HOOKED UP (2013)

Hooked Up (2013)
Directed by: Pablo Larcuen
Written by: Eduard Sola, Pablo Larcuen
Starring: Jonah Ehrenreich, Júlia Molins, Natascha Wiese, Stephen Ohl

HOOKED UP (2013)
Directed by Pablo Larcuen

Two American friends, Antonio (Jonah Ehrenreich) and Peter (Stephen Ohl), head to Barcelona for a holiday after Peter is dumped by his girlfriend Lisa. Antonio promises to cheer him up with a break in the sun aided by booze and girls. After getting plastered at a bar and each managing to hook up with a girl, they go back to Peter’s girl, Katia’s grandparents’ house. With no-one home and many bedrooms, the boys have plenty of time and opportunity to get it on with their latest squeeze. When Katia (Natascha Wiese) gets a bit handy with her teeth during fellatio, Peter urges Antonio and his girl Noemi to leave with him and go to the hospital but the trio find that they’re locked in the creepy house with a psychotic female who may not be of this world.

Shot completely on iPhone, HOOKED UP is a found-footage style horror movie with supernatural elements. The film opens with Peter vomitting in a toilet (nice) whilst his best friend Antonio annoyingly rabbits on from behind the camera on how Peter should get over his ex by getting insanely drunk and screwing loads of girls in the beautiful city of Barcelona. Though not initially keen on the idea, Peter soon gets into the swing of things when Antonio tells him that his ex has probably already moved on from him anyway.

Both the characters Peter and Antonio are unlikable individuals, especially Antonio. They’re self-centred young men who don’t realise there’s more to life than sticking their appendage into an inebriated female. Their stupidity lands them in more trouble than they could have imagined but even then, its hard for the viewer to warm to them.

The only decent performance in the film is that of Júlia Molins as Noemi. Her performance is subtle compared to the over-the-top performances from her co-stars. Noemi’s character is believable and the viewer genuinely feels for the young girl who seems to come off worse in the movie through no fault of her own. Her fellow female co-star Natascha Wiese is rarely seen after a few scenes at the nightclub and house and becomes a demented, masked, knife-wielding maniac who’s out to kill all three of the guests in her grandparents’ house. A slight backstory is given to her character but it was mumbled and described so quickly that I’m unsure what it was meant to be, although it doesn’t affect the film at all.

One of the big issues, besides the acting, weak script and struggling plot, is that the camera is shaking and swinging around like nobody’s business. As someone who suffers from motion sickness, I found it a struggle to watch at times and had to look away often to prevent sickness. Luckily, it didn’t trigger the full on nausea but this is still something to bear in mind should you suffer from motion sickness too.

Though HOOKED UP has a couple of scenes that will grab the viewer’s attention, they’re not enough to keep the viewer entertained nor engaged. The film feels dragged out and like a bad hangover that you just want to end. Even the horror elements aren’t scary, with the film resorting to quick glimpses and chase scenes to heighten the tension.

Found footage, when done right, can be brilliant but HOOKED UP is not one of these films.

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