This piece of somewhat scary fluff was made in San Diego in about 7 days for somewhere around $11-15 K (depends on which source you read, but let's just say a really small budget funded by the director Oren Peli). His two main actors Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston, novice actors, did the shoot for something like $500 each several years back. And then it got shopped around to festivals and such for a while.....enter Steven Spielberg and some execs at Paramount who snapped up this little "gem" for around $350k with some "back end" for the Director (which he is purportedly sharing with his actors...hey, nice guy!).
Then Paramount decided to do a Blair Witch Project on us and started internet marketing the crap out of it. Tweets and all the rest. With slogans like "See The Movie Everyone's Talking About" and "Be Part of The Phenomenon". Look, I just don't do well with these messages. I mean, who wants to not be part of something that's going to be water cooler Facebook talk for the next 2 months?? So I decided I would go and spend my precious time to see a "scary" movie (for the record, I don't like "scary" movies, which is why you will never see a review from me for one of the Saw or Hostel franchised movies). Besides, it's free for me :)
So I go late at night thinking to myself, "If it's really scary who would be fool enough to watch it right before bedtime, right?". The theater is pretty packed; not full, but alot of people. There is this African-American couple sitting in front of me, to the left a couple of seats. I only bring them into this because the guy, who was big enough to be a bouncer at the Key Club, kept saying his thoughts to his girl throughout the movie, and his thoughts just happened to be my thoughts, as if he was streaming from my brain to his mouth.
Okay (BEWARE Spoiler Alerts ahead:), so the movie starts and yes, it looks like one of the new-fad hand-held-camera documentary shows (trying to fool us into believing its "real"). And this happy couple, living in a very, very nice two story house, decides to put the dudes expensive camera in the bedroom cause the chick hears sounds and thuds at night. Only after about 20 minutes (and God knows how long together) does she admit to being stalked by your unfriendly neighborhood Casper. I mean, who doesn't tell their significant other that they have phantom stalkers? And when he does find out, mid-movie, who wouldn't ask their chick to leave, like now! But no, they see sightings of shadows, hear thumps, doors moving back and forth. The paranormal spirit even starts hogging the sheets, drags the chick out of bed and more kinda scary stuff. And yet they continue to go back to sleep in the same bed every night. And the guy in front of me can't believe how stupid this all is (that's what he said AND I was thinking). Then the dude in fronts does the unthinkable.....he starts laughing......and so do I. I mean, gut wrenching laughter.... it was THAT corny!
Anyway, 80 minutes of that and I can't wait til the movie ends and I can get some sleep. And then the ending comes. The chick kills the dude downstairs (she is possessed by the demon) and manages to carry him upstairs and throws him toward camera (the viewer perspective) and then snarls demon-like into the camera....beat.....that was it? That's what all the fuss is about?? Dumb, waste of time. And, guess what, that's what the dude in front of me says as he laments spending some $20 for him and his girl to see this piece of crap.
I go home, sleep oh so peacefully, and the next morning see a link in one of my mags to see the original ending that Spielberg wasn't as fond of. It was a little long of an ending, but at least it was credible...even if it wasn't as "scary". In this original ending the possessed Katie kills Micah downstairs, comes up and rocks back and forth upstairs for, ooooh, about 24 hours, while a friend comes by and finds Micah's body, screams, comes back with police who end up shooting Katie as she wields a knife and lunges towards them shouting "where's Micah". The article also mentioned another ending where the spirit has her committing suicide and then abandons poor Katie's body. Yahoo! At least that would be an end to the "franchise" that we're about to be burdened with.
Anyway, just my opinion (and the dude in front of me). Save your money and wait for video, or not at all is what I really think. Just use my crib notes and, trust me, you can sound like you saw the movie while remaining $12 richer!
Boo!
