mean I'm an Amazon prime member so it was free to watch, but I felt like giving it one star was too generous. If zero were an option, that would be about right.

Trying to get past a breakup, a pair of friends head to Barcelona to find women, and when they take a pair back to their house they end realizing that they've become involved with a dangerous demonic force intent on killing them forcing the pair to try to get out of the house alive.

This was a decidedly decent if wholly underwhelming found-footage effort. One of the more enjoyable elements here is the great work it does at presenting a rather intriguing and potentially suspenseful situation. The idea of taking the rather familiar route of the girl being some kind of demonic spirit creature at the end of the night means that the clichéd set-up means that there's plenty of fun to come from the creature going out to kill them as that kind of action is what sells this. There's plenty of brutal, gory bloodletting that emerges from this kind of action as all kinds of encounters and confrontations with the demon spirit makes for an enjoyable time. Along with the great amount of fun that comes from how it works out the final twist at the end, which comes off with a slight bit of originality and does end this on a somewhat enjoyable note. While these here make this one watchable enough, there's a lot of problems with this one. The biggest problem here is the fact that there's just not a whole lot of interest in the first half here as we're continually around this annoying and really irritating group of friends who are really not worth spending time with. The fact that they continually rag on each, push each other into situations they don't want to be involved in and are just basically not that interesting with all the dude-bro comments doesn't make for an endearing or enjoyable start to this one. Not only that, the film's entry into the particular found-footage genre means that very little of the film makes any sense at all, from how the film's battery life is able to stay lit the entire seventy some-odd minute running time while having the bright flashlight feature enabled the entire time to why the pair are continually wanting to record the matters of what might be their last moments alive instead of trying to save themselves or wondering why the film is able to be recorded in the first place with the indestructible nature of the camera being able to stay on whenever it crashes to the ground or gets thrown into the wall with the videographer. None of these efforts are all that intriguing and really just make this one part of the genre which fall into all the usual problems here and that doesn't make for a fun time here. Likewise, the other big problem here is the fact that there are so many moments of questionable decision-making that continually puts them in danger rather than being realistically played out to try to get them out of the house, and for the most part it's what really holds this one back.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity and excessive drinking.

The story is a tightly woven blend of American horrors abroad and urban legend that mixes xenophobia with a baser celebration of the macabre surrounding ghost girl hook-ups that has evolved from the modern urban legend field. Although I wrestled with the film's framing around the found footage style to tell this pretty cool story, I succumbed to the fact that it is that basic irritant I have with pretty much all found footage films-"would, given the circumstances of such a horrific series of events, would a person realistically continue to hold on to the camera to continue videoing the events?" Especially when the story unfolds chronologically without breaks.

Aside from the "found footage" issue I have, generally, I enjoyed many aspects of "Hooked Up". I found the acting to be believable, the premise plausible, and the emotion genuine. There are a few moments when the dialog isn't delivered quite as convincingly as I am sure the director and story hopes for, but for the most part the drama, suspense and energy is alive in "Hooked Up". There isn't much lull in the excitement or high drama here, every scene just amplifies the next as far as character drama. It is a cool, thrilling story and even in found footage it unfolds chillingly.

The special effects in "Hooked Up" are pretty tight as well, the blood and gore looked realistic enough. The death and violence are visceral and quality. The cinematography ran the expectant gambit of found footage gimmicks, First Person POV, shaky, shadowy scenes, quirky angles and confusing scenes that have obscured views with sudden thrills. Some times it works and sometimes it doesn't. Luckily enough of the scenes work to create the intended nightmare sequences with enough energy to complete the story arc. Overall, "Hooked Up" just passes enough to be a cool Eurotrip horror, but not enough to be a must see. Plus the ending was really hokey and somewhat cliché. For found footage/paranormal fans this is an okay flick, for a wider horror fan base, "Hooked Up" doesn't really offer much that hasn't been seen and done before.

HOOKED UP is a found footage horror movie which tells the story of two young American men who travel to Barcelona, mainly to help one of them overcome a painful breakup. There, they meet a couple girls with whom they hook up, and then trouble begins for them that is way beyond what they could have imagined.

This movie is bound to turn off a lot of people right from the start. It opens with a scene featuring a character who vomits into a toilet that looks like the actor really is vomiting. One main character is annoyingly obnoxious, the other annoyingly whiny. There is quite a bit of locker room-like talk about the purpose of the trip, and so on. In short, there is a lot of crudeness in this movie.

If, by the time the characters have hooked up, you are not sufficiently offended to stop watching, then you will be treated to an extended fast-paced and high-energy cat-and-mouse game inside an old barricaded building for the remainder of the running time.

I believe the secret to enjoying something like this is to regard it not as a movie experience, but as a thrill ride. The first-person perspective makes it easy to do so; just sit back, forget about character development (though there are character arcs, in fact they go in opposite directions for the two protagonists), plot (though there is at least the outline of a plot which connects present events to the past) or other formalities and take it all in as if you were right there.

Not everyone can do this, but if you can, you will likely find the movie to be a lot of fun.

I love fast-paced found footage horror movies, so this was right up my alley. A few of the scenes reminded me of REC (2007) which, incidentally, is also set in Barcelona. However that work has a much higher caliber than this, in fact I consider it to be possibly the best found footage horror movie ever made.

A thematically similar film is HOSTEL (2005), but the basic plot outline reminds me of DASHCAM (2021) which also involves a fast-paced bonkers cat and mouse game involving at least one exceedingly obnoxious character for the majority of its short duration.

Given the movie's crudeness and lack of ambition to be much more than a thrill ride, it is not surprising that it got heavily panned.

One issue I'd like to address is the quality of the production design/cinematography. It seems to me that those who have criticized it for being amateurish have not seen very many found footage films. Having seen over 150 of these, I can confidently say that the movie is well above average for this genre in respect to both.

So, if you can get past the crudeness and turn your brain off while watching, you might find this quite enjoyable.

Another European horror film, very low budget. This is one of those "found-footage" movies that, unfortunately, have been used a lot by amateur directors, with little money for great productions and good cameras. The result is another suffering film, with a deeply mediocre cinematography. Is it necessary to shake so much? Okay, the movie is "found-footage", but we still have to be able to figure out something about what's being "filmed" (I put quotation marks because we cannot really call it filming), did you know that? The plot is basic: two idiot Americans (always the Americans) are vacationing in Barcelona, in search of the normal things that American teens want to find in Europe: a lot of cheap fun, girls willing to get laid easily, loud music and other amusements for Americans with an IQ below 40. But what looked like a lucky night with two naughty girls will end badly, when a bloodthirsty ghost appears to shred the whole world.

The movie takes a while to get where the action really starts and this is annoying, but then we end up missing that, because the rest of the film is a succession of racing, falling, bleeding... all mixed with the usual sound attempts to scare the audience and a lot of fake blood splashing around. Unfortunately, when the film begins with these things, we're already so bored and so tired of these two idiots that we just want them to die quickly for the movie to end.