InDyingArms
There have been loads of found footage ghost films out there, and there are more, and more continuing to be made. Some unique, with lots to offer, and some just seeming to be the same as the last. "Ghoul" typically gives nothing really new to the table, giving us the same exact plot, and direction as many, many other found footage paranormal films.The story tries to make itself stand out from the rest, a story to be remembered, and unique. Though, here, they completely fell flat. The movie tried to pass off to the audience a plot, and or story of which has small things to offer, yet not enough to make this film stand out from the rest of the others just like this. The story here is completely clichéd, we've all seen it before, a couple of people who know each other really well decide to head off to a far off location to shoot a documentary, of which goes horribly wrong. We've seen this exact same plot elsewhere, this movie just duplicates the exact same plot, and executes it! The only thing remotely different is that there's different actors / characters, and a different location. As said before, it may of seemed like a really unique idea, but when actually shown it's not enough, making the plot, as well as the movies entire story just another copy of a different found footage paranormal film you've all probably seen before at least once.The characters in this movie, as well as completely clichéd. You have your insecure girls of which have second thoughts, and begin to freak out. Then, you have the two guys, both different. One insecure, and unsure of half the decisions the other makes, the tough character. I can't emphasize this enough. We have all seen this before. The characters in this film make, pretty much the same choices you've seen in other horror films, some stupid, some smart, and some just flat out questionable. The point being the characters in this movie have been seen millions of times before; I just recently saw a film featuring a character JUST like one seen in this film! The acting, of which, of course follows these characters wasn't bad .. at some points. At parts of the film the acting was meant to be at it's best, these actors seemed to only overact they're parts a bit. For example, when a character is lead to a situation of despair, these characters seemed to be overacting that said situational part. But for the most part of the movie, the actors kept a solid share of serious parts. Overall, acting wasn't TOO bad, but at the same time, though the actors seemed to overact a bit, turning out to be noticeable.Finally, for this so called Ghoul. Or in this case, the devilish villain the movie presents. It was fine at first, but fell a bit flat. At first, the movie gave the audience a somewhat mystery - like look into the ghoul, giving us little information on it, and allowing out imaginations to do the work. Around the middle, to end of this movie.. it simply falls flat. The ghoul's identity has finally been unleashed. For what that stood for, it was quite frightening, but decided to completely fall flat when the ghoul was actually visually seen from the audience. The visually seen ghoul honestly wasn't the best, not only because the cinematography / camera shook all around when the visual points of time came, but when audiences could actually get a clear view, it didn't exactly pay off. It simply seemed amateurish, not making the cut. In conclusion, the enemy here had a good profile without visual appearance. But when audiences finally saw him, it didn't exactly pay off, and it was amateurish.This movie was just completely clichéd! They tried making it unique, and fresh, but failed completely, instead, this movie just proves to be yet another found footage paranormal film. It offers little to nothing new, and all attempts just didn't exactly make the cut. In conclusion, this film was just. Eh. You've seen this exact same act millions of times before, nothing different except the scene, and characters. I'd recommend this to those who are simply bored with nothing else to watch. But for any horror fan looking for something fresh, and new, you defiantly need to go elsewhere.
fallguy_jack
So it's not winning any awards, but the extreme difference in reviews is weird. So here's my no spoiler take on it:Def not a 10, or a 1 either, my 7 i think was pretty accurate, maybe low considering how much they did with no budget (i assume). Too bad I can't throw in a .5 lol. Look into that IMDb!I don't like found footage type movies, I thought the blair witch project was utter crap.The acting in this movie is much better, actually I'd go as far as to say the acting was believable, which is rare, especially considering the script has to make them seem like actual people for that. Most of them did great.They did some other things really well in this movie, including the use of the camera light, which I would normally find annoying, but somehow they made it work.If you want to watch a half decent horror flick, and god knows there aren't many out there, this isn't a bad way to go. I think I liked it because it combined different kinds of creepiness, and it didn't do it badly.Maybe I was lucky because I went in not having read or seen anything about the movie, but still didn't expect much never having heard of it.
David Kennedy
I went to see GHOUL with my recent-college-grad son and college-age daughter. I ended up wearing part of her popcorn when one of the shots scared the heck out of her. Too funny, at the time, but also a testimony to some nice crafting by the filmmakers. (Okay, maybe I jumped a little, too). Very interesting and creative use of actual historical events and real persons to create a horror movie that was made the impossible plausible, was fun to watch, and which was genuinely creepy in parts.I also bought into the basic "quest" behind the movie -- a group of movie makers investigate an actual cannibalism event for a reality show -- largely, I think, because GHOUL set up the fictional "reality" with actual historical shots of famine victims and extremely creepy shots of the base character - a real life, modern-day, convicted "cannibal", among others.For me, this blending of reality with fiction effectively jump-started, and then maintained, the story with a solid dose of plausibility.The characters who set up the supposed "reality" were also well-played and believable; in fact, their "normality" was critical to keeping me "in" the movie.All in all, a "participation" / "popcorn" movie well worth seeing, even if you end up wearing some of it.
