Earth To Echo - review

Earth To Echo is the film for anyone who has ever wondered what would happen if someone who grew up on the Steven Spielberg films of the Eighties decided to make a found footage film combining E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial and The Goonies.

Three friends, due to be separated as a company bulldozes the town to make way for a new freeway, go on one last adventure following a map on their phones which leads them to discover an alien life form which they must return to its spaceship before shadowy government agents get their hands on it.

A couple of years ago JJ Abrams produced his own Spielberg-homage with Super 8 and with the advances in modern technology this could have perhaps been called iPhone.

However the found footage style gets rather tiresome after a while, feeling rather gimmicky and leads to plot issues (would the government agents really not confiscate all electronic recording devices from the kids in order to analyse the footage?).

The child actors are good and there is a nice message about the importance of friendship.

Stand By Me said "I never had friends like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?". The same is true for movies. While Earth To Echo might capture the hearts of young viewers, the older generation may just end up reminiscing over the classics from their time.

3 stars

Devil's Due - review

Right, I already touched upon this in my review of Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, but what really grinds my gears at the moment are these horror films which are filmed and marketed as "found footage" yet have no framing device.

The Blair Witch Project worked because it was presented as pieced together video footage of three people who disappeared.

Cloverfield worked because the camcorder footage was classified as government evidence of the attack on New York City.

Nowadays, we just get launched into these films where some idiot spends too much time documenting everything on their brand new HD camera instead of turning it off and actually trying to solve the mystery or just get the f*ck out of dodge.

This one is even worse but it goes from the couple's video diary of their wedding, honeymoon and unexpected pregnancy to cutting between that, surveillance cameras a mysterious cult have set up in their home and random clips from a other couples camcorders that hint at other gruesome events.

What is the purpose of these editing choices if it is not a found footage document of the event? There is none as far as I can tell. This sub-genre of horror really needs to go the way of Betamax and disappear quickly.

Oh, what about the film itself? Crap. A poor, lazy retread of Rosemary's Baby for the modern generation with forgettable characters, distinct lack of scares, chills and menace and is as unwanted an addition to the horror genre as the resulting pregnancy was to the main characters.

1 star