Film Review: Unfriended: Dark Web

"We Have To Do Something And We Have To Do It Now..."

With the release of Unfriended back in 2015 one of which here at Black Ribbon was welcomed with warm, open arms and a sense of pride that the long-standing genre of horror found-footage was beginning to explore wilder and more contemporary avenues of storytelling, a sequel was something of which that did seem rather unwarranted and strange considering the undeniable one-trick pony effect of seeing a particular gimmick once may actually be more than enough the first time around. That aside, as per the conventions of modern cinema, monetary issues undeniably talk and here we have this week, Unfriended: Dark Web, a continuation of the found footage format which sees a group of unsuspecting youths being pawns in a murderous game of technological blackmail within a sequel which this time decides to drop the supernatural element of the its' predecessor and instead focus more so on the seedier side of the web and social media with a more realistic approach, and whilst Dark Web may not be as fresh or as creepy as the body of work the movie follows on from, the latest Blumhouse Productions release is still an interesting and engaging hard-edged thriller. 

With the release of the highly entertaining Searching this month bringing the cinematic format utilised by the original Unfriended to a wider audience, it seems strange to find two releases within a short time-span to focus on stories told predominantly upon the technological screens of our leading heroes, and whilst Searching was a paranoid ridden thriller which edged towards a sense of cheesiness as it reached its' conclusion, the film's sense of danger and threat perils in comparison to Dark Web, with its' unrelenting bleakness and cold-hearted treatment of its' characters particularly cruel, harbouring a violent and dark sensibility which echoed the likes of The Belko Experiment. With a screenplay which includes a wide range of technological jargon and geeky terminology, it is to the film's credit that you never become lost or left behind as the film moves forward through plot twists and inevitable deaths, and whilst at times particular narrative resolutions aren't entirely convincing, director Stephen Susco does utilise the talents of the film's young cast to provide some solid performances which paper over the cracks which often appear, and whilst Dark Web strangely seems to leave the common jump-scare tactic of horror movies behind, its' focus on the seedy and the uncanny result in the movie being a sequel which attempts something fresh and just happens to succeed. 

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: Blair Witch

"There's Something Out There..."

Although way too young to realise the impact of The Blair Witch Project when it was released back in 1999, the found footage masterpiece is one of the most traumatising horror movies I had ever seen when I finally got around to watching it in my late teens. Even days after witnessing the events that took place within the movie, the sheer terror of the film still shook me like no other horror movie I had seen previously, with its' complete lack of jump scares and a pinpoint and effectively measured sense of realism resulting in a movie which left everything to the imagination without any sense of closure or answers to the many questions directors Sanchez and Myrick brought up. Now in 2016, we have Blair Witch, a true successor to the 1999 original (We will forget about Book of Shadows), directed by Adam Wingard, of whom I am a fan of after making effective horrors in the past with You're Next and segments for the V/H/S franchise. Of course, there was simply no chance that Wingard's take on the legend of the Black Hills Forest was set to surpass the original yet even so, Blair Witch is a terrifying enough experience to warrant its' existence, if feeling ever so much like the original in ways both bad and good. 

After treading upon a recently uploaded video supposedly containing his long lost sister Heather, James ventures into the Black Hills Forest with his camera-obsessed friends in order to find closure regarding his sisters' disappearance; events which took place within The Blair Witch Project. After meeting with the young locals who uploaded the video, the group venture into the forest and soon succumb to the curse of the Blair Witch with the group, and particularly James, understanding what his sister may have experienced herself over a decade previously. Although Blair Witch is weakened by its' fundamental similarities to the original, with the setup and plot twists being pretty much a full-on retread of what fans already know when it comes to the Black Hills Forest, Wingard's take on the story does boast some effective tense-ridden scenes, particularly in the latter act of the movie when we once again venture into the supposed residence of the titular entity through complete and utter darkness. The cast too are loving every minute and chewing the scenery as they go from one spooky location to the next, yet the film does suffer from not entirely having the organic and strange feel of the original, and although the myth of the Blair Witch herself is slightly scuppered by brief images of a potential reveal, Wingard's Blair Witch is terrifying enough in sections to warrant a thumbs up. As a fan of the original, Blair Witch is actually a solid, spooky horror which pays a sense of justice to the original, if only too much at times. 

