It’s fascinating to note trends in something like found footage, which tend to be so connected to the moment that they give a view of what the culture is like at that moment.
Sure, it’s not 1:1 but it’s a good representation of where the culture is at.
Most modern found footage is centered on the desire of the movie filmmakers to be famous and to capture something that will make them exactly that. It’s not that they want to find truth or pierce the veil into the dark unknown but they want to be rich and famous and they know that to do that they need eyes on their content. This is about hustle culture meets celebrity culture.
They want to be influencers and will do whatever it takes to do it.
Whatever it takes.
You see it all the time on YouTube and social video networks – people willing to pull pranks on themselves, friends, or strangers. People willing to risk their health. People willing to dare to do what others won’t.
It’s become so commonplace that we don’t roll our eyes at them any longer, we just nod because we know that people are like this now.
With DEPRIVATION we have three friends that all agree to head out to the woods to a cabin that is owned by one of the friends’ family. They are going to get supplies and stay up for seven days and film everything in the hopes of selling their amateur findings to someone and striking it rich. They know that there may be risks to doing this, especially after speaking with a sleep specialist, but don’t take it seriously. Things start out easy enough, the three hanging out, eating, and filming themselves not sleeping but as the days pass tensions begin to rise and they each start to think they are hearing things. As the seventh day approaches and their nerves are stretched to near breaking, along with their minds, the question becomes – is there something or someone making the sounds they are hearing or are they losing their minds?
This is a very simple, very contained film with strong performances throughout. If you give it a try you have to understand that this is more about three characters reaching their breaking points and not about big scares. This is a slow burn and that’s its power. Instead of forcing the film to be like any number of other ones with jump scares they let things build, and build, and build to see what happens.
It’s refreshing that they have reasons to film and that no music is forced into the movie ala a soundtrack.
As things ramp up the last fifteen minutes become very tense and lead to an almost inevitable ending with a fantastic twist. The twist will either enrage you or make you smile and nod your head as I did because it’s darned clever.
This won’t be for everyone as it keeps its secrets close to the vest and is, as I said, about the characters and what they are going through. Saying that, it’s a well-made, well-acted, entertaining ride. The pacing can be a drag since it’s all talking, but the acting was good enough that I didn’t feel like it hampered the film. I really appreciated the story as it’s not one I have seen done in a found footage film so it opened things up and gave me something I wasn’t able to guess as it unfolded.
Well worth a look for fans of FF movies.
3.75 out of 5
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 