Found footage heads South.
“The Final Project” is a film that was brought onto my radar in the last month. While I dug through a ton of recent horror films during the Valentine’s Day season, this film struck my attention. The movie seems like a Paranormal Activity/Blair Witch Project riff, there’s a lot more going on. If you examine the film from its low budget roots, you see an attempt to pull a Roger Corman style aping of big picture horror films. If you can’t appreciate that, then you have no sense of film history.
That being said, the jump scares are quite tame and I grew tired of the dialogue by the hour marker. But, there were some lovely ladies that kept me focused and I enjoyed the finale. It’s just that I swear I’ve seen the film before. Such is the bane of low budget horror. You have to stay familiar to attract a new audience, but you can’t experiment without risking everything on a whim.
I can’t wait to see what the director has to offer next. But, I can see how this film won’t do it for everybody. We’re entering a weird place in horror as an audience and we’ve got to make up our minds about what we want. There’s a place at the table for “The Final Project” and “The Witch”. So, give it all a chance. Just avoid the Cabin Fever remake like the film was the flesh eating virus.
RELEASE DATE: 2/12/2016