Preservation

Director: Christopher Denham (2014)
Starring: Wrenn Schmidt, Pablo Schreiber, Aaron Staton
Find it: IMDB

Good, but I preferred it when it was Eden Lake. A couple and their brother (or in-law, depending on whose perspective you go by) and his dog (a dog, by any perspective) take off to the American woodlands to indulge in a little hunting. Squeamish at first, anesthesiologist Wit (Schmidt) is quick to change her tune when they are beset by murderous masked men and their rifles.

The main reason to stick with Preservation is for its performers - a hardy bunch who make it worth bearing with the cliched setup and action. As the wonderful Pollyanna McIntosh made the otherwise fairly forgettable White Prey, so Wrenn Schmidt's lead performance is the film's strongest asset. It's a great transformative role which leaves her almost unrecognisable by the time the end credits start rolling. Talking of unrecognisable: I watched this for over half an hour before I realised where I recognised that Pablo Schreiber fellow from:

As evidenced by my fetish for ex-LOST actors, one of my favourite things is seeing performers from beloved TV shows pop up in genre movies, so I was overjoyed to see Pornstache (sans pornstache) show his distinctively odd mug here. Everything else is by-the-numbers cliche counting and fairly predictable action. I'm willing to bet that the American bear trap industry makes more money from horror movie props than it does helping people actually trap bears. If I were writer/director Christopher Denham, I'd ask for my money back for his bear trap, though; one character emerges with little more than a slightly punctured foot after accidentally stepping on one. I doubt a bear would even notice that shit, let alone be trapped by it.

It perks up a little towards the end, but that's not enough to make Preservation feel anything other than utterly middling to half-decent. The only thing being preserved here (obvious joke) is an abundance of cliches.

Devil's Due

Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (2014)
Starring: Allison Miller, Zach Gilford, Sam Anderson
Find it: IMDB

The only thing more predictable than me whining about found footage movies is me watching a half-decent one and saying 'actually, that one was alright, y'know.' Devil's Due is actually alright (y'know), although I preferred it when it was called Rosemary's Baby, wasn't found footage and was a classic horror film.

Devil's Due is no classic, but at least it tries harder than a lot of found footage movies do these days. This it achieves by having a real plot, some variation in its gimmickry, and the good grace to not save all of its action for the last five minutes. If you must watch a found footage horror film about a couple expecting an evil baby, you'd be better off with the recent Delivery: The Beast Within, but you could do far worse than this.

Returning from honeymoon, a pair of cute young newlyweds are surprised by Samantha's unexpected pregnancy, coming in the wake of a night on the tiles neither of them can quite remember (like The Hangover, except with a cult and Satanic rape, probably). As the baby in Sam's belly grows, it becomes clear to worried hubby Zach that something isn't quite right - particularly when she starts punching out car windows, causing the local priest's stroke (an appreciated wee role for Bernard from off've LOST's Rose and Bernard) and chowing down on raw lamb in the supermarket. Not quite the sort of thing they cover in ante natal classes, then.

However, while Devil's Due is pretty good in places, it doesn't even attempt to justify its use of the found footage format. I can't think of a single reason why this should have been filmed the way it was, beyond that being what all the cool kids are doing these days.

If Paranormal Activity jumped off a cliff, would you jump off a cliff too, Devil's Due? Well? WELL?

As this sort of thing goes, Devil's Due is perfectly above average. It's short and sweet enough with just the right amount of variation preventing boredom from ever setting in. On occasions, it even reaches a V/H/S level of entertainment (the first one, that is - not the superior sequel, or the terrible third one) with a sky-high bit of carnage reminiscent of that first film's most memorable segment. It's no [REC], V/H/S 2 or Cannibal Holocaust (the gold standard of found footage) but Devil's Due is actually alright, y'know.