2015 October Horror Challenge #56 "Mockingbird"

This is one of those movies that I've been putting off watching for awhile now.  The premise sounds awesome to me, but everyone seems to hate the movie, so I don't know whether it would be good.  Luckily, I tend to like movies that everyone else seems to hate.  I don't get why people don't like this movie anyway.  I mean, yes, it's a found footage movie, which people are getting tired of seeing, but it has an intriguing premise to explain the "footage" that is left behind.

Here's the premise: three different people receive a video camera, with instructions to keep filming no matter what happens.  Things get scarier, but they are told that if they stop filming or call the cops, they will die.  That takes care of explaining why people keep filming even after horrible things start happening, which is never explained and thus seems silly in other found footage movies.  Dude, zombies are eating you, put down the camera already.  But in this movie, people keep filming because they're afraid of dying if they don't.

I have to admit, the opening sequence of this movie freaked me out.  I kean, I knew what was happening, and I knew what was going to happen, but seeing it startled me even when I knew it was going to happen, which impressed me.  Plus I kind of liked the characters in the movie, so seeing them slowly get confused, then scared, as the movie progresses...I admit, it worked for me.   Plus I think the movie was supposed to be shocking to the senses, like darkness with sudden flashes of light from lightening and the titles in between vignettes, bright words on a dark background.  The sounds are shocking in that way too: quiet with sudden bursts of noise.  It might annoy some people, but it just left me really unsettled, so it had the desired effect.

Also, there's a clown.  I know, creepy, right?  Clowns seem to freak people out in general.  And I saw the clown on the movie cover, so I knew there was going to be a clown in the movie, but how they work the clown into the story is pretty cool.  I feel bad for the characters, being pawns of something they don't understand.  The movie got under my skin that way.  I imagine if it didn't get under your skin, you might just think it was silly, but I liked it (as much as I can say I "liked" being freaked out by anything)