It’s incredibly frustrating when you see a sci-fi flick with astronauts on the moon platered upon the front cover, run the video and are immediately betrayed by being transported into the banality of someone’s ordinary life. Where’s the planets? Or the spaceships? Where’s the outer space horror? And the astronauts, you lyin’ fuckin’ overmarketed bullshit piece a shit?
Cold and tough Agent Wade (ugh) with cool and flamboyant Agent Smith (double ugh) are here to smoke cigarettes and make sassy putdowns at each other while you sit reading the DVD blurb wondering if anything’s going to happen. The agents aren’t alone however, and are soon teamed up with a small group of similar oddfellows in their task to hunt down and recover a missing satillete.
This is another one where a tripod was seriously needed. The freehand approach is best used in short spurts for action scenes and car-chase theatrics, not constantly and for portraying human emotions or intimate conversations. As much of the flick is dependent on creating an atmosphere of mystery and suspense, and also using cheap film, it soon starts to look very primitive.
For instance, in the derelict housing, there’s a surprisingly intimidating sense of oppression, and within the strange mystery, someone attacks the protagonist with a weapon. Even a competent student could storyboard a series with a series of framed scenes. The shaky-cam-view with its unreliable focus is so inferior. It’s like filming a serious detective story as if it was an ad hoc porno.
There’s also a serious missed opportunity for political differences and cultural clashes which could have enhanced the authenticity of the story. Such as, not filming in a strictly American style while it’s apparently supposed to be in Eastern Europe. And it’s not just that; the whole deal is full of Western tropes. This may as well have been set anywhere in the world given how bland the delivery is.
Katarina Čas plays the lead, and does a roughly average to poor job of their role. It’s probably not their fault considering their lines and directions are so bad. They also manage to outshine the rest of their crew, which isn’t saying much, considering how crude and superficial their presentations are. “No more lies professor!” Yeah… what can you do with that on a budget.
This is really ridiculous: the awful camera work, the terrible direction, the substandard acting, and emptiness of talent in the editing department. Yet there’s a genuine curiosity in supernatural science fiction and an achievement of ability somewhere within the storywriting which manages to offer the occasional surprise. This would be alright as spoken word. And with a less dysfunctional crew and a more able controller, this could have been a much more impressive horror.
3/10
Possession Media 