The plot revolves around an author discovering some Super 8 films in his new house that depict various murders by an unseen antagonist. As the film progresses the author becomes more and more paranoid. He then discovers a mysterious message, pointing the finger for these murders at Mr. Boogie, an unknown and malevolent figure that appears in the backgrounds of photos and seems very similar to the Slender Man myth, which in some incarnations is better done than this movie, in my opinion (for example the Marble Hornets YouTube channel, an ongoing series of short videos documenting the journey of a young director whose friend vanishes and his search to discover the truth behind it).
Despite being boring the film relied on traditional methods such as super-low lighting to add suspense, and the although the murder tapes aren't Tokyo Gore Police disgusting they still feel unnerving to watch. Even while the author is talking on the telephone one of the images of Mr. Boogie is displayed on his laptop screen, adding an unsettling feeling to such a normal day-to-day activity. The suspense helps you to empathise with the author. Another technique that I feel always makes the watcher feel scared is the use of slow panning, especially in a 180 degree radius. In one shot, the author is leading a police officer out of his house but as he turns around to face his front door the camera pans around too, which definitely made me scared of what might be behind him, as the fear of the unseen ghosts was what gave me nightmares after watching The Sixth Sense when I was younger.
However as the movie reaches the half-way point jump scares begin to get used to get some cheap screams from the viewers, like after watching a silent film where an unknown cameraman moves a lawnmower out onto the back garden, then walks it for half a minute, then a sudden screaming noise is heard when the cameraman moves the lawnmover onto a bound woman's face. Another cliché which gets massively overused is the "it's behind you" pantomime-style cliché where the author is focused on a dog facing him where some of the murdered victims stand behind him.
But the film spends too much time in between the scary sequences. One example of this is the 5 minutes of exposition with a local professor about a symbol seen in each tape. And although the scenes involving the author's family are necessary for making the impact of these tapes feel more significant, I believe that because the family of the author are more like supporting cast rather than main characters these scenes drag on a bit, and horror movie watches don't always want to see it. For example, The Blair Witch Project has plenty of moments where there is a lot of character development between the three central characters and I believe that because each of these three characters have been focused on equally since the start of the movie the characters are therefore more interesting to learn about, especially when one of the characters mysteriously vanishes, followed by horrifying screams in the darkness, then the discovery of his ear in a bundle. In this film, because the author is the only central character, there cannot be any shocking revelation like this.
The last half-hour of the film is even more boring as the conclusion takes far too long to get to. Bizarre cross cuts to a scene of a ladder along with a loud scratching sound effect seems a little clichéd, and a scene in the attic where a group of supposedly dead children look at the author then place their fingers on their lips is almost laughably cheesy. Then the horror ends again, and some more time is wasted watching the author research the mysterious symbol he'd seen before and talk to the professor again, then more time is spent watching the tapes. Finally, with 10 minutes left until the end of the film, there's a small but predictable twist, then the film ends with a shot of the tapes in the attic where they were originally found, then a jumpscare before the credits roll.
Overall, I think my experience with other suspense horrors like The Sixth Sense, The Blair Witch Project and The Thing has allowed me to see the flaws in this movie, but I would still recommend it to someone interested in horror movies or similar myths like the Slender Man myth, although The Blair Witch Project would be first in my mind when considering good suspenseful horror movies.
From the movie I think I learned that in order to keep viewers interested there has to be consistent plot progression in some way or another. Another thing I learned is the potential use of panning shots in unusual situations which can add suspense. Finally, I also learned that although ending the movie with a jumpscare does lead to a few laughs, it's not a very good way to end a movie.
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