Area 407 (2012) User Reviews

Area 407 is more irritating than scary

[rgblakey · 3/10 · 3 September 2012]

The found footage genre is all but played out, but every now and then someone comes along to deliver a different take on it. The most popular genre to use this technique seems to be horror as a new one comes out all the time. The latest Area 407 delivers their take in this style in hopes of possibly delivering something new.

Area 407 follows a group of people involved in a plane crash. What they don't realize is that they have crash landed in a government testing area and something more sinister is out there with them. The story is pretty simple and works well delivering some decent build up and creepy moments. Throughout the story it slowly builds keeping you wondering what is chasing these unsuspecting victims. What really puts things off on this film are some of the characters. They all spend the majority of the film either screaming, fighting, or complaining making the whole thing gets real old real fast. You expect a certain level of this behavior in this situation, but they overplay it for so long you spend most of the time annoyed and waiting for something to kill them. There is never too much explanation on what is really going on other than the government's involvement which would be fine had it not had the ending it did.

Unlike a lot of these films, there is a pay off at the end even if it's not all that great. Once you see the direction the film leads it makes some of the previous moments in the film not make as much sense in regards to some of the kills. This isn't a horrible addition to this genre, actually for a smaller budget it's not all that bad, but with some toned down characters and a little more discovery could have been much better.

http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-dallas/bobby-blakey

Found Footage Fromage

[gregsrants · 3/10 · 29 April 2012]

While many of the film-going public squawk about the gluttony of superhero films that are polluting our theatre screens on a repeating basis, it is with found footage films that I have reached my fill.

Made popular and mainstream in 1999 with The Blair Witch Project, there have been more dismal efforts (Apollo 18, The Zombie Diaries, The Feed) than there have been engrossing ones (Paranormal Activity, Cloverfield). Yet week in and week out, whether it be in the local theatre, video on demand or on DVD, there are release after release of found footage films with budgets of less than the average person's minimum Visa payment.

This week's latest cash-grab is Area 407 (also promoted as Tape 407). The film opens on a plane travelling between New York to Los Angeles on New Year's Eve where a young girl, Trish (Abigail Schrader) and her sister Jesse (Samantha Lester) are using their camera to video capture just about everything and everyone around them.

Side note: how is it in these found footage films they all have cameras with batteries that last so long as to even baffle a NASA scientist? After the obligatory introduction of a few central characters on the plane the passengers and crew celebrate New Year's Eve with cheers and noisemakers until a bad storm and turbulence send the darkened plane into a freefall. The plane crashes in a remote government testing ground and the handful of survivors that are left, band together in an attempt to find their bearings in the darkened night of their secluded surroundings.

But as we learn rather quickly, the plane crash was only the beginning of their nightmare as they are being stalked and hunted by some predatory creatures that look like mid-sized Jurassic Park raptors.

Armed with only their wits and a single gun coming courtesy of the Sky Marshall on board (how convenient she survived) the group will find their numbers dwindle as they struggle through the night for survival.

Area 407 was filmed in only five days and (according to IMDb.com) all the dialogue was ad lib. The dialogue before the plane crashes was actually engrossing banter that had our interest focused on the central characters.

But once the survivors collect themselves amongst the plane's wreckage, things go off the rails and the cast begin to yell, scream and draw out too many inconsequential conversations likely just to inflate the running time to a feature accepted 90-minutes.

As with most found footage films, the camera work is shaky and downright annoying. You will feel jerked, dropped and nauseous as the camera is passed between various characters that seem more intent on capturing their demise on film than putting down the damn device and using their senses to gather their bearings.

Directors Dale Fabrigar and Everette Wallin keep the creature out of sight and in the dark for most of the film which could work if you develop enough tension and atmosphere. But in Tape 407 audiences aren't engaged to any sense of caring or urgency and seeing the creatures in more detail would be the trade off for the long-in-tooth banter we are intended to endure.

