Director: Victor Mathieu
Writer: Victor Mathieu, Corbin Billings, Shariya Lynn (Screenplay)
Starring: Yvonne Zima, Justin Bruening, Toby Hemingway, PeiPei Alena Yuan, Murielle Zuker, Jim Storm, Shiori Ideta, Jamal Quezaire
Plot: A recovering drug addict takes a job with a documentary crew who plans to interview three subjects who claim to be real life monsters.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: The Reason People Hate Found Footage
Story: The Monster Project starts as monster pranksters Devon (Bruening) and Jamal (Quezaire) start seeing hits on their Youtube channel and decide to make their own show hunting for real monsters with new member of the team and recovering drug addict Bryan (Hemingway).
With the team together with the addition of director Murielle (Zuker) they set off to an abandoned house in the middle of the woods to conduct three interviews with people who claim to be monsters a vampire Shayla (Zima), a skinwalker Steven (Flores) and a demon Shiori (Ideta). The team learn the truth about monsters and demons by the end of the night.
Thoughts on Th Monster Project
Characters – Devon is the producer and host of the Monster Project who along with his team looks to take their show to the next level away from just prank like videos. He does have a selfish streak but also loyal to his crew. Bryan is the recovering addict given a role in the team where his weakness will become his strength once they fight to survive. Murielle is the former partner of Devon who gets bought into becoming the director of the project. Jamal is the cameraman that says what we have been thinking most of the film.
Performance – The performances are hard to judge because first you must look at the characters as naïve wannabe Youtube stars so the acting doesn’t have to be amazing but at points needs to be annoying, which is what you get, none of the stars comes off that well once the horror side of the takes off but before that we can believe they could be the Youtube names.
Story – The story doesn’t leave much to see as original, we have the idea of hunting for monsters in the form of interviews only for everything to get out of hand, but for the most part we focus on just running around the house in panic which for the most part is almost unwatchable.
Action/Horror – There is a lot of running around screaming being chased by the horror which is all in the dark and is mostly creatures jumping at the screen.
Settings – For the most part of the story we are in the middle of nowhere where the crew can’t do anything to escape from the home once the horror starts.
Special Effects – The effects are fine through the film, the camerawork helps hide the weaknesses being shown.
Scene of the Movie – I liked the interview scenes.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The horrible use of found footage, which I can be a fan off.
Final Thoughts – This is the reason people get put off found footage films, we have horrible shaky cam which makes the second half of the film almost unwatchable.
Overall: This could one of the missed chances of the year, with a disappointing film.
Rating
