English Audio Description?: Yes
Rapidly catching up on my insanity to try and review 62 movies in October, I have completely forgotten where I watched this, and apparently have no notes. I think I thought i would remember, and i think it was Freevee, but I’m not confident enough to say that. So, this found footage horror film has an audio description track, because I’ve heard it. And, once again, thanks to The Blair Witch Project for this genre being done to death in horror films.
This does have the distinguished charm of being actually shot in the catacombs. Maybe not all of the catacombs, but some of them. At some point, I think the catacombs in this film become a work of fiction, and they probably started filming elsewhere. The audio description on this film is pretty good, except we end up getting a pass don’t we? I mean, this is a found footage film, which in my experience almost always leads to shaky cams, and really awkward angles as people run, swim, or climb through whatever to get wherever. Here, it feels too normal. Maybe we can get the narrator on a treadmill to give us the experience that the characters are running. I’m kidding, of course. Or am I?
Actually, I thought the attention to detail was pretty strong here, and the few moments of gore were brought out at just the right level. This is more atmospheric, though some truly weird shit happens in this movie. It reveals a bit too much too soon, but a lot of movies are guilty of that. It also suffers from people making terrible life choices. Just, awful choices.
There’s definitely a desire to nod toward Dante’s Inferno as our gang of misfit explorers dive deeper into the catacombs to find their happy place. The only way out is through. That’s basically the mantra. Once they realize they are screwed, it’s just a matter of getting to the other side, if any of them can even do that. Remember, this is called a found footage genre, and those typically don’t end well.
It’s mostly atmosphere that creates the sense of dread, but the audio description catches that and manifests it by also pushing out some of the strongest.
Far from perfect, and packed with questionable characters making bad choices, this film sort of works. it certainly was better than i thought it was.
Episode Grade: B
