I HEART CHAOS

The Quiet Ones, this week’s entry into the horror genre is in theatres now, adding to the archives of found footage films. It looks dark and
creepy, and promises to throw plenty of supernatural scares your way. but how does it do? Is it a standout among the genre, or should it perish in a fire?

I’m really getting tired of found footage films. We get it, they’re cheap to make, promise huge returns, and don’t require a ton of production. But more times than not, it comes off feeling cheap, relying on cheap scares, and an overall bad to mediocre movie. There are a few standouts, but as a whole, the genre has long outlived its usefulness. This film on the other hand, is one of the few that isn’t actually all bad. The camerawork does get nauseating sometimes, and the plot material reeks of the flavor of the week (possessions with creepy dolls. Again.) but I was really pleasantly surprised.This year has been plagued with weird first and second quarter horror films, most of which have fallen flat. This one on the other hand, should have ben saved to go head to head with the big boys in October.

The plot isn’t that fresh, but it does have some fun elements. A college student attends a seminar of a professor who claims that he’s studying how to cure people that seem to be afflicted by paranormal phenomena. He shows a film of a boy thats seemingly possessed, and claims that it’s a disease, not paranormal. This apparently sparks an interest inside the students head, because he joins up with the professor and agrees to film a series of upcoming experiments involving a woman named Jane. Of course, paranormal shit starts hitting the human fan, and strange things start happening resulting in really freaky crap, along with the truth behind the professor, his experiments, and the house they holed up in. The whole plot, down to the twists and turns isn’t very surprising in the end. I can think of a small handful of movies with almost identical points, and some with almost the same plot.

But in movies like this, it’s not so much the destination, but what happens along the way. Thats how they chose to freshen up this film, and it does do a fairly good job of it. The experiments that the professor runs on Jane start off borderline creepy, accelerate all the way to just plain wrong. The things the unseen force do are also pretty interesting, ranging from borderline creepy, to full blown disturbing. It’s a good way to take the focus off the main bulk of the plot, since it does feel stale in retrospect. And of course, none of this would have worked if it weren’t for the cast. It’s well casted, and for a lower budget film, it’s well written and directed, too. There’s times where parts do feel a little amateurish for a major motion picture though, but they don’t last long.

If you’ve seen the commercials, you kind of know what to expect as far as the scary stuff goes, plenty of jump scares, some creepy unsettling visuals, and lots of screaming. It is all pretty well done though. some of the jump scares can get you going, and in some sequences things just come at you rapid fire so you can never let your guard down for too long. There are a handful of lame scares along the way though, and a couple that were supposed to be tense, freaky moments just fall flat. Over all, it’s one of the better scary movies this year so far. If you’ve been bored, give it a chance.

All in all, it’s a rehashed found footage film with some decent acting sometimes, some good scares, and some freaky stuff to witness. If you need a horror fix, this will do nicely.

4 out of 5