Geekscape Movie Reviews: Area 407
Very few horror movies will inspire me to nearly fall off my treadmill in fright. IFC Midnight’s Area 407 did exactly that. Don’t worry—nothing too important is bruised.
Area 407 is one of a growing number of what are called “found footage” films. If you don’t recognize the term, then you’ll recognize films among their number—most notably The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity.
Found footage films find a logic supporting at least one video camera’s presence and attempt to use the visual perception of realism to heighten the tension. You know, “this really happened”. In The Blair Witch Project, three film students were making a documentary, in Paranormal Activity, husband Micah was a camera bug and eventually had security cameras installed throughout their house. In Area 407, little sister Trisha (Abigail Schrader) steals a video camera from her older sibling, Jessie (Samantha Lester), in an enthusiastic desire to document their New Year’s Eve flight back to Los Angeles.
This is incredibly, incredibly clever. Toss a precocious girl behind a video camera and watch her interview fellow passengers, alternating between annoying them and endearing herself to them. We get to meet every major character pre-shitfest (technical term) and actually get attached to them before things fall into chaos.
And it is chaos. The sisters’ lovely flight from New York goes quickly south just when the plane hits a patch of turbulence. Now, I’m not prone to watching movies with plane crashes, but I was enrapt and absolutely horrified witnessing the— what I imagine to be— much too realistic footage of the event. It was truly terrifying.
Once the plane is on the ground, the sisters regroup and we are properly introduced to the survivors. Jimmy (James Lyons) is a journalist and the source of some of the camera equipment and lighting used throughout the film. Laura (Melanie Lyons) is the lovely accented air marshal, while Charlie (Brendan Patrick Connor) fills the role of the irrational, selfish jackass who consistently manages to upset any trace of cool-headedness that might be found. One flight attendant, Lois (Samantha Sloyan), survives as well as the now widowed Tom (Ken Garcia).
As the survivors begin to collect themselves from what could be termed an already horrible evening, Tom rushes off into the night to search for the other half of the plane which would, he wildly theorizes, contain his wife. After a brief interval of various coping mechanisms, noises are heard in the distance. Noises like screaming and unearthly growls.
It’s not a great time for anyone.
Things progress from bad to worse to downright sadistic as the night continues onward and the survivors realize that help is not coming and there’s a beast in the woods slowly picking them off. With no idea of where they are and no light aside from the cameras, the group heads into the woods to find some shelter, some assistance, some thing to save them.
I loved it. Well, I loved most of it. The story was excellent take on a somewhat traditional tale, the dialogue was realistic for the situation, the camera work—while a bit too high quality for the found footage genre in my opinion– was lovely. They did an excellent job of bringing it together, justifying the nearly continuous filming, and showing just enough—but not too much!—to keep me on the edge of my… treadmill.
However, there was the matter of the monster. The movie has this pretty cool concept going on that I think is executed excellent for the style they chose. And then, when the monster is finally revealed… it’s a letdown. You’re sitting there going, “Oh.”
I’d liken it to meeting someone on a dating site who seems amazing. Wonderfully written profile, gorgeous pictures, witty repartee. And then you meet and the pictures are not only about fifteen years and fifty pounds ago, but also neglected to show that the left side of his face is melted off. It doesn’t negate that you had some great and exciting internet exchanges, but you feel more than a bit misled.
My recommendation? Watch it. Watch it with full knowledge that the last two seconds of the movie are going to make you wince, and enjoy the rest of the movie as much as I did. It released in select theaters on April 27th, but you can also find it on SundanceNOW, iTunes, Amazon Streaming, XBOX, Zune, and Playstation Unlimited.
