You've got your cast: jerk husband, wife, ingenue, dork, camera dude, and big bearded pig: who set out to make a found footage movie. Their hook is that their movie will be the first FF production to be in 3D. Simple enough, but confusing for the audience, as the title makes this movie sound like a documentary or even a class on making 3D found footage movies: and the actual movie itself is not in 3D (not the version I saw, anyway).
I'm no actor, and I know that it's easy to critique (tear apart) work that people have put effort into, BUT I'd have to rate this cast a 60%-70%. The jerk husband character can be too loud and showy and the ingenue is annoyingly young and innocent, but she's used sparingly so it's not really an issue. My teeth itch, however, when the jerk husband and dork director characters argue, and when the jerk husband later gets into a physical "fight" with the camera guy. That fistfight was so obviously staged it made me think of that scene from Napoleon Dynamite where he has to feed Tina the llama (for some reason). But the actors are all good enough, and this movie does feature a few legit scares.
There're some pacing issues: the scene where they go to the bar could probably have been cut, for example, but I suppose it adds tension. Found footage movies usually benefit from a slow build.
But the whole concept, and even title, hurts the film. The camera crew set out to make a found footage horror movie set in a cabin in the woods (yeah) and wind up, themselves, in an actual found footage movie. Right. Maybe the concept would work better if not for the title. It should've been called "The Specter Tapes" or something; I don't know. "Found Footage 3D" and the entire premise is too meta, too on the nose; leaves too little to the imagination. But I do enjoy this subgenre of horror, so I don't regret seeing it. So there.
I'm no actor, and I know that it's easy to critique (tear apart) work that people have put effort into, BUT I'd have to rate this cast a 60%-70%. The jerk husband character can be too loud and showy and the ingenue is annoyingly young and innocent, but she's used sparingly so it's not really an issue. My teeth itch, however, when the jerk husband and dork director characters argue, and when the jerk husband later gets into a physical "fight" with the camera guy. That fistfight was so obviously staged it made me think of that scene from Napoleon Dynamite where he has to feed Tina the llama (for some reason). But the actors are all good enough, and this movie does feature a few legit scares.
There're some pacing issues: the scene where they go to the bar could probably have been cut, for example, but I suppose it adds tension. Found footage movies usually benefit from a slow build.
But the whole concept, and even title, hurts the film. The camera crew set out to make a found footage horror movie set in a cabin in the woods (yeah) and wind up, themselves, in an actual found footage movie. Right. Maybe the concept would work better if not for the title. It should've been called "The Specter Tapes" or something; I don't know. "Found Footage 3D" and the entire premise is too meta, too on the nose; leaves too little to the imagination. But I do enjoy this subgenre of horror, so I don't regret seeing it. So there.