Exhibit A
Monday, November 30, 2009 at 04:48PM ;)
As you will be aware Paranormal Activity is raking it in at the box office on the back of it's hand held camera work and the so called scariness of it. I saw it of course and fucking hated it. It was about as frightening as a box of abandoned kittens and to be honest it kind of drove the nail in the coffin of the hand held genre for me and then some very kind person sent me a copy of Exhibit A to watch and review. Straight up from the start, fucking forget PA and hunt down a copy of this fucker. It arrived in the post to me in a Police evidence bag which was really fucking cool and property of West Yorkshire Police was on the disc. I'd only seen the trailer last week so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.
Several films have used the premise that what we're watching is real footage such as Cannibal Holocaust, The Blair Witch Project and of course recently Paranormal Activity but as the film starts with a marker that this was found at a murder scene in Leeds in one of the daughters camcorder I was a little unsure about what to expect. The great thing about this is that it's shot entirely on a normal camcorder and unlike the other handheld films the camera use is erratic and at times so amateur that it adds to the authenticity of the film.
I'm guessing you're wanting to know what Exhibit A is actually about. Teenage daughter Judith (Brittany Ashworth) is obsessed with filming her family in everyday life after her father buys her a camcorder and that's how the first half hour plays out. She films them doing everyday things that families do and that's what sets up the film so well. This really could be your family or mine. Her dad is looking to get a big promotion at work and it's this that eventually proves to be the catalyst that destroys this family. Judith films as her father lies about the promotion and they go ahead with plans to move into a bigger house. Over the next hour we watch a man in decline as financial pressure begins to push him into meltdown and when he turns up one day covered in blood, obviously his family are a little fucking concerned.
Exhibit A is one of those films that you watch and feel you shouldn't be. It's unsettling to stand by as a man begins to breakdown. Having a good knowledge of mental illness Bradley Cole who plays the dad is superb as he struggles more and more to cope and when it's revealed he lied it breaks him. Not everything in Exhibit A happens on camera and that adds to the overall realism but it's the final fifteen minutes that really push it to its limit. I can say that I am rarely disturbed by cinema nowadays but the final scenes of this will stay with me for a long, long time. I would go as far to say that the last bit is one of the worst things I've ever seen. I really cannot recommend Exhibit A enough and if I was you I'd fuck off paranormal goings on and watch this years most terrifying film. This feels real and fuck me it messes with your head. This is horror as it should be but it's not the normal horror that we see in film because this is real horror played out in a seemingly real situation. It was actually made in 2007 and I hope that people now get to see it because quite simply it's brilliant.
A Fucking Hefty Kick In The Nuts out of 5
Exhibit A in Drama, Fucked Up, Independent
Reader Comments (3)
Sounds good (in a fucked up way). Again - where can we see this?
Always forget that bit. It's out on DVD from the likes of Amazon etc but I got sent my copy because I'm special.
Film can be streamed for free here http://www.indiemoviesonline.com/watch-movies/exhibit-a and if you like it please buy the Collector's Edition DVD from www.exhibitathemovie.com.