The Black Water Vampire

Found footage film borrows a bit from The Blair Witch Project and just about every other in the woods film. Standard characters with requisite annoyance and singular focus on "the project" without regard to common sense. The creatures have a certain creepiness to them, but that doesn't make a film. Townsfolk bring a minor element that adds something different to the mix, but it isn't enough to save the film. Okay enough if you like this type of film, but it's nothing new or great.

This FF horror is made in a style that hundreds of other FF horrors were made , a group getting lost in the forest, hearing strange noises at night etc, it just feels like any other FF horror you have seen before.

While the one hour or so was cliched, the last 22 mins , was absolutely terrifying and insane with the last scene before ending being the most disturbing one highlighting a cult that exists in the Black Water area. There is one jump scare (related to Anthony where he got killed) as well near the end which was very well timed and really shot me off my bed.

Watch it in a cozy silent night and you will enjoy it although it feels a ripoff of many other FF horrors of this kind.

Paid 5 bucks to see this because I'm a huge fan of found footage. Also, because a reviewer on one of my favorite horror sites called it a "hidden gem."

After seeing it, I have no idea what the actual frack that reviewer was thinking.

The movie is exactly what everyone else is saying: A terrible rip-off of Blair Witch. And no, I do not mean an homage. It's literally Blair Witch, but with poor acting, dull, repetitive dialogue, and a rubber vampire costume.

The first two-thirds of the movie was tolerable, if boring. But the final third devolved into nothing but screams and running. Ended with zero explanation of the questions raised by the story.

And the final scene? Laughable.

Waste of time and money...both on my part AND on the part of the movie-makers.

The problem with this movie, for me, is that it's just not that compelling or original. The story follows a student documentary project about a series of murders. It starts well, with background on the murders and the man convicted for them, but then we see a lot of boring interviews and filler of the crew talking amongst themselves, then traveling to the scene of the murders in the woods, where of course they get lost and start bickering with each other. Who wants to watch that? It takes way too long for the movie to get going, but when it does, I was definitely more interested. But even then, nothing really shocked me and too much of it felt like a rip off of other movies that did it better.

I gotta give the cast and crew credit for throwing themselves into this. I thought the acting was above average, but not great. Still, it felt like they were doing everything they could to try to make this movie work. The makeup effects were great. It looked a bit like the vampire from Salem's Lot, and that's not a bad thing. Unfortunately, the story is too thin and cliche'd, and drags through most of the first half of the movie. The end doesn't feel satisfying, it feels like a mishmash of the endings from other movies.

I felt like this was a sincere effort from those involved, and I'm giving this a generous 5 out of 10. Reviews here are all over the place. It's honestly not that bad, but it's honestly not that good either. I like good found footage movies, and there aren't that many of them. The worst of them have amateurs who think they can just film themselves for an hour and a half and show something lame at the end. This was not that. This was a crew of talented amateurs who were really trying to do something good, and I could tell they put their hearts into this. I'd like to see what they do next. I hope they come up with a better script.

I have to say, after reading some reviews I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't great, for sure, it took from pretty much every backwoods horror/Blair Witch Project type movie, but at the end of the day, I really like those kind of movies.

I was most impressed by the monster. The makeup was actually quite spectacular and creepy, it looked great. There were only a few jump scares but they weren't cheap, there were genuine jump scares without that annoying loud "bwong" sound. (You know what I'm talking about.)

It starts out kinda shaky, the beginning of the film builds and loses atmosphere and it feels kind of awkward, the acting isn't anything special; but the last 40 minutes were great. The ending was kind of darkly comedic and a little goofy, but it tied everything up very well without just coming out and explaining the movie.

Overall nothing new or innovative, just another entry in the ever growing library of found footage movies, but entertaining at the very least.