Overall Score: 7/10

TV Review: Doctor Who Series Nine Episode Nine "Sleep No More"

"None Of This Makes Any Sense!"

As a huge advocate of horror movies in general, this week’s episode of Doctor Who attempted to hop aboard the well-and-truly-used trope train that is the “found footage” genre, a film-making technique that has now begun to strike fear into the heart of many critics who believe the invention of franchises such as Paranormal Activity and subsequent admirers, including this years’ terrible The Gallows, have well and truly sealed the fate of the once ground-breaking mode of movie-making which although came to the attention of many with the release of The Blair Witch Project in the late 1990’s, can be traced all the way back to the release of Cannibal Holocaust in the mid-1900’s. For me personally therefore, “Sleep No More” was bound to be an interesting and slightly off-key episode of Doctor Who, yet the signs were inherently positive from the beginning. Doctor Who meets The Blair Witch Project? Sounds unmissable in my book.

Beginning with a notable dismissal of the opening theme tune and credits, something of which I believe has not occurred throughout the shows’ 52 year history, we are introduced to a spectacle-wearing mystery, a man who appears to be the last survivor of a deserted space station, and a man who is very clearly telling us not to watch any of what is to come in the next 45 minutes. Intrigued? Sure, and add into the equation a minor rescue squad and the rather swift introduction of some rather eerie deathly creatures, this weeks’ episode sets the tone straight away, with “Sleep No More” essentially being Doctor Who meets Event Horizon with a dash of Blair Witch, and it’s rather brilliant. Although it can be easily argued that Who has kind of missed the boat when it comes to embracing the lost art of the found footage genre, it can also equally be argued that with all the nonsensical releases that adhere to such a format released in the past few years, that Who in 45 minutes has accomplished what some feature films completely miss out on, a sense of threat and drama which uses the found footage technique to its’ advantage in creating a spooky and fundamentally organic episode of Doctor Who, of which, I believe, will be one of the most memorable episodes of the Capaldi era in years to come.

Where the episode strangely both succeeds and fails is in its’ attempt to coherently paint a picture of what is actually happening aboard the spaceship, with the Doctor’s ramblings of “None of this makes any sense!” essentially mirroring the exact same feelings from the viewer with Mark Gatiss’ script obviously attempting to be rather ambiguous in a similar vein to last years’ Series 8 episode, “Listen”, a trait I believe will cause some viewers to underrate the episode because of its’ desire to not paint out a whole picture by the numbers and instead leave it dangling by a titillating thread. Ending on a rather spooky cliff-hanger, “Sleep No More” continues the trend of Series 9’s surprising consistency, mixing the found-footage genre in with the sci-fi wonder that is The Doctor and Clara’s ventures around time and space, making it for me personally, one of the best of Capaldi’s reign so far. 

Overall Score: 9/10

Film Review: Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension

"I Should Have Stayed At Mum's..."

When it comes to a juggernaut of a release such as Spectre, there is always a few films that attempt to grab the minorities attention and attempt to sway them away from Mr Bond and his exploding watch. Unfortunately for those who part of such a minority, one of the few films release side-by-side Spectre this week is Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, the newest and supposedly last incarnation of the well-worn found footage franchise that began all the way back in in 2009 with Paranormal Activity, which to be fair was rather creepy and overtly intelligent, satisfyingly so considering its' tightrope budget was well and truly recuperated around a million times over by audiences via word of mouth and critical praise rather than overblown advertisements and propaganda. Once the first film was seen as a highly effective money-making scheme, producers decided to repeat the process over and over and over again with The Ghost Dimension proving to be the final nail in the coffin of the original which in effect has been completely tarnished by the reputation of its' successors. 

