Char Man is one of the horror movies that came out this year and I was glad when I read that it is one of found footage horror movies that I love so much.
My fascination with found footage started in 1999.when I went to the cinema of my home town to check out The Blairwitch Project, probably one of the most famous of that horror subgenre and the movie that started the whole movement within the horror subgenre. I was awed and scared as shit and that one still scares me after all these years and I am not easily scared when watching horror after seeing hundreds of movies. Anyway, there were a lot of found footage flicks until now, some better, often worse and I chose to see Char Man to check out one after long time no seeing that horror subgenre.
The story revolves around three friends who wanted to make a documentary about fire ravaged Ojai, California and the legend of the vampire there. First half an hour of the movie is extremely boring and nothing really happens then they hear about another local legend about Char Man and they decide as it goes in such movies to dare the legend for making a documentary and things happen that are beyond understanding.
Well, like all such movies this one started with a text in which we the viewers are informed that this footage was found by the authorities and edited later for easier understanding and viewing. The movie was directed and written by Kurt Ela(Coffin 2) and Kipp Tribble(Coffin 1 and 2) who also play the main characters in the movie. I must say that camera work is pretty poor even for such movies where it is usual that everything happens pretty shaky to get more real perspective of the events in the movie. The acting is also very unconvincing and I had a hard time if any to get into the characters and evolve something for them as a viewer and I just couldn`t get into the movie with interest at least for the first half of the movie. Then, when some action happens as you are used with all the running and shaking with movies like this one, there are some spooky scenes with bad masks and grainy nightvision that have their moments, but in all, including the ending, this one is just one of those found footage that are bad and are they try to jump on the bandwagon of other people´s success.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 