Stoo
Well-known member
Review
Saw this last week at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) and was disappointed.
There was a funny introduction from the director (recorded from his computer's camera) just for the Neuchatel festival. It was a midnight showing and the crowd was totally stoked! They were the most enthusiastic Swiss audience that I've seen yet...but the energy didn't last long.
Bad:
It was never truly scary and nowhere near as grim & frightening as the trailers. (None of the trailer footage is in the actual movie, by the way.) Some parts tried to be humorous but never really succeeded. I think that the audience WANTED it to be funny which resulted in, what seemed to be, forced chuckles from parts of the theatre.
The bright, red blood looked terribly fake and the designs of the "zombots" were rather silly-looking, apart from 2 or 3 of them. (The designs used in the "Worst Case Scenario" trailers looked much better.)
The way it was shot. I admire the fact that they tried to simulate old, colour footage with washed out hues and plenty of film crackle, however, the pristine sharpness of the image ruined the illusion of vintage film stock. What made it even more unconvincing was using the modern trend of a CONSTANTLY UNSTABLE camera, as though the audience needs to be continually reminded that this is supposed to be hand-held footage. Even a drunk person could hold a camera more steadily! With these detractors combined, the photography didn't match old, WW2 footage and that was a big let-down for me.
Good:
The premise was interesting. The acting was believable. The set decoration was GREAT and I really liked the ending.
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It's not a terrible film but certainly not as good as I'd hoped for. Still worth a look if you're into this genre.
Saw this last week at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) and was disappointed.
It was entirely in colour, point-of-view, documentary style and definitely falls into the "found footage" category. The earliest parts reminded me a lot of the late '80s Vietnam War movie, "84 Charlie Mopic", where a cameraman accompanies a squad of infantry but in this film, they are in the Russian army during WW2.Me said:
There was a funny introduction from the director (recorded from his computer's camera) just for the Neuchatel festival. It was a midnight showing and the crowd was totally stoked! They were the most enthusiastic Swiss audience that I've seen yet...but the energy didn't last long.
Bad:
It was never truly scary and nowhere near as grim & frightening as the trailers. (None of the trailer footage is in the actual movie, by the way.) Some parts tried to be humorous but never really succeeded. I think that the audience WANTED it to be funny which resulted in, what seemed to be, forced chuckles from parts of the theatre.
The bright, red blood looked terribly fake and the designs of the "zombots" were rather silly-looking, apart from 2 or 3 of them. (The designs used in the "Worst Case Scenario" trailers looked much better.)
The way it was shot. I admire the fact that they tried to simulate old, colour footage with washed out hues and plenty of film crackle, however, the pristine sharpness of the image ruined the illusion of vintage film stock. What made it even more unconvincing was using the modern trend of a CONSTANTLY UNSTABLE camera, as though the audience needs to be continually reminded that this is supposed to be hand-held footage. Even a drunk person could hold a camera more steadily!
With these detractors combined, the photography didn't match old, WW2 footage and that was a big let-down for me.Good:
The premise was interesting. The acting was believable. The set decoration was GREAT and I really liked the ending.
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It's not a terrible film but certainly not as good as I'd hoped for. Still worth a look if you're into this genre.