OK, OK, OK, this isn’t ‘found footage’ per se, let’s be clear, it’s closer to ‘mockumentary’ but slides over toward pseudo-news, like GHOSTWATCH and similar films. It’s a film that falls into a very small niche within a niche.
Oh, but label aside it’s so, so good.
Presented as an emergency cut-in from a national network news studio, the story first comes during a tense scene in a thriller film and tells of earthquakes in the American heartland. After a second interruption to announce the arrival of three asteroids that have impacted separate sites around the globe, the broadcast turns to full news mode and there is even a name given to the event as it unfolds. It seems that around the world three asteroids have made an impact and all three are along the same parallel but on different continents. The mystery deepens as more and more information becomes available and naturally, this leads to rampant speculation and growing unease – what is really happening here? As the truth is slowly revealed the newscasters can only attempt to explain what is truly a turning point in world history.
Made in 1994 and set to air around the anniversary of Orson Welles’ famous War of the Worlds radio play, this is a chilling homage to that version and the classic novel it’s based on. This absolutely feels like a real news broadcast and were it not for a handful of familiar faces that went on to much bigger roles on television, you might fall for the trick of it all. This is far more than a gag though as the acting is well done and the writing is very good. While this is about the human struggle, and not about any grand special effects, it in leaving the dawning horror and awe in the hands of the actors that give the film its power.
It’s very easy to point at the film’s lack of clear explanations and the leap it makes in getting to where it ends up but if you go with the movie and let it do its thing it’s a heck of a ride.
Movies like this are often lost to time, having been churned out for television broadcast and rarely released onto secondary media. This is one of those films where it’s a huge shame that it’s not more readily available, at least that I have found, as it’s a great little film. While it is not a film that will come to mind when listing off the best entries in these sorts of films it absolutely is among the upper echelon for its unique storytelling and tense pace.
4 out of 5
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 
Man, this sounds great. Always looking for actually good found footage hidden gems, definitely will be checking Without Warning out.
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It really is a fun movie. Surprisingly good. I am sorta shocked I had never heard of it before. You’ll love it.
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