Tape 407 ends in unexpected fashion with a conclusion intended to shock (I guess). But without caring about any of those that may survive or face their fate, you will likely just want it over at any cost. Even at the cost of writing off the video-on-demand investment.

www.killerreviews.com

Oh Dear

[graeme-206-255002 · 3/10 · 28 February 2012]

Attending this year's FrightFest with high hopes and much anticipation over Tape 407, from the first opening dialogue with the lead actress, my ear drums screamed in agony.

The voice grated. And grated the entire movie.

To cap it all off, the dialogue was clearly ad libbed throughout - the actors working from a storyboard for each scene, sometimes they pulled it off, mostly though, they didn't, and the audience is left cringing at some unintentionally hilarious lines.

If you can get over the tortuous scripting and delivery, the movie itself is actually quite high quality. Great cameras give us a crystal clear view of the action, and the sound (aside from the grating voice) is loud and breathtaking.

The director managed to capture brilliantly the crash scene, with the bass in the sound and the violent action on screen, he portrayed this with great skill and ease leaving us in no doubt what was happening.

It's a pity that this wasn't carried on post crash however.

From this point on, the credibility of the actors and movie, slips away, like memories over time. Which is a shame, because he almost, almost had a brilliant addition to the found footage genre. Poor scripting and at times, embarrassing dialogue, spoiled what had preceded it.

As we hear distant roars, growls and screams, hope builds, but, in a key scene in a disused shed, when we finally observe the source of the noise, all (and I mean all) credibility for the movie evaporates.

Dinosaurs.

I mean, had it been aliens, or indeed ghosts, then this movie would have probably made it and been decent, however, the moment we see the sub par CGI on screen, it becomes hilarious. Maybe it would have been better to leave such things to our imagination, or employed techniques used in movies like The Last Broadcast - where we don't really know what is killing people.

As the murderous creatures devour their way through the cast, we're left with the two lead actress' running for their lives, eventually bursting out into bright sunshine only to find out exactly where they have been all night....I'll leave the rest for you to find out, if you really want to.

In summary, a reasonable beginning spoiled massively by a ridiculous storyline - this movie won't add anything to the Found Footage genre unfortunately.

3/10

THIS IS A ROTTEN AIRLINE

[nogodnomasters · 1/10 · 20 August 2018]

This is another hand held camera, so it must be real film. Two sisters are flying on New Year's eve from NY to LA. The younger sister Trish (Abigail Schrader) is filming everything which allows some minor character introduction. It was so authentic, it was boring. It just so happens there is a professional journalist on board with a powerful light so he can shoot video at night. His ability to hold the camera still leaves much to be desired.

Once the plane crashes (description of film) one passenger Charley (Brendan Patrick Connor) provides for the internal conflict. There is a woman marshal on board (Everette Wallin) so there is someone with a gun. Fear and terror are generated by shaking the camera real fast and having everyone scream and shout at the same time. This worked better than the occasional glimpse of the rubber headed dinosaur looking predator.

They crash in the land of "it is always dark" and they keep filming with a light that would attract predators. Everyone has various amounts of bright red blood on them.

This movie reminded me of "Chernobyl Diaries" in its basic formula. What you thought about "Chernobyl Diaries" will determine if you like this one. I didn't like the "Chernobyl Diaries."

PARENTAL GUIDE: F-bombs, no sex, no nudity.

You won't like them when they're annoying

[kosmasp · 2/10 · 6 May 2012]

Though they do not turn green (any of the characters that is). Come to think about it, it would have made the movie better though. My strange thoughts aside though, this "Found Footage" movie is one of the worst offspring that this craze has brought us. I do wonder if anyone actually believes any of those are "real"? If you're too young to remember or never cared for them anyway, I will point you to Blair Witch Project. A movie that had some people trembling because the viral marketing (internet presence) made them believe it was real.

But this movie does not even deserve that attention. While they do try to put some special effects in it, the fact it looks cheap is not the worst part. It's the characters, that might be up for a Guinness book entry for most annoying film characters ever. You almost feel sorry for the actors portraying them, if you can stop feeling sorry for yourself or your precious time that you've wasted that is.

