Shadowplayed
I was not a fan of this film first time around, and while it improved upon rewatch, there are things that irked me as they would any viewer eager to see some intelligent and sane adult's reaction to...well, occurrences as they were presented.Unlike some reviewers I do NOT believe molestation has taken place in this film, nor there are supernatural forces at work, rather a case of rotten apples. 2 for 2, as far-fetched as it sounds. But, these are twins, with their weird little ways and enclosed little world, so there you go.Seriously, how oblivious parents can be? From overbearing, over-enthusiastic father - the pastor, to child psychiatrist of a mom who does not recognize her kids are unwell, then extremely violent, and when she does just does not address it properly? The fact we have two opposing factors here - science vs religion was never properly used, eventually tackled in a shallow manner, shall we exorcise them or fill them up with pills? None of those approaches worked, cause parents in this film haven't the slightest idea how to deal with their kids' alarming behavioral problem.It could have helped it we had some prospect of how the kids acted before moving into the house. Have they always been this weird, or did it happen suddenly, and unexpectedly? Since parents show no reaction to their kids' lack of human reaction I'm inclined to think they'd always been a couple of weirdos, it's just they got fed up with the parents and decided to put a stop to their annoying, happy-go-lucky holiday routine.I won't go into tech aspects, basically, found footage tropes are present as expected, sometimes little annoying but for the fans of subgenre shouldn't be too much of an obstacle. My bigger gripe is the story (basic idea is fine) and how far fetched many parts of it actually were.
Johan Louwet
Well I really am no fan of the found footage movies with the shaky hand-cam stuff. The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, The Last Exorcism it's just a few examples of movies I really didn't like. But I wanted to give this one a try because the theme evil kids does appeal to me. Yes the way of filming was no fun experience and the parents of the kids were really annoying especially the father. Unfortunately the movie focuses mostly on the parents talking and doing quite silly not much on what the kids are doing. I would have loved to see how the kids would have been planning are their evil acts instead. They look lovely and that is always a plus when they eventually turn out to be little monsters. That doesn't take away though that the result of what they did when filmed even when it's only shown a few seconds is quite an effective shock much more than everything they did was shown in detail. The finale could have been better. All in all enjoyable but not for a re-watch.
Joe W
The summary above says it all. I really cannot think of any improvements for this movie. It had all the great elements of a horror; suspense, miss-direction, character build-up. To me this was a straight 10/10, I wish there was a home movie 2. Personally I'm not a big fan of the whole video camera way of filming, but this was definitely an exception. The only time that I found the camera a bit hard to believe was when (spoiler) David was tied up and instead of running upstairs in a panic, the first thing she thinks to do is pick up the camera... But apart from that it was quite realistic, for example (spoiler) with the cat on the cross, David turned the camera off straight away (as everyone else would do).At some points in this movie I was seriously creeped out, even at small things, like when they're at the dinner table and the camera skips/flashed. Okay I'm going into way too much details, but this movie is outstanding for a movie I had never heard of until a day ago, it is even short so if it isn't for you, not much time was wasted. But in any case, give it a shot!
uberlefty
Horror films are one of my favorite genres, unfortunately it is a rare case to find a decent one. I enjoy realistic and disturbing horror films. Not the ones that try to ride out on big breasted women running from demons that jump out on the screen every 15 minutes. This film is short, and to the point. From the very beginning there is a sense of tension that continuously builds until the brutal ending. I rarely leave a film of this type with a disturbed mind, but this movie certainly did the trick. The acting is perfect from some moderately unknown names. Adrian Pasdar was enjoyable to watch as he played a key role in the tension and the relief occasionally. The hand-held film effect may seem to be overdone, but this film utilizes it differently and even mentions at times how stupid it is to be filming their own horrors. I strongly recommend this film.
AD
