I thought it was a good movie that kept its intensity up until the last second. As a lover of found footage, I thought it was more than passible, and was somewhat surprised to see so much negative discussion about it.
So, what *didn't* you like of the movie?
I quite liked it as well. Was it predictable? Yes. But at the same time, it was entertaining, simply because given the circumstances (having a camera/microphone on hand), the character's actions were pretty believable...or at the very least, they did what I think a lot of us kind of hope we would do, given that situation.
sharei liked it as well the acting is great from the couple how it goes from mild to tense and intense during the course of the movie. i dont see why the hate from alot of viewers. if people dont like pov films they shouldnt watch them in the first place. I found the music at the end during the credits quite interesting and creepy. I didnt understand the shootout it said muller the molester was shot. Nath had picked up the gun and put it back down and continued to search the house. Sam never saw the weapons she was the first to go. I didnt understand that. I know celeb managed to escape dispite getting hit in the shoulder when we hear gunshots first time on the phone.
shareRight at the very end, before the shoot out, Nate says 'Here, take the camera.' To me, this meant he was going to get a gun, seeing as that was probably the closest weapon they found. (The baseball bat was in the backseat of the car, and there wasn't anything else really useful.) He either just got back to Samantha after she got shot, or couldn't see the abductor until he shot at her.
It may have been easier to follow that part if they had subtitles up for the 'lights out' parts. If you weren't paying attention, it was easily missed. Maybe a second viewing, with the subtitles on, would help a bit? Just my opinion.
Worst acting of all time. The first hour was pointless. If you actually watched the entire movie, you'd likely have a huge headache due to constant screaming and repeating the same crap over and over.
God that movie was terrible.
Lol @ people saying that this movie has the "worst acting of all time", I'm not really sure what the actors could had done any better? If you're saying this is bad acting then you've clearly never had any experience with people in real life.
shareThey are saying bad acting, but they mean bad writing. The acting isn't bad, but the writing is.
It's a total Blair Witch ripoff from the opening cards to the closing cards, just with cars and amber alert instead of a forest. Right down to the final house and final "Showdown," if you will.
In Blair Witch, you felt their fear and it made sense to have their talking back and forth. Here it doesn't work. You don't feel their tension/fear, and their bickering takes you out of it. Not to mention ridiculous things like them talking over the kidnapper who they are listening to on the radio. Even in the house, Sam's constant crying for light takes away from the tension/fear that the kidnapper could show up at any time.
OR the fact that Nate declares his LOVE for Sam (he says "I love you"), and it is glossed over. It is pretty clear that one of the subtexts of the film is that although they are "best friends," Nate is romantically in love with Sam. He professes this love during their chase and nothing. It's as if Sam doesn't even hear it, because she is obsessed with being citizen-cop.
I remember being so touched my Nate`s passionate cries about how much he loved Sam and would do anything for her. I was kind of waiting for a response from Sam. It was so underwhelming
shareI liked the premise, but the ad lib shouting got old...fast. I fast forwarded a lot, and I don't think I missed anything. I applaude the producers/cast for taking chances and following their dreams. They're learning. I support that. :)
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I agree. To put the main conflict between the main characters and have them basically screaming at each other was pretty foolish. But they really hit on some great moments that they needed more of. Being pulled over, stopping for gas, both cars stopping on the shoulder. More things like that would have been a lot better than the arguing. And that alone would have made this movie more enjoyable. Not that I think it was horrible, just could have been handled a bit better.
shareBecause Sam is a moron. Don't get me wrong, I thought the idea was good and I wasn't completely immune to the fear of a child abduction, I've even posted a review elsewhere stating as much. However the plot only progressed because of Sam's stupidity. If they had tweaked it, maybe given the characters a better reason than the girlfriend is screaming and guilt tripping the boyfriend then i'd have liked this film. I liked Sam's boyfriend and Caleb (the cameraman/little brother). I felt scared for the little girl, especially towards the end, but Sam's stupidity and her constantly berating and calling her boyfriend heartless because he's using his head really killed this movie for me. It's not as bad as five across the eyes but it's nowhere near as good as a movie with the same type idea like megan is missing.