Paranormal Activity 2? Pants. Activity 3? Bit better. Activity 4? Real pants. The Marked Ones? Completely pointless. Am I missing anything? Do I care? No. Neither seemingly do the film-makers of The Ghost Dimension who seem not to realise that the overly boring setup of found footage films nowadays is really starting to become rather grating with The Ghost Dimension ticking all of the many boxes of what you expect with such a movie. People filming the house? Check. Cleaning the lens? Check. Wobbly, shaky, running scenes? Check. Camera catching no-so-creepy entity and then people looking at it again therefore repeating the same scene twice just so our so called cast can catch up with stuff we have already seen? Check. Get the picture? The one redeeming feature of The Ghost Dimension is that it puts to bed the overly tedious and overstretched plot-lines that apparently connects all of the Paranormal series, something of which I couldn't care less about but does make me happy that we will never see any shaky-cam captures of the demonic and stupidly named Toby ever again. 

Overall Score: 2/10 

Film Review: The Visit

The Elder House Rules

A bit late I know for a review of The Visit, M. Night Shyamalan's return to the land of movie-making, but due to an all work and no play way of life at the moment, a trip to the cinema now feels more like a holiday instead of a bi-daily occurrence of which it once did. When before if I ever missed the pit-stop of being on-time with reviews of the week's movies I would simply move on and allow better, and much more educated, viewpoints to have their say without my own personal feelings on the matter surfacing onto the web, yet the release of The Visit put me in such a deep coma of confusion that I felt compelled to relay my own opinions onto you wonderful people who take the time to read my sometimes bloated, yet wholly organic take on the week's new movies. Whereas in the past director M. Night Shyamalan was lauded for critically acclaimed movies such as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, his recent performances have been somewhat pants with straight-down-the-toilet releases such as After Earth and The Last Airbender tainting his reputation two-fold resulting in his return in the form of The Visit, a film so confused by its' own creation that it seemingly crosses between the boundaries of horror and comedy in such stark fashion that it fails to distinguish itself as nothing more than a movie that's smothered in marmite, and feels happy to be so.

Produced and released by those behind the downfall of horror cinema as we know it at Blumhouse Productions, The Visit attempts to distinguish itself from the annoyingly overused theme of found-footage by establishing itself as a pseudo-documentary, focusing on the reunion of both grandchildren and grandparents, whilst forming an overly confusing combination of cliched horror tropes, of which, are not very frightening, and black comedy, of which, isn't very funny, with crude toilet humour and the image of a naked elderly woman being the highlight of the film's comedic standpoint. With a supposed "twist" being not only a complete and utter let-down, but being seen from a mile off, it begs the question whether Shyamalan will ever return to the high watermark set at the early beginnings of his once promising career. The Visit isn't on the level of After Earth at least, but it's miles off the brilliance of The Sixth Sense and can only be regarded as a movie lost in its' own attempt to be both funny and scary but ends up not being entirely either.

Overall Score: 4/10

Film Review: The Gallows

School's Out

Adding to this years' already terribly mediocre lineup of horror movies this week is The Gallows, another entry into the overblown horror filmography of the murderers of contemporary horror that is Blumhouse Productions, a company famous for their work with the Paranormal Activity series, the Insidious series, The Purge, and of course the Sinister series. Aside from all being produced by the same company, these particular films all share a particular trait in seemingly being the blueprint and and DNA for the way in which modern horror flicks are made, with the age-old use of the quiet, quiet band technique being the cornerstone of each films' genetic makeup. Sure, there are few good entries within the back catalogue of Blumhouse, particularly the first Paranormal Activity and Sinister, whilst the also have the proud honour of producing Whiplash which still holds its' own as film of the year so far in my opinion, but a huge chunk of their films are either too similar in tone to be extinguished from any other around them or just being actually plain terrible. In terms of The Gallows therefore, Blumhouse's new addition to the horror genre hopelessly falls into the latter category with it being a painful experience from start to finish, and not in a good horror movie way. 

