Chasing the Devil (2014) Directed by Mark Haber




Surprise, surprise, another found footage movie. It's definitely something I'm growing tired of, since most of them are doing the exact same things and really aren't all that scary or thrilling to watch. I'll admit though that of course the foremost reason why I'm getting tired of this sub-genre is because I have seen more found footage movies than the average person, of which most were absolutely terrible. So how is this movie? Well, surprisingly not terrible at all!

Reason why I enjoyed this movie better than just the average found footage movie is because it seemed that they put a bit more effort into the story and writing this time. It isn't just relying on formulaic and predictable scares but it's more focused on simply just telling its story. It adds to the authenticity of the movie, though at the same time I still have to say that the movie really turns into a ridicules and far fetched one toward the end of it.

Good thing is that this movie for most part does feel like an actual documentary and really doesn't feature too many moments in it that no normal real documentary would ever feature, unlike most other genre movies that attempt to do the same.

Probably the best thing I can say about this movie is that it never truly annoyed me. Sounds like a backhanded compliment but it's absolutely fact that found footage often annoy me in the way how they are constructed and getting told like. They aren't just mostly formulaic and predictable ones but also totally ineffective with its horror and unlikely ones with all of its events and developments. None of that ever really was the case with this movie as well.The horror isn't anything too solid but at least it's pretty decent and somewhat creative well at parts. It seems to understand that less is more at times and that it can create some good mystery and atmosphere by not always showing you everything and leave some of the things up to the viewers own imagination as well. All of this more or less is gone from the movie once it starts nearing its end but I still feel that the movie is an overall strong enough one to consider it to be a watchable enough one within its genre.

The characters aren't all that good or memorable but I believe that that is a sort of OK for a found footage movie. It's realistic that you don't know too much about the characters and I liked the fact that there wasn't an awful lot of 'behind the scenes' footage, in which the characters are constantly talking to each other about more personal things, that's completely irrelevant to the main story of the movie.

It's not a must-see movie but still definitely better and more effective than most other modern, low-budget, found footage movies.

6/10