Reel Evil
Directed by: Danny Draven
Written by: Danny Draven, Shane Bitterling
Starring: Jeff Adler, Jessica Morris, Kaiwi Lyman
Reel Evil (2012)
(18) Running time: 77 minutes
Director: Danny Draven
Writers: Shane Bitterling, Danny Draven
Cast: Jessica Morris, Kaiwi Lyman, Jeff Adler
Reviewed by: Matt Wavish
So, and I am starting to say this with a painful look on my face, here is yet another found footage horror, and yet another one that totally rips off Grave Encounters. While Grave Encounters was not the best found footage horror of recent years, at least it was the first (I believe) to set the story in a haunted asylum, something which cleverly added to the story and scares. Now, everyone is doing it, and I must say it is getting rather tedious and boring, and Reel Evil is no exception to the faltering quality of these films.
Three desperate filmmakers finally get the break they have been looking for when they are asked to document a horror film being shot in a haunted hospital. Kennedy (Morris), Cory (Lyman) and James (Adler) happily oblige, and begin to film the horror flick in production, much to the annoyance of one of the female stars. Naturally, the documentary crew decide to explore the hospital when they are not needed, and while down in the dark corridors, they unleash a terrible evil which is haunting the hospital, a terrible evil and some truly terrible CGI.
The first half of the film actually plays out rather nicely, with the documentary crew heading down to the abandoned corridors. There is plenty of menacing build up as Cory thinks he can hear something on his headphones, and we all stop and listen for noises. This, and the darkly lit rooms and corridors work well to build a chilling and unnerving atmosphere. However, Kennedy, with her fearless attitude and desperation to find out what it is, will annoy you very quickly. Don’t get me wrong, she is great to look at, but her character is irritating and simply put there to help the scares work. Without any hesitation she rushes into dark corners or rooms, desperate to find something. However, these first moments of simple scares work well because the director is not trying too hard to scare you, and the slow, moody pace does actually create a few genuine shock moments.
However, when the documentary crew meet back with the filmmakers, the film ups the stakes and brings on way too much terror that is handled incredibly amateurish. CGI ghosts and mist are an embarrassment to watch, and look totally out of place, cameras set up to catch these paranormal events appear way too fake, and things happen on camera far too quickly as if the ghost saw the camera set up and thought “yeh, time to open a door or something”. It is lazy filmmaking and lazy writing. The cast scream and shout all the usual found footage clichés “what is that?”, “turn the camera off!!”, oh please. And the camera jitters and blacks out, and static distorts it, the sound goes, and we move suddenly to try and catch a glimpse of whatever the hell made that noise. Oh, and remember the number one rule “we must keep filming!!!” It is truly getting on my nerves now.
There are a couple of neat ideas later on though, and a corridor with doors which lead back into the same corridor is a very cool idea. Sadly though, the idea is maxed out very quickly, but it keeps on going and actually ruins to gag. There is very little violence here, so if you are wondering what the 18 certificate is for then I’ll tell you: tits! Yes, in a very bad way of adding something to Reel Evil, the director decided to shoot at least three females topless, in gratuitous shots too that really don’t fit with the film at all. It just felt like a cheap way of keeping your interest, because everything else here simply does not work. Reel Evil is further proof that the found footage genre is dying on its ass, and if films like this keep coming along, even the die hard and devoted (like me) will soon give up on the genre. Please stop making these films unless you genuinely have something new to bring to the genre.
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