While I never was big on those Found Footage movies, there have been some exceptions (i.e. movies) that were made with some finesse and some excellent ideas/dialogue or characters. Those things are absent here. You do get a 2 or 3 scenes that may shock you for a second (and the ending is actually pretty neat, therefor the 2/10 and not the 1/10), but overall, you'll be wasting your time and test your nerves to the breaking point if you really take the challenge of watching this.

I could write so much more, but I'll leave it at that. It's your "call" (no pun intended)

Why?

[dmateris82-426-768434 · 1/10 · 18 July 2012]

First, please stop calling this a "film". For one, its clearly, or should I say, shakily shot on digital. Also, this is merely a movie. A very annoying, boring movie.

If you MUST shoot a horror movie "found footage" style please think of your viewers. A directer must know by now that NO ONE, not even under age kids, believe these movies are real, so just put forth a tad bit of effort in giving the audience something to look at...something to feel. I honestly think the director gave the actors two cameras, threw some red paint on them and sent them loose on some sort of assignment to see what they came up with. And then I think he yelled, "That's a wrap!"

Actors... I'm sorry you were given no script and no direction. I'm sure you did the best you could but we'll never know because all we get to see through the camera is the ground.

*SPOILER*

The ending...really?? Dinosaurs....really??

I would not recommend this movie. To anyone.

major flop!!!

[ogreen336 · 1/10 · 29 April 2012]

i just got to say this is the worst film ever! what is wrong with these people? is it desperation? since lately i've noticed that almost every one is taking this homemade approach to films, where they have this one person or two running around with a camera thats delivering some real shaky video quality that makes the film really uncomfortable to watch. i mean u have movies done like this before that are exceptional, like CLOVERFEILD for example or even CHRONICLE i enjoyed those a bit but this..... oh man such a massive waste of precious time. and whats with all the constant bickering and unnecessary noisiness and confusion in the movie? its very annoying! and this movie is made almost exactly like TAKE SHELTER where for some reason u only deserve just a few seconds of what would have been the best part of the movie and then bam!! u get end credits, i mean seriously man! whats up with that?

Speechless

[harryplinkett14 · 1/10 · 10 January 2017]

I am speechless. I am without speech.

How? Why? Who made this???

I am 50 minutes into the film, the monster has been seen in just a few frames so far, all blurred, they have been bickering without a break for half an hour, and they are in a house in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, as well, with light coming through one of the windows. It's not the moon, because it has been established that its totally dark. My guess is that the incompetent team decided to put a light there so the monster that's stalking them could be silhouetted for a second, again in a blurred image. Oh, and our crazy camera person, who is filming everything for some reason, turns the camera away from the monster whenever it makes an appearance. Also convenient for the CGI team, but bad news for the audience. This film makes no sense at all. The premise is moronic, even by found footage standards, the monsters are crap, and the characters literally scream and bicker without a break. They don't stop even as they are being eaten. Usually several quarrels would be taking place simultaneously. Do the filmmakers think the audiences will be immersed in the plot if they are made to endure this pointless and unmotivated bickering? Do they think we might empathise with the characters more? Cause, as many others have noted in the reviews, these characters are all obnoxious and you can't wait for them to die because you literally hate their guts. Watching this film is outright torture.

The Blur Jurassic Project

[Lomedin · 1/10 · 4 December 2013]

I thought that, being some kind of fan of found footage movies, nothing could really let me down so much. Man, was I wrong.

Here we have a film with no qualities whatsoever. At the beginning, I was happy to see a girl (Jess) who reminded me of a chick I went out with a few times ages ago (hey, Rosemary, hello if you are there!). I decided to try to cope with the EXTREMELY annoying mixture of nails running through a blackboard and forks scratching a plate that is the voice of the sister (Trisha). Boy, this -supposedly- 13 years old girl not only behaves like she's 8, but that bloody screeching thing she had for a voice... Jesus Christ. Anyway, at the very beginning, I found the actors natural enough and I thought "ok". Then, 5 minutes into the movie, I was starting to wonder why nothing is happening at all. After the movie goes on and the "actors" show their true colours of stereotypes and horrendous acting, I started to skip chunks by fast forwarding because NOTHING happens in this movie. There's a lot of unrelated talk, of walking around while they are at it, when they are not simply getting hysterical for no reason or repeating "shut up, Charlie". I could fast forward 5 minutes and they'd still be talking about the same (how my leg is hurting or how tired they are), still the camera focusing on their strides while they walk a dirty road. The whole movie is like that.

