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The Last Broadcast (Horror, 1998) IMDB Wikipedia Official Site Produced and Starring (among others): Stefan Avalos, Lance Weiler Watch the trailer  The Last Broadcast is an independent horror film. It's probably best described as one of the first modern "reality horror" films, that is to say, it pretends the events in the movie are real. It is told in a documentary style and uses footage "recovered" from the crime scene to tell the story. If you are even remotely knowledgeable about modern horror, you should be saying to yourself right about now, "The Blair Witch Project." Yes, it's very similar in a number of ways, although this movie came out first. It's undetermined whether this was an influence on Blair Witch though or if Blair Witch was developed with any knowledge this movie existed. That said, it's hard to believe it wasn't influenced by this movie. The Last Broadcast is a "documentary" of a murder of three filmmakers while doing a cable access program investigating the Jersey Devil, a legendary creature said to inhabit the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Of the four filmmakers who go into the woods, only one returns and he is subsequently charged and convicted of the murders. As the movie progresses, the documentary filmmaker raises doubts about what really happened in the forest. Slowly the mystery unravels and I will tell you, there is an ending to the film. It doesn't leave you hanging or wishing for a further resolution. One major problem I had with the movie, was the absence of notable characters. Although the victims do get a good amount of screen time, they do not have any significant dialogue which would have us care about them or their fate. Some people might prefer this over say Blair Witch, which had lots of improvised dialogue and some very annoying scenes. Still, that movie did have very distinct and developed characters and had a more professional feel overall. It would be better to have the best of both films. One last problem is the ending. It's the type of ending you'll either love or hate. The film is upfront about what it is and you should know going in whether or not you'll appreciate this movie. It's worthy for a horror fan, but not for the casual viewer or someone looking for a high quality production. For ingenuity, originality, influence, and an obvious amount of effort, the film gets a 4/5, but certain elements of the narrative are a bit poor (2/5), bringing the average to a 3/5. Here's another quick video review, and where I originally heard about the movie. StickySweater fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Sep 2, 2009 |
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Aug 24, 2009 04:27
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Terrible, terrible, terrible. I finished watching this today and it has absolutely nothing going for it. Well, I laughed pretty hard at "I'll see you at CAMP!". Forgettable characters, non stop droning narration, no tension, lovely twist. 1/5. Anyone who says this is better than Blair Witch is trying to be a special snowflake.
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Aug 30, 2009 18:31
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