It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.
Love Horror receives yet another found footage film - A Night in the Woods - and the responsibility falls to me, as the other reviewers are knee deep in zombies, demonic possession and poltergeists.
It's bad timing for me, and also for A Night in the Woods as I'm still not over the last double bill of bad found footage films.
But this one was British, so the sense of duty to queen and country gave me that last ounce of enthusiasm that I needed to get the job done.
A Night in the Woods follows Brody and Kerry as they embark on a camping trip in Dartmoor.
Brody likes to film things a lot.
Conversations, trees, walking along the road, people getting in cars, and so the viewer is well prepared for the first person perspective that will dominate throughout.
And then the dreaded words appear on screen 'This is real footage' and A Night in the Woods quickly slips down in my estimations.
Meeting Kerry's cousin Leo on the way, the group stop off en route to meet some locals who predictably don't like people from the city in their fancy cars and fancy boots.
These locals are still happy to be filmed though, and they eagerly speak of the local legend - a hunter who hunts down sinners and hangs them.
After a few warnings from the villagers about how they might not survive the night if they camp out, Brody, Kerry and Leo continue on, setting up camp by some woods and getting high by the fire.
As ever though, complicated issues lie under the surface.
Each of them has a dark secret and after just a few hours, the atmosphere turns hostile, particularly between the two men.
As the skies darken, it seems likely that they're not alone in the woods and as the group are separated, things quickly unravel.
Will any of them survive? It doesn't look like it.
The opening of the film basically told us so.
I will try to refrain from ranting...
But where do these found footage people find these camera batteries?! How many hours does a DSLR last with a torch on it?! And the memory card...
How much footage would it record? Sorry...
I just can't...
Anyway.
The nature of these found footage films and the fact that they always fall down in the same areas, makes it way too easy to spend the whole film picking holes in it instead of trying to enjoy it.
As you can tell.
If you can overcome that temptation, then the second bad thing about A Night in the Woods is how strikingly similar it is to The Blair Witch Project.
The character dynamics, the interviews with the local folk, the tents, the humid night air, the local legend involving witches, the things hanging from trees, the lighting...
There is entirely way too much in common between them.
If it was intended as a remake of The Blair Witch set in the UK, it would deserve some level of praise, but as it isn't such a remake it just seems far too unimaginative.
This isn't just being inspired by another film, it's basically theft.
And it's just very hard to measure the quality of any film that takes so much from another one.
And it's not to say it's a bad film either.
I was impressed by the acting, liked the feel of it, even jumped on a couple of occasions.
But given that I have seen Blair Witch numerous times and that I loved it so much, A Night in the Woods leaves me feeling all empty and dead inside, just like the rampaging maniac in the film probably.
Overall, the quality and frights are there, but the story isn't.
If only they could go back and start it again with some original ideas.
1.
5 stars out of 5