Also, just some notes, the reason why police tell you NOT to pursue a suspect is because:
1. The suspect could be armed and could open fire on you in order to get away
2. The suspect could be insane or desperate and kill the abductee
3. The suspect could panic, try to run, and cause a wreck killing him/herself and/or the abductee.
I actually liked this movie. In many ways,I believe theyt behaved in a way some people MAY behave. Who knows what Samantha's internal motivation was? I did want to respond to your message, though. You make a lot of sense and bring up some good points. Her best friend/boyfriend annoyed me. BUT, he seemed pretty real in many ways as well.
shareWhy should she have listened to Nate? How was she stupid? She saved a little girl's life. She saved a little girl from being molested, raped, and probably killed. Because she cared. If she listened to Nate, they would have NEVER found the abductor and the girl would not have lived anyway. All the police's three reasons for why not to pursue a suspect are stupid in this situation. It's a civic duty. It's a personal choice. Sure, they risked the abductor doing something to the abductee, but he was already going to! That risk was already present. They risked him killing her. But she was already at that risk too!! And yes, they risked themselves, but that's a personal choice that a giant walking vagina like you wouldn't make. In this situation, the cops weren't going to catch this guy.
I would only HOPE that if someone found the car that had my abducted child in it, they would be a good person and follow them too. And I would really hope that it wasn't a p**** like you who would just call the cops and drive off in the other direction, patting himself on the back for at least taking the time to make a phone call and just hoping it all works out in the end but not really giving a *beep* or willing to risk a single thing.
You'd let the guy get away and cause a child to be molested and murdered. Hope you're proud that you're so much smarter than Sam! If I were you I'd be ashamed to be a gutless douche. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see so many people on this board siding with Nate. *beep* you guys.
Spike,
"She saved a little girl's life. She saved a little girl from being molested, raped, and probably killed."
Yes, Yes, and barely. What do i mean, Yes she saved the girl from being raped/molested, BUT she almost did get her killed or did you tune out the text part at the end where the little girl had suffered a bullet wound in the shoulder (likely the same bullet that blew Sam's head off since she was holding the little girl). Note that the shoulder isn't that far from the little girl's head meaning a little bit higher and to the left or right and the little girl would have gotten her head blown off too. Continuing, RECALL the scenario for that exact moment, RECALL that the police were on there way to the exact house. Note that in the same text at the end it said that the little brother survived the gunshot wounds he suffered. It's probably because the police arrived shortly after the closing scene. Making Sam's rescue completely pointless as the police, WHO I REMIND YOU, are trained for these situations arrived soon enough that if Sam hadn't guilt tripped her boyfriend into performing a B&E had stayed back out of line of sight of the perp.
The outcome would have been the perp wouldn't have gotten spooked (note he didn't notice them when he left but went after the little brother upon return, probably because the little brother got spotted walking around near the house), he wouldn't have come into the house gun ready. The police would have came up silent (no siren) apparently fairly soon and could get the drop on the perp resulting in the little girl getting saved MINUS a gunshot wound to the shoulder as the perp wouldn't have been armed as he was only armed because he realized it was the same people who had been following him earlier. The boyfriend and Sam would have survived as well as the little brother again MINUS the gunshot injuries.
Next, Sam got lucky right till the end, as i already stated there are reasons why civilians are told not to pursue suspects. If that perp had noticed them again he could have tore off and wrecked his car killing himself and the abductee. He could have killed the little girl and dumped her body to distract the police away from him while he ran. He could have opened fire on Sam and the others to try and get away. I'm not heartless, i'm not speculating, i'm knowledgeable as to why it's really REALLY stupid for someone who isn't trained to deal with these types of situation to pursue a possibly dangerous situation. The movie could have been so much better, but it relied on a "sympathetic" character who loses sympathy when you realize the reality that this character could have gotten herself, her boyfriend, and/or the little girl killed at the first encounter. It could have gone *beep* Reservoir Dogs the first time they pulled over behind him as he could have blown them away while he was at the window and the final scene could have been him opening fire into his own car and running off/shooting himself.
There's a fine line between courage and stupidity, Sam crossed that line early on and got REAAAALLY lucky throughout the movie that the perp happened to not notice them and even more lucky that at least the bullet wasn't a few degrees off. The child is already traumatized, the abduction is enough to do that. You can't change that, what you can change is reduce the risk of the child losing her life. The appropriate move is to call in and don't aggessively pursue (what they were doing, it's really noticable. However in movie logic, the perp "just happened" to not notice where as in real life he would have noticed). As for in the movie, even after everything Sam had one chance left to redeem herself, they had found the perp, they somehow managed not to get spotted during the entire pursuit. At that point the move should have been for Sam to stand down and wait for the police to arrive and handle the situation. If she had done that then i'd at least not have a raw seething hatred of Sam. As the movie stands, Sam was a *beep* moron who got extremely lucky that at the very least she didn't get the little girl killed. But in my eyes that doesn't redeem her as the situation could have gone WAY better.
