First thing off the bat, the whole found footage framing device is freaking unnecessary and a cheap attempt to cash in on the genre fad.

Second thing off the bat…I really could have done without the stupid teenage angst-fest that was the first 15 minutes.

Third thing off the bat…the effects…oh my god, the effects. They’re like one step up from something I could do with flash in a weekend.

Fourth thing…aww f*ck it. I heard this movie was a solid B+. Personally, I don’t see it. Instead, I see a solid C. Not a D, not an F, but certainly not anything higher than a C.

Along with all of the aforementioned issues, the script is terrible, the dialogue almost cartoonish, and despite having the budget for all kinds of effects (poor as they may be) all they can afford for sound are overused foley effects.

The sad thing is, there is a good movie in here. The back-story involving the abusive father and the sick mother do an excellent job of setting up the main kid’s (I can’t remember his name for the life of me) emotional state and therefore setting up his eventual turn to the dark side. There are scenes where they actually talk about real stuff, however fleeting the moment, and there’s interesting character exposition, which I LOVE. This movie is prime real-estate for a coming of age allegory for coming to terms with oneself and being responsible for your actions and the man(or woman) you are about to become.

But no…instead they seem quite content by wasting our time with a bunch of 20 somethings pretending to be teenagers screaming at the camera in a random assortment of sequences that are meant nothing more than substance-less eye candy…and not even good eye candy at that. 

Ok, I really hate to harp on this, but seriously. I don’t know if it’s just “the uncanny valley” kicking in or what, but the effects are so fake looking they make 90’s effects look like INCEPTION in comparison. It’s 2012 for godssake, there’s no excuse for this garbage. Hell, the second GHOST RIDER movie had better effects!!

The point being, this movie is dragged down by an unnecessary attachment to an overused genre, a terrible script, and shitty ass effects. It’s too bad too, I was rather looking forward to it. Such a shame.