In total, I'd say that, throughout the 1h 29sec of film, we get to see 5 seconds of blurry bad CGI (2 of them at the very end of the movie). And perhaps about 10 secs of (what is supposed to be?) scary noises (a mixture of lions in heat and dinosaurs with bowel problems). That's all there's to this movie. There's no terror, sense of dread, no real mystery or feeling of threat. SERIOUSLY. NONE. Not even a jack-in-the-box type of scare.

At some points, I smiled or even laughed a couple of times because of the crap acting or ridiculous situations (which are suppose to be very serious and frightening).

At some point, as well, I stopped thinking about that girl I used to know and forgot about hoping to see the actress showing her big bare bust (sorry, I had to focus on something during this garbage of a film, and like I said, she brought back memories of someone else) and simply hated her, like the rest of the people involved in this pathetic movie.

I could almost say that, as an exception, the IMDb score is right. Although, on second thought, that's not correct. This movie deserves a much lower score. This movie is RIDICULOUS. Maybe your 5 years old child will find some amusement while wasting precious time instead of doing something more useful. Like, nothing. After all, that's what they do in this movie. Why would you watch a fiction when you or your toddler can experience firsthand the excitement of doing nothing?

So, hey, if you are bored with your friends, grab a couple of cameras, go out there with some of them while some others hide in the bushes farting a couple of times for scary special effects, run a bit for 2 minutes screaming around and making crazy people noises while drooling, get some tomato sauce on your temples, stop and talk about the weather for 15 minutes and repeat. You can edit the film back at home and use any freeware to add some shitty visual effects for a fraction of a second here and there. You need to be no computer expert! And voilà. Oh, and remember, getting a chubby busty girl to do a topless might get you that extra point!

..Although, you'd probably need more money to achieve that frontal nudity than the total budget for the entire piece of art.

Literally the worst.

[blakeblueblood · 7 July 2012]

Another one of those found footage movies that you really wish nobody ever "found". Not only are the characters super fake and annoying, they all entirely ad-libbed their lines, which sets you up for each character repeating everything over and over since there was no script. The special effects are even worse. It's almost physically painful to watch. I really wish they could make a good found footage movie without the acting being super awkward. Nothing about it was realistic or even close to believable. The little girl with the pigtails will make you wanna rip your head off. She says she's thirteen but she acts like a little five year old. It's exhausting. If you are unfortunate enough to watch this movie then you are in for an hour and thirty minutes of pure torture.

As bad as it gets

[chaugnurfaugn-269-83012 · 1/10 · 30 April 2012]

Another in the shaky cam genre. The premise is fairly straight forward, with potential legs. A plane crashes in a secret government facility akin to Area 57. Some kind of monster, presumably a military experiment, is loose in the area and the survivors of the crash must also survive the monster.

Things go reasonably well in the opening scene. We are introduced to the main protagonists as they embark the aircraft and engage in friendly banter. We identify immediately with the charismatic photo-journalist and a variety of other peripheral characters. The two lead roles, giggly teenage girls presumably designed to appeal to the movie's target demographic, are intolerably irritating. This is not intentional. We are supposed to root for them throughout. Suffice to say that I did not.

When the plane crashes, so too does the film. What ensues is an improv nightmare of epic proportions. The acting ranges from stage-school dire to 'a sterling effort all things considered', with watchable performances from James and Melanie Lyons (are those guys married?) and Brendan Patrick Connor as the socially incapable Charlie but silliness and over-acting fare from everyone else.

There really is no need to hide the rest of the story behind spoiler alerts. People run around and scream a lot. There's a ridiculous amount of comedy ketchup blood but no budget for real gore and the monster is about as frightening as the plot is imaginative.

