This semester, the afterlife will teach you a history lesson you will never forget!
Directed by Serge Bronstein
Aka The Find
Reviewed by Deep Red
Found-footage film in which four students, Nick (Nick Uzarski), Karen (Brisa Freitas), Darren (Hans Hernke) and Liz (Suziey Block), rent a house and move in. Nick and Darren are film students who are filming their everyday lives for an assignment. While working in the garden, Nick and Darren find a large wooden box buried in the ground. They dig it up and open it. Inside there’s an Aztec relic, “an ancient human sacrifice container”, which they find out when they bring it to their professor, Professor Clark (Ted Ferguson).
I really liked this. It has a decent cast and story, it’s well-written and well-made. It’s serious but fun, it piles on the tension and for such a low budget, an estimated $25,000, it’s inspiring. The atmosphere is perfect as you’re drawn in to this expert piece of low-budget filmmaking. I thought it might be OK at best, I like found-footage films, I didn’t think it’d be as involving or edgy as it turned out to be.
Reminds me a little of the first time I saw Paranormal Activity [2007] when it was brand new and interesting. Obviously that’s the one thing that doesn’t go in this film’s favour, the fact that we’ve, to a point, been there before numerous times. It tells its own story, and it’s an interesting idea, but it’s originality is somewhat hindered by those other found-footage films we’ve seen. However, it’s an easy film to get into and a quality film and it maintains its tenseness throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would watch it again definitely, it was surprisingly good and I found it very interesting. Impressed.
