AREA 407Written and Directed by Dale Fabrigar & Everette Wallin
Distributed by IFC Films
A while back I did a blog post about the trailer for a good looking "found footage" film called, AREA 407. I was hoping the movie itself would be as good as the trailer made it look to be, and I can honestly say that it is. In fact, it is even better than I thought it was going to be based on the trailer.
For those not familiar with the film, here is the plot synopsis courtesy of the IFC Films website:
AREA 407 features lost footage too real for reality and too disturbing for fiction. Following two teenagers flying from New York to Los Angeles on New Years Eve, a nightmare quickly begins when their plane hits extreme turbulence mid-flight. The relentless weather attack causes panic and terror amongst the passengers until the plane ultimately crashes in a remote government-testing area. The handful of survivors from the crash, bloody and disoriented, are then insistently pursued in the darkness by unknown predators that, unbeknownst to them, are part of the government's top-secret Mesa Experiment.
I know a lot of folks are getting tired of the "found-footage" type of films, but do not let that keep you from watching this film. AREA 407 sets the standard for what "found-footage" type films should be.
The film grabs you from the very beginning with a very realistic scene of a plane going down. The camera roles as you hear the panic an desperation in all the passengers. I can't imagine anything more frightening than being in a plane crash, and this film puts you right in the middle of one. But...as the tag line states, "The plane crash was just the beginning". And right they are. The crash was just the beginning of the problems the survivors have to go through.
The acting is very good in this film and is very realistic. The survivors are made up a very diverse group of people, and personalities clash when they are threatened by something lurking in the dark.
I don't want to say too much about this film, as I don't want to give any of it away. Do yourself a favor and check this out as soon as you can. AREA 407 is available on demand from some cable providers and the DVD is set for release next month, on August 28.
CLICK HERE to watch the trailer
CLICK HERE to Pre-order the DVD from Amazon.com
I have to disagree. I found the whole thing pretty tedious exactly because of the attempts at being real. I didn't find the characters compelling, nor realistic, and I really can't say that I got anything out of it except a whole lot of arguing and talking over each other.
ReplyDeleteThat to me is what made it so realistic. In that situation, I imagine people would be freaked out, nervous, and scared and probably arguing and talking over people...as opposed to someone saying their line of dialog, followed by the next person, and so on. It didn't feel scripted at all..in fact, imdb states that the film was ad-libbed by the actors. Not sure if that is exactly true or not, but either way I found the dialog very real. Thanks for the comment Ryne, I appreciate you reading the blog and interacting with your comments! Always fun to discuss horror films (even if we don't agree on the matter!)
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