The found footage genre is a tricky beast. The film maker has to juggle the conflicting demands of maintaining the illusion of an actual event happening and being recorded for “legitimate” reasons, while also satisfying the requirements of what makes a good movie – story, character development, conflict, and a compelling and satisfying ending. The Feed, an indie horror film currently making the festival rounds, struggles with the weight of trying to please both masters, and ultimately loses the battle, with an effort that is strong on verisimilitude, but weak on narrative.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the found footage genre – from “Blair Witch” to “REC”, and even “Paranormal Activity”, when done right, the combination of realism and POV camera work can make the chills all that more intense. I’ve also watched tons reality tv spook shows – Ghost Hunters, Paranormal State and even the always frenetic, Ghost Adventures. So, when The Feed came across my radar, I was excited to jump in.
Directed by Steve Gibson and written by Gibson, Matt Edens and Jon Nunan, The Feed’s setup is a simple but effective one: the tv show, Ghost Chasers is presenting a special live broadcast from the historic Brenway Movie Theater to investigate reports of paranormal activity. It seems the old movie house has a rather violent past and a legend of ghostly occurrences. Gibson does a great job of recreating a live ghost hunting show. He clearly knows his stuff and the presentation is very well-done. The acting for the most part, is spot-on for the genre and maintains the illusion that we are watching a live tv event. The problems with the movie however, are not with the found-footage setup, but with its devotion to maintaining that illusion at the cost of propelling a narrative thread. A perfect example is the decision to include commercial breaks in the middle of the film. Now, as a continuation of the conceit that we are watching a live tv broadcast, this makes perfect sense, however, as a scene in the course of a movie, it absolutely breaks any narrative rhythm and serves absolutely no purpose in furthering the story.
And this unfortunately is the main weakness of The Feed. There really is no story arc to speak of. The characters are not developed, nor do they grow. There is no conflict in most of the film, so it just kinda limps along to its inevitable conclusion. There is a bit of back-story about the hauntings, told in a spot-on example of local tv news journalism, but again although very realistic, that sequence which takes up a lot of the first act, slows the film to a crawl. It takes about twenty minutes for the film to finally get down to actual ghost chasing, and by that time, the viewer is starved to see some action!
I will give the film makers credit that when things finally get going in the last ten minutes, the inherent strengths of the POV shaky-cam shine through and actual scares abound! I just wish it had started like 30 minutes earlier and developed into something more in the end.
So, The Feed is a technically well-made, but ultimately thinly stretched idea of a movie. If you love the found-footage genre, check it out, otherwise just watch Ghost Hunters on SyFy.
The Feed screens Friday, April 8 at Famous Monsters of Filmland Imagi-Movies
Also, check out their website for more info – www.thefeedmovie.com
Update: "THE FEED" actually ended up winning "Best Feature Film" at the Famous Monsters of Filmland Imagi-Movies Film Festival.