My Little Eye (2002)

Directed by Marc Evans, My Little Eye is an oft-forgotten horror movie that holds up surprisingly well today, and could be argued as one of the better “found footage” films of the past two decades.

The plot is simple enough. Five individuals are selected for a competition. If they all stay in an isolated house for six months then they get a big cash prize. But if one person leaves then nobody gets anything. As time creeps towards the end date, things start to happen that freak out the contestants. Are they being toyed with by someone who has stalked them to their location, or is it the company running the competition trying to get someone to leave, and therefore saving them a lot of money?

The house has cameras everywhere, with the easy explanation being that the house occupants also have their lives broadcast over the internet for the duration of their stay, and that provides the “found footage” style, as if certain shots are being selected by someone watching the events unfold through a website. It doesn’t stay true to that format, but even editing choices and effects can be explained by the idea of someone working on the shots before presenting it to the website subscribers.

Each character onscreen is eventually able to stand out from the others, and the cast works perfectly. Sean Cw Johnson is Matt, a sort of sensitive Jock type, Stephen O’Reilly is the potentially mentally fragile Danny, Laura Regan is a young woman, Emma, with a history that she worries may end up catching up to her, Jennifer Sky is the fame-seeking Charlie, and Kris Lemche is the smart and sardonic Rex. The group dynamic shifts and changes believably enough, and there is always a good enough reason for those potentially in peril to try riding things out until the proper end is in sight.

The script, by David Hilton and James Watkins, does a great job of creeping further and further away from the initial “Big Brother” premise to something much more sinister, bringing in an extra character (played by Bradley Cooper) at just the right time and turning the screws tighter and tighter in the third act.

Some viewers may have issues with the pacing and the style of the film, but it really doesn’t do much wrong for what is being presented. Evans may not have many features to his credit, spending more time on TV work (although a number of those are TV movies), but he shows major talent here and I wish he would dive fully back into the horror genre one day. 

8 /10

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The Frankenstein Theory (2013)

What if Frankenstein, the classic Mary Shelley story, was actually a factual piece of work at heart? That's the premise for this movie, as Jonathan Venkenhein (Kris Lemche) pays a documentary crew to follow him as he sets out to fulfil the ambition of his lifetime, to track down and meet "Frankenstein's monster". Of course, as this is a horror movie, that's easier said than done. First of all, does Jonathan have all of his faculties intact to keep hold of such a strong belief? Second, IF the creature is where Jonathan thinks it is, it doesn't necessarily welcome strangers with open arms.

Written by Vlady Pildysh and Andrew Weiner, with the latter also directing the thing, The Frankenstein Theory has some good ideas in the mix, but doesn't do enough with them. Okay, it has one good idea, but that one good idea - Frankenstein being based on a real incident - would be enough to create a much better film than we have here. Unfortunately, Pildysh and Weiner seem to have forgotten to lace their movie with atmospheric moments and scares, instead seeming content that they came up with such a good premise in the first place.

The cast all do decent work, with Lemche being someone I have enjoyed seeing onscreen since his performances in Final Destination 3 and the sorely neglected My Little Eye. Heather Stephens does well with her role, being the only female onscreen for most of the runtime, and Joe Egender, Timothy V. Murphy, Eric Zuckerman, Brian Henderson and Christine Lakin (the one other female who is in the movie for the first 5-10 minutes) all do good enough work with what they're given.

Did I mention that this was a movie in the "found footage" style? Well, it is. That may be enough to keep some people away from it, but that particular style, although somewhat overused in recent years, is a great way to tell stories in a wide range of genres. The fact that The Frankenstein Theory ends up mired in all-too-familiar moments (noises outside from an unseen horror, the "something" glimpsed by an uncertain cameraman, the obligatory night-vision mode) isn't the fault of the format, it's the fault of Pildysh and, even more so, Weiner.

It's not an unwatchable disaster, but this is one big disappointment. Ironically, it needed someone to tighten a few nuts and bolts.

4/10

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