Always Watching

Initially meant for the weekly thread to come Sunday...

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Always Watching (2015) was a found footage movie that truthfully left me just kind of underwhelmed, with no passion or inspiration urging any sort of advanced critique, which I kind of felt belonged in a small paragraph in the current weekly review thread I've been producing for Sundays. From what I gather the Slender Man is the reasoning behind the faceless entity that leaves marks on his victims, eventually influencing them to kill others through a type of dark will. A camera operator, a news journalist, and their producer all embark on an article about a family seemingly lost, with video footage recorded from a cam showing a figure in suit with no face, and they themselves are eventually targeted. Marks on them as well, with no matter how far they try to escape doing no good. All the recordings become distorted and affected by the specter’s appearances, which start with the cameraman (Chris Marquette; Freddy vs. Jason (2003)), eventually reaching the journalist (hot redhead Alexandra Breckinridge) and her lover producer (Jake McDorman). Marquette is also infatuated with Breckinridge which causes quite a bit of tension. He had been stalking her, justifying it by telling Breckenridge he was worried about her abusing Percocet. The love triangle aside, footage of a family that is besieged by evil eventually sheds light on just how dangerous Slender Man is, perpetrating the three leads as well. The footage of old and new, no matter the advance in technology, Slender Man invades, and seemingly nothing can prevent the insidious actions of Slender Man.

Not as exciting or as compelling as my premise might lead you to believe. A bit on the dull side, there just isn’t much energy involved. The jerks and jolts of recording equipment under the effects of Slender Man and his victims starting to grow weary as their lives suffer as he preys on them serve as expected found footage results. The house of the family besieged by Slender Man is creepy, left behind as if they had just vanished in the middle of an active day. Slender Man isn't too shabby a figment that comes and goes. If only the leads were more interesting. Oh and Marquette loves his dog, but Slender Man ultimately doesn't.

Closely tied to a webseries, I read...