After a tragic accident during a school production of The Gallows in 1993 where pupil Charlie freakishly died by that of hanging, the same school once again after 20 or so years sets out to perform the play once more, much to the displeasure of Reese who is set to perform in the leading role with an aim to win the heart of his leading lady. When Reese's friend Ryan comes up with the idea to destroy the set before the day of the show in order to prevent any potential failings on Reese's part, along with girlfriend Cassidy, they somehow become locked in the school and being to wonder if the evil spirit of the dead Charlie is with them once again. So, where are the problems with The Gallows I hear you ask? Everywhere. Firstly, the shaky, tedious option of the found-footage genre is as generic as it comes within this particular film with it not expanding its' horizons in any form whatsoever and instead relies on annoying moments of long, boring and ultimately pointless shots of either darkness, a room, or someones' emotionless face in a failed attempt to mimic or take heed from that of the classic that is The Blair Witch Project. The addition of the ever-infuriating camera shake to enable our protagonists to run away in complete darkness just results in making the film incredibly hard to watch and achieves nothing except making me regret the fact that I could have possibly paid for this film if it was not for the beauty of my Cineworld Unlimited card. 

As for the protagonists, this brings me to my second point which is that any good horror movie creates and leaves you with a sense of threat or danger towards characters that you really care about and are meant to worry for during their duration of whatever horrific act their particular horror movie has placed them in. Within The Gallows however, the filmmakers have decided to not abide by this notion at all and instead placed us with the most hateful, annoying, cringe-inducing protagonists I have seen in a long time, especially that of high-school bully Ryan who's role in the first twenty minutes of the film is to behave like a total ass and act like the kind of person you are just waiting to be murdered horrifically in a film like this in order to wipe his non-nonsensical life from existence. With hateful characters such as this, all The Gallows does is leave you rooting for the supposed evil presence of Charlie to swiftly knock off his victims and get the film over and done with, something of which I sense was not entirely the filmmakers goal. Finally, the film succeeds in bringing one jump to the table and I haven't decided, or really cared about deciding, whether this was due to the scene being actually quite scary or whether the volume of the showing was fundamentally going to make me jump, yet with this being under the production values of Blumhouse, I am going to go for the latter. Hand your head in shame The Gallows, you are a stinker of a horror movie. 

Overall Score: 2/10  

Film Review: Unfriended

Paranormal Webtivity

When it comes to horror movies, I tend to pass on the films that can be placed within the "cattle-prod" genre of cinema, whereby the main shock factor is a buildup of silence which is then suddenly interrupted by a massive BANG, particularly massive within a cinematic environment, where the volume is cranked up to eleven. The horror films that really give me the creeps are those that are ambiguous in their nature, the films where not everything is explained, and where the scare factor isn't relied upon making the audience jump but by making the audience feel threatened accompanied by an overarching sense of dread. Thankfully for Unfriended, Levan Gabriadze's new take on the overused found footage genre doesn't rely on cheap jump scares and instead presents an interesting and clever concept of which is wonderfully executed making it hands down the best horror movie of 2015 so far.

With the film being based solely around the screen of a Apple Mac, the fundamental nature of the film was going to be rather restrictive, but within its' short 80 minute runtime, I never felt the boundaries were being exerted upon and in fact, was even more engaging than I thought it possibly could have been. This was due in part to the acting of the young victims of Unfriended who go full on in terms of horror movie actor traits, particularly the leading lady Shelley Hennig as Blaire who tackles a whole spectrum of emotion throughout the film and provides one of the more iconic roles in a film within the found footage genre. Of course naming your leading lady Blaire is an obvious throwback to the incredibly creepy 1999 found footage film The Blair Witch Project and it is particularly this film where Unfriended seemingly takes its' cues from with both having an unseen entity, both relying more on creep factor than cheap scares, and both taking the chance to redefine the blueprint of a genre that has begun to well up over the years previous to its' release. 

Being in the same category as The Blair Witch Project is definitely a brilliant feat to have achieved and although Unfriended may not be the horror film many will be looking for, for me it was a brilliant and overly refreshing experience, something of which has been overly lacking within the horror genre over the past few years (The Babadook aside). If you want a movie that decides to stay away from cheap jump scares and one dimensional characters and instead focuses on evolving sympathy for its' victims by effective characterisation and having an underlying tone of ambiguity and fear, then Unfriended is definitely the film for you. Go see it.

Overall Score: 8/10