2013 / 94m - USA
Thriller, Horror
3.5*/5.0*
Evidence poster

Watches

July 11, 2013

3.5*/5.0*

Five years ago I prayed that the found footage style would stick. Films like Cloverfield and [rec] had proven that there was value in it and I was craving more of the same. Nowadays we're drowning in found footage films, making it difficult to find the ones that bring something new to the table. Still, many directors out there continue to have a go at it, sometimes even with success.

In 2010 Olatunde Osunsanmi came out with The Fourth Kind, one of the better found footage films of its time. Three years later he's having another crack at it with Evidence and demonstrates once again he is a capable director within this particular niche. Evidence is smarter than The Fourth Kind, though it does lack some tension and atmosphere in the middle part.

Technically Evidence is not a true found footage film, but explaining why would be spoiling much of the fun. I can say that the film houses one of the better ending twists I've seen in a long time though. In Evidence Osunsanmi pays more attention to the actual "found" part of the genre, landing the footage in the hands of police professionals who are trying to figure out what happened to a bunch of charred bodies in an abandoned truck repair shop in the middle of the desert.

The acting is decent enough, the quality loss of the footage a little overdone but the setting is cool, the mystery effective and the ending worth your time. Osunsanmi fails to keep the tension going around halfway but quickly recovers to deliver a more than satisfying finale. Evidence is a fun, entertaining and solid genre film. It lacks that little extra to be truly great, but it does come with a few minor innovations that is sure to please fans of the found footage genre.