If ever a movie represented with unerring (yet unwitting) veracity the dumbed-down and technically lazy state of modern cinema, Tape 407 is it. No script, no plot, no direction and nobody cares. You'll be relieved when it's over and that hollow feeling you have inside? That'll be your sense of expectation as a paying member of modern cinema-going audiences finally diminished to zero.

twist at the end

[dave-ross390 · 8/10 · 30 April 2012]

hi, i have been waiting for this film now for 2 years and finally watched it today, its not in cinema's until 21st may but if you are a found footage fan like me then you will like this movie, airplane crashes and the survivors find themselves within the boader of a government testing area and pursued with deadly predators. two of the survivors have camcorders and recorded the journey from start to end, talking of end it does end with a twist which i will not spoil for you but before that my ratings were a 6 out of 10 until i seen the ending which my rating went up to 8 out of 10. well i supposed i have to move on now to the next found footage movie. enjoy the film as much as i did.

cut the film some slack!

[MikesIDhasbeentaken · 6/10 · 25 May 2012]

Jeez!

been reading some of the reviews about this film... 'worst film ever'!! some people obviously haven't seen many films! And whats up with one guy having a go because the air hostess wasn't wearing a name badge, oh no! how unrealistic... people surviving a plane crash and being chased by dinosaurs OK, but only one air hostess? without a name badge? ridiculous.

If you watch this film, you already know what its about, so don't moan about things like the first aid kit being the wrong colour.

there are so many holes in the film you have to just go with it, rather than pick at them, like when everyones bleeding from the head, but they concentrate on the girl who's arms bleeding, or the fact that two people decided to exit and make a run for it from a car, when they could have just driven away... and yes the lack of script was evident, but hey, your watching a budget film about dinosaurs, so just go with it.

I thought it was pretty good, if the actors behaved more believable then it would have been better, and if the main girl wasn't so annoying, this would have been better.

But it was an OK film, for what it is, and the ending I thought was pretty good. You'll know what's going to happen, but how it happens is good, and the last few seconds... brilliant!

The genre should be horrific, not horror..

[mrd-9 · 1/10 · 10 May 2014]

I honestly can't believe I managed to watch as much as of this "film" as I did. I'm going to focus mainly on the end here. The young girl contributes absolutely nothing to the movie aside from being an incessantly annoying adolescent asking redundant questions and crying about how frightened she is. Not once do we even get a clear look at the "monsters" that are supposed to be attacking these people, and two people get hilariously run over in an attempt to get away from these "monsters", somehow ending up directly in front of the huge SUV they manage to find. Then all of a sudden it's the next day and the two survivors see a car, which they're screaming at to stop and help them from the moment they see the vehicle 100 feet away to when it's right there. Then to put the icing on the cake, after he takes them out he himself is killed by a baby t-rex appearing out of thin air. Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Please, don't waste your time watching this movie. It's not worth it no matter how you look at it, unless you enjoy a 12 year old girl complaining about being scared every three minutes and viewing everything with a satirical twist putting emphasis on how corny every aspect of this movie is.

worst movie of this type yet.

[bcarroll1462 · 1/10 · 28 April 2012]

Don't waste your time. That was 90 minutes of my life I will never get back. I only kept watching hoping it would get better. The holes all through the plot line and obvious errors in settings made it even worse.This was absolutely the worst found footage film ever. the make-up looked like it was done by a high school student for Halloween. the sets were just awful. the plane after crash was totally unrealistic. what happened to the carpet did it disintegrate with all the seats that disappeared? And how did the creature get in the plane to get at the flight attendant without anyone knowing? And what about that horrible camera work ?The girl who was supposedly filming wants to be a photo journalist but gets the worst possible film. When I film stuff with my camera even when running I keep it up not constantly point at the ground.I will give it props for the plane crash itself good turbulence quite realistic but that is it's only saving grace.The acting was even worse. Did they even write a script for this? This could have been a good movie if it was done by someone who knew what they were doing and these,(and I use this term loosely)film makers had no clue. I was hoping for a fun ride with this movie as I like both creature features and lost footage types but I would be asking for my money back if I had paid to see this terrible movie

Doomed flight that has the survivors wishing they would have died in the crash instead.

[drakecampbell-200-89784 · 31 October 2011]

I attended a late night showing in a seedy section of downtown Los Angeles which put me in the mood to be scared already, plus it was the night before Halloween and several theater goes were in costumes so the mood was set for what was to follow. The film opens with two sisters traveling cross country and documenting it on their video camera. The younger of the two is quite annoying and I was wishing already that something horrific would happen to her. The character development was slick as it was all done via the words of each of themselves speaking to our little vixens of the friendly skies. After a few minutes of small talk as the passengers board the plane we are treated to an obnoxious passenger that is obviously in need of a drink or has already had one too many and things go downhill from there for this doomed flight. Once on the ground things take an eerie turn in another direction as we now have changed from a disaster film to a horror film! Delightful gore and confusion follows our wayward sojourners as the plot thickens and the mayhem continues. This movie began like a roller coaster ride as we clickety-clacked and climbed to a fever pitch height in order to be brought crashing down with a violent momentum that had like any great amusement park ride, an ending that makes you say "Oh wow I didn't see one coming!".

descent but I would not rush out to see it!

[atinder · 5/10 · 5 May 2012]

I expected this too be really bad, well it wasn't one of the best found footage movies but i't's far from being one of the worst! (I think of just seen to many of these movies lol)

However if you can take a lot of shouting and yelling for about 85% of time, you may be able to enjoy this a little! and on top of that you may need to take in a very whinny girl for 10% of movie as well, it dose clam down in the last 30 mins! (You May needs ears plugs for some scenes, this is coming from a person who's deaf in one ear!)

The first 20 mins of movie were really dull and talking to the people on plane , countdown for new years day and the plane crashes!

I was little disappointed with the crash , it was good but they could have done a lot better.

I enjoyed that we did not see what was attacking the survivors at first as the movie goes we do get to see bits of the creature at times.

You will be able to see the whole creature near the end, which you will either find really silly and funny or scary (Which don't think anyone will be)

There also a little curve in last few mins of the movie, which I am so baffled by, I just did not understand that scene at all!

I thought was great idea and the acting was not too bad at all, I did found some scene boring at the start but most of the movie was so-what entertaining.

Found it descent 5 out of 10

Tripe 407

[bob_bear · 1/10 · 12 August 2012]

The opening is engaging and some of the improvised dialog on board the plane is effective. The crash is also effective. Where it all goes wrong is the rest of it.

The ensemble acting is horrible from the point of impact. Nobody listens to anyone else they just scream hysterically over the top of one another for the next 80 minutes. And who in their right mind would keep the camera rolling? I mean really? At one point the Austrailian US Air Marshall (?!) yells at the operator in no uncertain terms to turn it off! Off it goes. But sadly comes back on again and elicits no comment from anybody...

So amidst the drear that follows there are a couple of unintentional laugh out loud moments to be enjoyed. Charlie's line about "...did you see any food and water?" had me howling and the monster's initial reveal did likewise. Otherwise, it is one big pile of dinosaur do-do.

With production values this cheap one needs to be creative by necessity but there is no creativity here. The cast are effectively left direction-less and the improvised footage does not a decent film make.

I actually feel sorry for the actors. I mean who'd want this on their CV? It's hardly career enhancing. But mostly my sympathies lie with the viewers. My recommendation: Give it a miss.

Terrible

[SanteeFats · 1/10 · 14 September 2013]

First the first person video shooting sucked. I hated it. The acting was very bad. The dialog was even worse. Why would anyone make a movie this bad? Maybe they got paid no matter what. The crash scene was chaotic which is as it should be but if the little girl was injured who was filming that crap? Then there is the premise of Area 407-predators from hell that no one knows about. Give me a break, it would get out unless it was so isolated and guarded and there would still at least be rumors about it, if not an actual approximate location known by any locals that lived around the area. Did I mention I really, really hated the way it was filmed. What a moron that decided that.

Terrible

[profeloy · 1/10 · 20 January 2013]

This movie is terrible to watch till the end. Reading the summary, it seemed a good story. Unfortunately, this is not what the viewer gets when he watches. The characters acts without any logic (e.g: There were 4 of them in the car, one tries to escape by foot to get the attention of the animal that chased them; then another one go out the car to rescue the first one, but the car was working fine! So, the two that remained in car drove for 1 minute, ran over one that had left and the other returned to the car. They drove 1 minute more and arrived where they wanted. Why were not the 4 in the car?) I could give dozens of examples like this. The plot is totally disconnected, the end is predictable and silly. well, run out this movie!

Don't call me Shirley!

[doorsscorpywag · 1/10 · 29 April 2012]

"One of the best Found Footage movies they ever made!"

I don't think so.

Sort of a cross between Airplane, Blair Witch and Jurassic Park it truly is one crock of a movie. Obviously the cast and crew have made it have a high IMDb mark but that will change as more people have the misfortune to see this garbage.

The most unconvincing passengers in movie History board the most unconvincing airplane imaginable which after celebrating New Year hits some of the most unconvincing turbulence which causes it to crash in the desert.

All this is captured most unconvincingly by some kid with a camera.

We wake up in the desert with the most unconvincing air crash wreckage and an array of passenger with the most unconvincing injuries which seem to consists of daubs of red paint and some hilariously unconvincing cuts which in reality would cause a lot of pain but don't really seem to bother them.

Of course the first thing one of the girls does is start filming people rather than helping them but then the best way to treat wet paint stains is with turpentine and they seem out of that.

After a bit of a moan the passengers seem to forget that they just survived an air crash and run around screaming like the passengers in Airplane pursued by some unconvincing plastic monster.

The roll call of stock disaster movie characters is totally unconvincing from the fat guy who seems an arce but comes good when needed to the woman pretending to be an air stewardess who doesn't seem to be too concerned that the plane is in bits around her and goes looking for peanuts before falling victim to the plastic creature. Most laughably unconvincing is the shock cute sky marshal who suddenly starts popping off at anything that moves and saying 'over' a lot when they find a radio.

Cue the Blair Witch bit, with a bit of Jurassic Park 3 thrown in, as the passengers run from A to B losing one or two of their number to the plastic monster before running back to A for some pointless scenes with the wreckage before the shock ending as the conspiracy is revealed and we get a glimpse of what all the fuss was about.

It's neither gory nor funny, has no decent acting and a script an idiot would disown. Found footage films can be great to watch but this turgid tripe isn't one of them.

Area 409 clean up in isle 2

[jumpa13 · 4/10 · 29 April 2012]

I do not know what movie the guy above me watched, but it couldn't have been this one First off they board the plane in broad day light. Then when they take off it is dark out and in NY on New Years eve dark is around 6 pm so then next 20 min they are counting down to bring in the new years now a flight to LA from NY doesn't take 7 hours to get half way there.

So I never under stood the time line they used. Second they have a perfectly good Jeep to get away in, and they just stop and two people get out and run away, for no apparent reason what so ever, then the kid jumps up front starts the Jeep & drives it right into a ditch "after she runs over & kills the girl that was driving before her!!

This makes no sense to me. Why get out and go for a evening jog after something that just ate half the survivors left from the plane crash is chasing after you?? . To top all that off instead of just getting in the Jeep and leaving the area they drive around looking for the plane wreck for no reason other than to get the flight recorder and a flare gun when they already have a Glock 9-mm that the U.S. Marshall is carrying , with I might add an unlimited supply of ammo it seems yet I can never figure out where she is carrying the ammo.

The screaming and yelling coupled with the extremely shaky camera is nauseating. I could really pick this movie apart if I wanted to but that's enough for now it has some nice special affects even in the timing was off immensely.

Then again folks, What do I know ? I'm just a 44 year old well driller ~Good day~ RJM

Fun Low Budget Thriller

[Bob_the_Hobo · 8/10 · 28 August 2012]

I walked into "Area 407" with no expectations whatsoever. The poster looked cheap, the cast couldn't boast anyone, and the effects in the trailer looked lousy. But against my better judgement I tried it. The eight I give it is overrating but I feel it necessary to measure out these other reviews.

"Area 407" follows the passengers aboard a small jet. They include a little girl and her sister, an alcoholic businessman, a journalist, and an Air Marshall as the main characters. Suddenly the plane crashes into a middle of a desert-like area, killing several. The survivors are stalked by a series of mysterious animals who start to pick them off. When they discover that they are on a military base, with military men following them, they must band together to survive the night.

There's not much to complain about here. The film makes a few rookie mistakes, including the Air Marshall's mysterious accent that goes from American to Australian and back again, as well as paint-by-numbers characters who don't really inspire surprise from the audience. It gains it strength from not showing the monsters explicitly, and maintaining mystery throughout. The hand-held camera never got particularly annoying.

Not a bad low-budget thriller. I'd recommend it for a Saturday with nothing else planned.

The first 50 minutes were great! Then the rest went way downhill.

[Thrill_KillZ · 6/10 · 28 April 2012]

I have to say the first 50 or so minutes were excellent, the found footage was phenomenal, really great stuff. It was so realistic how this little girl went around the plane talking & getting acquainted, getting bits of people's background and such all on video. I also have to mention the parts before & after the crash were masterfully done. When I saw that all the acting was ad-libbed I was pretty impressed, they did such a good job with it. I think not showing the "attacker" was a very good idea because it leaves you to your imagination which is always better than some CG*spoiler* that they showed for 1/2 second at the VERY end. The last thirty minutes were kinda slow and there was a lot of goofs(unintentional). It just got sloppy on the last stretch, but this really had me hooked good for almost an hour and well that has to be worth something. So I'll give credit to that FIRST 50 minutes with a 10/10, Last 30 minutes 3/10 Total 6/10 If you like found footage or want some good thrills & have nothing to do, yea it's worth a look.

The worst in found film; lots of closeups of bloody faces; not much plot.

[suite92 · 1/10 · 23 November 2013]

Trish and Jessie travel by jet from New York to Los Angeles for New Year's Eve. Trish is video recording. Trish's high-pitched elf voice is incredibly irritating. The new year arrives during the flight; this was quite the anticlimax until the heavy weather hits.

The plane crashes in a desert area. Trish and Jessie survive. Jessie takes over filming after Trish is incapacitated.

After seeing this film, not hearing the word 'okay' for about 8 years would be fine. The characters kept repeating 'okay' while examining bleeding, broken limbs, no food, no shelter, missing people, and so on. The anger at the intrusive camera seemed quite understandable. The only use I could see for the camera was as a torch (flashlight). Jessie is even less skilled at operating it took over. Jessie zooms almost continuously, concentrates on bloodied faces, and almost never focuses well.

Something goes bump in the night, kills several survivors, and routs them from the leftover fuselage. Six survivors find a nearby cabin. Eventually a car comes by. The surviving air marshal has a conversation with the driver, who proceeds to drive away. The bump in the night returns and scares them out of the cabin. The ever-useless, petulant Trish holds half of them back.

They find a working two-way radio in the second cabin. The initial 'replies' are indecipherable. They keep trying and eventually contact someone who will try to triangulate their position. The voice tells them to go back to the plane where the bump in the night killed people.

They obey this direction. Will anyone survive?

-----Scores-------

Cinematography: 0/10 Hand-held nonsense. All the usual failures are there: continuous and unnecessary zooming, bad focus, bad framing, settling on a subject who is doing nothing other than zoning out.

Sound: 5/10 Varies wildly. Trish's high pitched voice rates a good minus four.

Acting: 0/10 The hand-held camera trumps acting.

Screenplay: 2/10 Is there a story here? Way too much time is spent on the camera zooming and re-zooming and focusing on characters who are basically not moving, not talking. So far it is: plane crash, deaths, scramble, hope for rescue, then hopes dashed. Looks like a nice ten minute short.