I don't want to be too hard on people who make films with very few resources. I mean, making a movie, shitty or not, takes a ton of work. So, even when a movie like Black Eyed Children: Let Me In is really, really bad, it's at least worthy of respect and admiration on some level.
Maybe this is even more true for B.E.C. than most indie horror, because for a while it actually seems like writer-director Justin Snyder might actually be making this film totally on his own. Early on, he's just talking to the camera alone, using a microphone not meant for handheld use (bad sound is a recurring thing throughout), and even when he's interviewing another person in frame the camera isn't moving. I would bet Snyder doesn't have a camera man in tow - in fact, this is one of the first movies I've ever seen where I'm pretty sure some people just filmed their parts on their own and mailed them in. A lot of B.E.C. is just a step up from those YouTube talking head conspiracy "documentaries," complete with crummy looking images (almost certainly from a google image search) that are just thrown over the shots of Snyder rambling at the camera. And rambling seems to be the correct term here - I would be shocked if most of what is said in this movie was written down beforehand. Besides the people that are obviously reading their lines, of course.
My synopsis: Amateur-filmmaker (who maybe has never seen a documentary) makes a very loosely structured doc - mostly interviews - about the phenomena of Black Eyed Children. But as in most of these types of things, once he digs too deep he gets more than he bargained for.
Elaborate Genre: Creepy kid faux-documentary
Overall: Not good at all. Flirts with "so bad it's good" for about 10 minutes, but quickly settles into drudgery.
And in case you are unfamiliar with the Black Eyed Children, aka BEKs (the 'K' is for kids!): basically, it's a sort of urban legend/conspiracy, where a child knocks at your door (usually at night, of course), and when you answer it they'll ask to come in, usually wanting to use the phone or something. But when you look into their eyes... they are all black! Most people are hesitant to let them in - the lore doesn't say what happens if you do. (This film posits that they are cannibals, which Justin discovers early on but doesn't bother to explain until the end.) Real-life "theories" range from the BEKs being ghosts, demons, Men In Black, or even vampires. The wikipedia page suggests they are also known for panhandling and hitchhiking.
At first, there's some (probably unintentionally) funny stuff in B.E.C. as Justin does a couple "man on the street" interviews - he says "do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" and then asks only one before going into a story about Black Eyed Children - it's truly one of the worst interviews I've seen, real or not. Anyways, the first 15 minutes or so of the movie is actually pretty funny, because Snyder just keeps accidentally saying stupid stuff - but it's the kind of magic that you just can't write - it can only happen when someone is forced to ramble on to kill time. My two favorites:
"I have several people here to interview... and they will give their stories and their intake about Black Eyed Children."
"Nothing was discovered of them, no bodies or anything of that such."
Also, he sounds like Kurt Angle. It's all funny to a point, but after a while the amateurishness just gets old. And then we get to the other people in the film, who are also clearly non-actors. They tangentially talk about Black Eyed Children, but are not anywhere near as entertaining as our star. Generally speaking, the acting in this film ranges from really bad to barely passable. There are some *terrible* wigs though... and when a wig pretty much upstages the rest of your movie - that's bad.
Also, in the midst of his investigation, two things happen to Justin. One - he camps alone by a spooky lake that apparently has some connection with the BEKs. At night, he gets harassed by someone - or something! But as the scene unfolds he's literally just holding the camera towards his face. Honestly, this scenario just doesn't mean much in a found footage film if there's not another character to bounce off of. Watching one guy sitting in a tent getting scared just isn't all that dramatic. The Blair Witch Project was a group effort, you know? And speaking of found footage, Justin gets a mysterious tape left on his doorstep that says "do not open" and "no no no no no." So, uh - maybe you just shouldn't have left it there, mysterious tape delivery guy? So that's dumb. But Justin keeps referring to it as the "found footage tape" he came across, which just makes you think of bad horror movies. I don't think that's what you'd call a tape left anonymously at your doorstep. And once you see the tape? The sound is *horrible.* It's really the only thing about this movie that is unforgivable - I mean, overall, there at least seems to be some passion from the filmmaker on display, and most of the cast seems at least charmingly earnest, you know? But the sound in this short section of the film is mixed so poorly and is so damned loud that it left a bad taste in my mouth. Instead of a "meh" taste.
But yeah, Black Eyed Children: Let Me In is a rough watch, and just doesn't have much of a through-line - even as a fake documentary, the interviews don't really relate to one another. There are times (especially where this one guy is talking about Islam and Djinns) where it doesn't even seem like it's from the same movie. Maybe Justin was making a Djinn movie (Let Me Djinn?) before he switched to BEKs and decided use *all* of the footage.
It's pretty short though. So that's something.
I would stay away from this film.
No comments:
Post a Comment