From a movie viewers standpoint, you can see what they tried to do. They tried to replicate Megan is Missing (a movie i liked), however in MiM you don't lose sympathy for the character (even through the few facepalm moments) because the main did show some intelligience in handling her situation, once she realized she was dealing with a psycho she attempted to break contact because she realized how dangerous of a situation she was in thus you feel horrified when she is captured, raped, and buried alive. AA makes you lose all sympathy for the main because she's simply a ball buster who in real life would have gotten everyone killed including the little girl. That's why i feel so angry about this film and it's main. There are several things they could have done better, the least would be maintain the sympathy for the main by keeping her a bleeding heart, but one with intelligience.
(Sidenote: The way the movie portrayed it is not how police would respond to a report like that. The police are intentionally made unresponsive in the movie to try and justify the main characters actions. This is called manipulation, this is a trick to make the viewer ignore lacks of logic and reality. If you fell for it i'm sorry but you got royally duped. Also, i'm not a "walking vagina" I've dealt with situations like this. Again there's a fine line between courage and stupidity. A way to note the difference is understanding what is APPROPRIATE ACTION to a situation. If you're actions are going to result in a worse case scenario of somebody besides yourself getting killed, you are not taking the appropriate action. If your action will result in a worse case scenario of you alone killed but you complete the objective then you have taken the appropriate action.)
did you tune out the text part at the end where the little girl had suffered a bullet wound in the shoulder (likely the same bullet that blew Sam's head off since she was holding the little girl). Note that the shoulder isn't that far from the little girl's head
The inside of the house was good. Thumbs up to the set designer there. But bad writing and acting condemn this film. This movie is almost textbook melodrama: good guys versus a bad guy. The characters are almost completely undeveloped and there is no situation except for the situation with the abduction, so that all that happens for most of the film is that they follow a car and talk about following the car. There is the conflict within the main group, but it, too, is thin since it is simply over a single question-should we follow the car or not, and both characters take the same position again and again. In part, this bad plotting forces the actors into thin overacting, but there is no excuse for the girl's attempt to chew the scenery in every scene.
But I understand that she had little to work with: again and again, the writers made her get out of the car and made her friend shout that she should not get out of the car. Three very similar scenes in a brief film are just too many, cinema verite pov shots notwithstanding.
Although foolish characters are often found in suspense films, these were somehow more foolish than I could suspend disbelief over:
1. The villain knows that his car is described in an amber alert, but simply drives down crowded streets in broad daylight.
2. A police officer strolls to his car to check on a possible amber alert sighting.
3. The main characters give vague directions about their location to the police, who then say that they will arrive shortly.
4. The police call off the amber alert. The police are depicted as simply inept--there are no roadblocks, not even the presence of another police car despite the sighting. The delay in reaching the house is just too self-evidently a plot device to force the girl to enter the house.
5. They find a cache of loaded weapons, but do not arm themselves, even though they are worried that the dangerous owner of the house may return at any second. They also miss the chance to pick up the baseball bat that is in the back of the car.
6. The villain leaves the kidnapped girl in the car while he goes inside the gas station.
7. The villain leaves the girl in the house to go get candy.
8. The girl, desperate to find the child, does not think of getting take-out at a fast food restaurant instead of stopping for dinner.
Thin characterization, plotting for convenience, too many foolish mistakes.
I especially agree with point 5. When they saw the guns i was just thinking, "why didnt they unload all of them except for one or two for them to use and trash the rest of the bullets so the villan couldnt use any of the other guns?" I was definitely upset when they died, but theres a line between courage and foolishness, which they crossed when they entered that house. They shouldnt have entered the house at all!!!
shareBad acting, insufferable constant arguing, high pitched screaming, I had to turn down my volume up and down as I progressed in the movie. The plot was incredibly predictable, and I found myself facepalming in frustration, from some of the choices they made.
shareI thought it was great. The shouting got to me a bit at first, but then I realised that that's exactly what people do in situations like that. They're excited, scared and conflicted and their adrenaline is flowing. Some complain about them being repetitive, but that's real, people do that, especially in these kind of circumstances. I thought the acting was brilliant. I think we'll be hearing from these guys again.
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