Shudder Review: Found Footage 3D (2017)

"A breath of fresh, different air."

The Horror world is filled with endless amounts of cheap, non-sensical Found Footage flicks where people inexplicably film horrific events so that someone can come along later and find the footage, and try to figure out what happened to them.

That usually involves a lot of shaky, grainy, blurred action that really sucks to sit through, and it's gotten pretty old.

Every now and then though, the tired sub-genre gives us a movie that transcends it shitty norm and delivers a smart, funny, and interesting story that makes us smile.

This is one such movie.

Derek and his small cast and crew are making a Found Footage flick called Spectre of Death. This one is going to stand out from the pack by being the first ever 3D Found Footage flick, even though that makes absolutely no sense. But it kinda does, given that this movie is meta like that.

The struggles of Indie filmmaking are front and center here, but the real fun begins when an evil shadow starts showing up in the footage, and begin messing with Amy, stalking her while she sleeps and clawing her arm.

THIS IS WHY YOU NEVER TAKE OFF INTO THE WOODS WITH A GUY YOU JUST MET AT A PARTY.

The producers of this movie know exactly how frustrating the average FF flick can be, and so it's a tiny stroke of genius that they went the meta route with Found Footage 3D, and did their best to decry their peers at every turn. Characters are constantly commenting on how stupid certain elements of their film are, or how things make no sense, and it made for a fun and humorous watch.

Of course, the movie ends up doing all of the things that it makes fun of other FF flicks for doing, but what can you do, it's a FF flick after all. It knows that the whole conceit is silly, but it still has to go there, because that's what it's made to do. 

Things actually get more Horror-oriented towards the end, where the vibe switches from fun to shocking, as the entity makes its move, and tears through the cast and crew. Aside from the part where the idiot driving the getaway van refused to watch the road while he was driving at breakneck speed, the third act was pretty cool. 

CREEPY PLACE, TOO BAD WE CAN'T STAY.

Things get bloody towards the end.

RUN, LIKE THAT WILL HELP.

There's a sex scene, but nothing too graphic.

THERE'S NOTHING QUITE LIKE A BLOODY TANK TOP, IS THERE?

At the very least, Found Footage 3D acknowledges the sub-genre's faults, and manages to entertain on a humorously meta level, while delivering some good old fashioned Horror at the same time. I have to give it credit for going a different route and making itself relevant in its own special way.

If you have Shudder, there's no reason for you not to give this one a go.

B

The 2D version of Found Footage 3D is streaming now, exclusively on Shudder. The 3D version hits the streaming service on October 26th.

The girls of Found Footage 3D.

New on Blu-ray Today: The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)

*We watched this movie way back in 2009, and found it to be a decent Found Footage flick. In the years since, we've seen it a few more times, and it's grown to be one of our favorites of the genre.

Thanks to Scream Factory, it's FINALLY hit Blu-ray and can be seen by Horror fans everywhere, and let me tell you that if you like gritty, realistic Horror flicks that make you feel dirty for watching them, then this is one not to miss. 

Check out our original review below, updated for the passage of time.






Sub-Genre- Serial Killer, Found Footage.
Cast Members of Note- Bobbi Sue Luther, and Stacy Chbosky.
Directed by- John Erick Dowdle, who would go on to helm films like Devil, Quarantine, and As Above, So Below.

A bunch of inept Cops and "experts" participate in a Documentary about the worst Serial Killer the world has ever known... Ed! At least they think that's his name, though they're so inept that they don't have so much as one clue about him, even after he leaves them hundreds of videotapes of his crimes. Could they not run the make of his car? Was there seriously not one print or molecule of DNA in his house, or at any of the crime scenes?

1-800-GOOD-LUCK-FINDING-HER.

Inept Police Work aside, Ed sure knows how to have fun; making whores pop balloons while dressed in bikinis, raping random kids and women, terrifying innocent Girl Scouts, taking advantage of the kindness of strangers... and he tapes it all for posterity's sake. And for the sake of love, apparently, which is something he desperately wants to find.

Hey Ed, this is not was love is.

Interviews, footage, interviews, footage, interviews, footage... I won't spoil the ending for you here, because it's so shocking, but let's just say that they never catch him. *It's Found Footage, no one ever gets caught.

...but plenty of people die!

Before even having seen this one, I loved the premise; Police find hundreds of video tapes belonging to a prolific local Serial Killer, each of them documenting his crimes in graphic detail. Now having actually seen it, this movie contains some absolutely disturbing scenarios and imagery, courtesy of said tapes, and if you can lose yourself in the Found Footage aspect of things, then you're in for a chilling ride.

Chloroform: The Stranger Picker Upper.

The acting in this was 50/50; some of it was decent and believable, and felt Documentary-like, but most of the rest of it was poor to bad, and even seemed ad-libbed at times. Then again, the script was pretty poor in places too; a good example of this is when a frantic mother calls 911 to say she thinks someone took her 8-year-old daughter, the 911 operator responds with "Like who?" in an uncaring, dismissive voice. Sub-par acting along with a script that needed to be a bit tighter, keeps this one from being the true Modern-day Classic that it could have been.

