Profecía Sangrienta

One of the better horror movies from the last few years. The "horror" genre tag was missing from the IMDb page when I first looked it up (right before I saw it) so I really didn't know what I was getting into - although it was pretty obvious that it would be a horror flick due to the cover picture, but you never know.

The story was well written. It was very clever how they incorporated Alzheimer's disease into the story - well, they didn't "incorporate" it - the disease is the main story, but it was very clever how they made it into a horror movie - the disease is very scary in and of itself.

I have to admit that the acting was a bit iffy, but it became negligible toward the middle of the movie due to the intensity of the story. And Jill Larson gave a stellar performance.

You know when you watch a movie and you constantly yell at the characters because they do everything wrong? Yeah, this movie is one of those.

Here's the premise: A group of people get to film an old lady in the struggle of an early diagnosed Alzheimer's disease. Her behavior is getting worse really fast, but it seems something else is going on with her, something evil...

Jill Larson is the best actress in the movie. She really nails her character. Anne Ramsay follows, then the rest of the acting is okay I guess.

Now, the problem with this movie is mainly about rational behavior of the characters. You know, when you are looking for someone confused in the house, it works better with the lights on. But here noooo, that wouldn't be scary enough. The group could also make sure to tell her they are coming and are looking for her, but it feels like they are almost hiding from her. Then when we find the lost lady or something scary, we also get a bonus unrelated scary sound, to make sure the jump scares are effective.

Some scenes can get pretty exciting sometimes, but don't hope to find anything extraordinary with this movie, you'd be disappointed. If you're looking for a barely decent found footage/mockumentary flick, you can give this one a chance. Just don't think too much about logic in this movie, because it is pretty much inexistent.

Let me get one thing out first: this was not a great movie. It could be a good movie, but right now I'm such in shock that I don't know how I feel. I don't understand the reviews saying this movie is boring or slow. I felt like it had a very nice pace that kept the story rolling and my interest high.

What I will say is that the biggest detriment to this movie is that it was willing to have its characters make stupid choices in order for the creepy, intense scenes to happen. People often don't turn on lights when they are readily available (or should be, maybe there were unspoken reasons why the lights weren't working?). When Deborah becomes violent and injures people, she is not kept under lock and key until they can figure out how to treat her, rather she is allowed to go home time and again so she can do the same things. And of course, people go into places alone when they shouldn't, and don't call for back up when they should.

That being said, I have to hand it to the filmmakers for creating some of the most intense and effective scaring that I've seen in years. Not even just the finale (I'll get to that later) but intermittently. Not everything works, and not every scare is fresh or original, but quite a few of them hit the mark and had me at the edge of my seat.

And finally the ending. I had read in other reviews that this was quite the doozy, and I have to admit I was in no way, shape, or form prepared. I don't want to over-hype it (although I can't imagine how), but that was something I could not have seen coming, and for the first time in my horror-loving life, I actually had to look away from the screen. The image is still burned in my mind.

I can say that the ending almost made the whole thing worth it, but just for setting up the scary bits I can't rationalize all the stupidity the characters show. As a whole, I don't regret watching "Taking" but it definitely had its flaws.

That ending though...

We've had just so many found-footage horrors every year, it's just too much. But not all of them are not worth it. This isn't great or anything, but i was able to achieve some nice scares and develops its central mystery and the development of the characters works. It reminds me a lot of The Last Exorcism (although that was still a lot better). The acting here is pretty strong, and the atmosphere builds well. I'm sure many will love the explosive climax and finale, and although there aren't too many inconsistencies in the story, there are still flaws here and there. But while it doesn't achieve so much greatness, definitely recommended.

I like the way the movie started. I liked the premise and the "horror" movie take on something as real as someone slowly suffering from Alzheimer's.

But they lost me once all the supernatural stuff started.

And I could have tolerated the supernatural stuff if that's the way they wanted to go with this, but I couldn't because of that stupid shaky cam and that girl doing the documentary (I forgot her name, May?) screaming all the time.

Sucks because I started watching this with very high expectations (since I heard it was a pretty good movie) but it didn't deliver. And that sucks, because based on the first 20-30 minutes, it had potential.