works as a tribute film

Rating: 6/10 (8 October 2014)

This very much reminded me of those early Stephen Spielberg films or Stephen King books/movies from the 80's. Its basically an homage to those (Goonies, E.T, Stand By Me) even going so far as to take place in 1979.
We follow a group of friends (including the obligatory fat kid) in small town Ohio as they attempt to film an amateur movie for a school project. While filming they witness a train derailment (big special effects here and pretty cool) and then an otherworldly force begins to stalk their town. Of course it's only the kids that know what's really going on as the army descends and adults scramble.
I'd be curious to see what the young adult crowd thought of this? It didn't do much for me. I don't know though, I can still watch ET and feel the magic, the magic was missing here. As a tribute film however this works just fine. The completed zombie movie shown during the credits was good. 6/2/14