True story: My wife and I had paranormal investigators investigate our old house a couple of times. It was a creepy, and fascinating experience that has never really been fully shown in the ghost hunting shows that litter the landscape. Both investigations lasted several hours, and lacked any real action, though they did get some things (we were told they got more evidence at our place than they’d gotten before). They used many of the tools you see used on shows and in movies, but there were no – oh god, there’s a ghost – moments. Saying that, if there’s one thing that BLUE MOUNTAIN PROJECT does well, is show the tedious nature of these investigations.
Now then, what exactly is THE BLUE MOUNTAIN PROJECT? I don’t know. It’s presented like a documentary – though a meandering one without any real point – but is also portrayed as found footage. I looked it up, and couldn’t get a real answer. I feel like it’s meant to be a documentary/investigation, but they were selling it as found footage to suckers like me. What you get then, is a disappointment on several levels.
THE BLUE MOUNTAIN PROJECT focuses on two friends who head out to investigate a purportedly haunted schoolhouse in an area known for paranormal activity. Over several nights we see them investigating the location, and a nearby cemetery, searching for proof that there are spirits in this place. Using the tools of the trade they start to get what they believe to be interactions with the unseen. Does someone, or something remain in the abandoned schoolhouse, or is it all in their mind?
If you are looking for a pretty accurate representation of how some paranormal groups investigate, well, this is your jam. We see lots of leaps in logic, jumping at shadows, and relying on dodgy tech to prove out theories they already decided were fact. There are no real scares here, there is no plot, and there’s nothing resembling a real movie, which is why I think this is meant to be a documentary.
And it stinks.
Here’s the problem with paranormal investigators – they think that everything to do is desperately important, and most go into things not searching for proof, but searching for evidence to prove their beliefs right. There is nothing groundbreaking here, nothing earthshattering, and there are no answers to anything we see. The film just sorta…ends. I admire people who do this work, and admit that it’s super fun to be in the dark giving yourself the creeps with what could be there with you, but it’s a pursuit that is terribly boring to spectate. That is why so many of the ghost shows have become more fiction than fact.
The two friends at the heart of BLUE MOUNTAIN have chemistry, and their friendship is the only interesting thing here. We are given a lot of teases at something spooky, but it all feels false. I admire what they were trying to do here, but it leads down a road with a dead end, then leaves us there. And darn it, if it’s a real-live movie then shame on them for failing the very basics of what a movie is.
1 out of 5
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 