What A Con!

Rating: Null/10 (7 January 2001)

One of the adverts said "Its the film everybody is talking about" Then overdubbing (on images of people leaving a cinema without looking very happy) the words "So why is no one talking?"
Well, probably because they have just payed good cash to sit through one hour and 14 minutes worth of drivel. What a feeling of ripped-off-ness those people must have had. Thank god I only watched it by buying a 20p ex-rental DVD.
Children, playing at being children acting frightened in the woods, and using a lot of 'F' words, how riveting. Not to mention unconvincing! We know that there are many people who in normal conversation use the 'F' word once in every three, but a good screenplay writer knows that this does not work on the screen. He knows when to use it for maximum effect, and when not to use it. The fact that only twenty minutes into the film these children were running around screaming "What the F's going on" rather brought the film to a climax too soon, after which it was embarrassingly boring.
The concept was good, but the material as presented would have been better summed up in 30 minutes and not left to linger for over an hour. It is reminiscent of a comedian who has to milk the last laugh from a flimsy sketch, only to desist at the 20th groan.
More effective in my mind was the spoof documentary, "The Curse of the Blair Witch", which showed only enough of those embarrassing, (and probably embarrassed children), to effect a briliant concocted mythology, which would, on its own have been able to stand with all great April Fool Spoofs, such as "The Spagetti Harvest", "Dinasaurs in London", and "The Brain Drain". Instead, they decided to inflict it on us as a film, and worse of all call it the best horror of 1999.
The only thing that this is a tribute to is the producer's stunningly effective advertising campeign, especially their use of the internet for promotion. It worked once, next time the public will be more sceptical. Which is a pity, since there were a few better films that year that would have benefitted from such a shrewd advertising mechanism than this one.
In the words of Our Lord W C Fields, "Never give a sucker an even break!". They have made their money, and I congratulate them on their gimmick. Lets pray that they do not want to inflict more of this tripe on us.