Entity 2012

On a fairly regular basis, I end up watching a type or subgenre of movie that I typically dislike and would avoid. Tonight's accidental viewing? The Entity - which turns out to be a found footage movie. This is actually the type of movie I accidentally watch the most often because it's not always called out in the synopsis.

This should really be a lesson to myself about doing more thorough research before committing to watching a movie.

Alright, taking a step back here, let's do a $.25 plot summary:
A British TV crew from a "ghost hunter" show go exploring in the woods of Russia with a psychic in tow. They uncover a sinister looking building in which the Russian army (apparently) conducted medical experiments on psychics. This outing ends badly for everyone, thankfully (because all of the characters are terribly annoying).

The thing that I found weird about this movie is that it's a found footage movie but there's footage not shot by any of the characters. Had the movie been entirely found footage, I feel like the tension would have been greater and the well-planned "jump scares" could have been effective.

Plus, coming so late in the found footage game, there wasn't much this movie could really offer to "change" or "improve" the subgenre. They even have a moment (about 50 minutes into the movie) that is lifted directly out of The Blair Witch Project (the found footage movie that kicked off our cultural obsession).

Perhaps worse than that is the snail's pace at which this movie progresses. I was literally shouting at the TV, "can these two morons just die already?!" a full 30 or so minutes before the movie ended.

And somewhere along the way (in the last 15 minutes or so) the movie totally goes off the rails and almost turns into a monster movie (instead of a malevolent spirt movie). I guess I don't mind if you want me to believe that these "entities" are killing people but, I don't know that I believe a movie full of jump scares followed by a sloppy, bloody, splattering werewolf-style dismemberment. Either it's a creepy ghost who kills in a mysterious, off-camera way OR it's a FUCKING BEAST who devours your body and soul. I can't believe it's both.

On the plus side, the acting that takes place between shrieking scenes isn't too bad. The woman playing the psychic (Dervla Kirwan), the woman playing the TV reporter (Charlotte Riley), and the man who scammed them all into filming at this oh so haunted location (Branko Tomovic), are all quite good actors. I'd even give them the benefit of watching them in other movies.

To wrap up, let me tell you a quick story:
With 10 minutes remaining in the movie, the screen cuts to black. At this point I turn to my roommate and say, "There's only 10 minutes left - I'm hoping for 10 minutes of credits". When the picture comes back with a closeup on the reporter's face, I nearly shouted, "Shit"!
Okay. I did shout it.

This anecdote was promptly followed by a predictable ending and significantly less than 10 minutes of credits.

Bummer.

Would you like to subject yourself to the trailer? You're welcome to it: