RORSCHACH – found footage review

Well, crap.

Color me shocked here because I just watched one of the best found footage movies I have seen in a minute and it’s on YouTube. It flew in under the radar, though I vaguely recognized the name of it but I had never seen it and it never makes the core lists of found footage greats. While I won’t put it up that high, I have to say that there’s a new movie to add to your Watch It list if you’re a fan of the subgenre, and the name is RORSCHACH.

Presented as the footage filmed by two men doing a paranormal investigation, the movie presents a young mother and her daughter as they struggle with strange happenings in the house they just moved into. They are hearing things, things are going missing, and they feel as if they are not alone in the home. The two men come to debunk things in the house. They do not go about it in a smarmy manner but come in with copassion but a responsibility to serve science. They cannot find anything going on but leave cameras for the woman to film day to day activity. Slowly we start to see that strange things truly are occurring and, paired with stories we hear from other people, the men start to wonder whether something is going on. When they are faced with incontrovertible truth the men change tactics and try to get to the bottom of what is happening and why but as they focus more of their energy on that tact the house becomes not just scary but dangerous and any truth they may find, may not be worth it.

This is a wonderfully made film.

Hands down.

Great acting.

Really interesting, slow burn story that ramps up when it needs to but never goes over the top.

Any interjections of ‘movie’ things like music or text are added, we assume, by the two investigators. This is filmed, presented, and handled as if it is a ‘real’ documentation of things happening in a home. The biggest quibble I can see is that some may not like how the film is very much a slow burner and there is no huge shock moments but rather gradual scares that do lead to a satisfying ending. It worked wonderfully for me and it’s a shame that the film isn’t talked about more.

Some won’t like it, and if you want this sort of story then PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is in many ways the standard setter, but this is such a solid, spooky movie that it really deserves more eyes (and I say that after seeing that it has a lot of views on YouTube). The movie isn’t perfect, it’s slow, and it’s awfully dark (in that it’s hard to see some things we’re meant to see), but it really is a very good movie.

So good that it puts a lot of movies reasleased on home video and in theaters or POV to shame. Heck, this is hands down better than the last two PARANORMAL ACTIVITY movies. Hands down.

If you’re a fan of these types of films, seek it out.

4 out of 5