Overall though, this was a disturbing and creepy movie, that most people will find completely effective.

This looks like our porn collection.

Did the filmmakers think that obscuring the look of the killer's videos made them look more real? The footage was at times so horribly distorted, that we wondered if Ed had magnets in his pockets or something. I've never seen a worse camcorder in my life.

Is he adjusting the tracking?

Do you have to mess with the kids, Mr. Creepy Rape-Kill guy? I mean, all the Girl Scouts want to do is to sell their cookies, and make enough money for their Troop to go to camp "I'll be a whore someday," not be tortured and killed in terrible ways by you. You sir, are disturbing.

"Thin Mints please! Also, 2 boxes of Tagalongs. Also, I'm going to make you pass away with a knife."

There's not much gore in this one, but we do get a little bit of blood here and there. This movie is really more about disturbing visuals, rather than graphic violence, which is fine with us.

Like that right there? We get the point.

Dead hooker boobs.

"Pop it!" or "To be honest, I don't think either of us are gonna want you alive for the things I'm going to do to you."

Avoid nice guys with video cameras. Also, BDSM is scary.

Why did they not market and sell these masks? We'd buy one.

I have a feeling people will either love The Poughkeepsie Tapes, or downright hate it. Some things in this movie really, really worked well, while others fell a bit flat. I say see it; like The Blair Witch Project, it's an interesting Found Footage effort at the very least, and an awesomely disturbing movie at the most. That all depends on if the premise sucks you in or not though.

B+

The Poughkeepsie Tapes is finally available on Blu-ray now.

Bobby Sue Luther is in this.

VOD Review: Hell House LLC. (2016)

"This is cinema verite done properly. "

The Found Footage/POV/Hand-Held/First Person sub-genre is a derisive one at best. FF flicks can be intense and terrifying, making you feel like you're actually watching real footage of real people being stalked, haunted, etc... and those are the good ones.

Found Footage flicks can also be cheap, shoddy, predictable, and overly-familiar, which basically renders them useless as far as scares go. Those are the bad ones.

I'm happy to say that Hell House LLC. falls on the good side of that divide, and even more so, is one of the best Found Footage flicks that we've seen in recent memory.

On October 8th, 2009 in Abbadon, New York, new a new haunted house called Hell House opened its doors to the public. People were lining up to be scared, and the place was packed. In the middle of the very first tour, something went very wrong in the basement, which resulted in 15 people dying. The local Police kept it all hush-hush, and to this day, no one really knows what went wrong inside of Hell House.

WHERE THE HELL IS HE GOING?

Five years later, Documentary filmmaker Diana Graves sets out to uncover the truth behind what happened at Hell House that fateful night. Interviewing journalists and witnesses who all had interest or connection to the incident, she catches her biggest break when the lone survivor of the Hell House crew, Sara, shows up with a bag of video tapes in hand, hoping to set the record straight.

SHE USED TO BE HAPPIER...

The tapes contain footage of the Hell House crew in the weeks leading up to opening night, with the five crew members doing their best to make the place as creepy as possible. Of course, the tapes also show a series of disturbing and prophetic events that point to there being something wrong with the place.

Demonic shenanigans ensue.

NOPE.

This was a damn scary movie.

Honestly, it's a rare movie that gives me the willies these days to the point where I don't want to hang my feet off of the edge of the bed when I'm trying to go to sleep, but I'll be damned if this one didn't get to that point. This is a movie that uses subtlety to achieve its scares and cultivate its atmosphere, and it does so very well.If you don't like clowns, you're probably going to have a tough time during this one.

Hell House LLC. played a lot like 2011's excellent, The Tunnel (review HERE), in that it felt like a real Doc for a lot of its running time, and the way that it unfolded pulled us in immediately. The cast deserves a lot of credit for that, as they all did great work playing "real" people here. This movie may not bring anything new to the FF sub-genre, but what it does bring, it brings in a realistic, believable way.

I do have to say that the ending wasn't as good as the build up, and it kind of left us wanting. The actions of the characters in the final moments seemed silly to me, because who in their right mind would do something so stupid? Then again, Horror is a genre built on the stupid actions of stupid characters, so I digress.

CHILLS, MAN. CHILLS.

There's some gore to be had here, but it's minimal.

GET CLOSER. THEY WON'T BITE.

Aside from Ryan Jennifer looking good in some panties, and a half-naked haunt actress, this is a skin-free affair.

GOD BLESS THAT GIRL.

Hell House LLC. impressed us far more than any Found Footage flick has done in forever. It's not without its flaws, but the bottom line is that it's well-made, believable (mostly), and above all else, it's genuinely scary.

This is a perfect flick to explore during the Halloween Season... and then maybe go to a haunted house after wards. If you dare.

B+

Hell House LLC. is available now on VOD.

The haunting honeys of Hell House LLC.