Found (2012)

Once seen, FOUND will not soon be forgotten, for it is a horror movie that pulls no punches, and takes its premise all the way. Made for only eight thousand dollars, it delivers the kind of kick to the gut those high concept, CGI laden reboots, and remakes, populating the multiplexes wish they could give an audience. In every way, this movie is the antidote to the mediocrity of PG-13; in truth, if this film, which is unrated, were to be given a rating by the MPAA, it would surely be NC- 17. There is extreme gore of the very explicit 21st Century variety, but for me, the scenes of emotional horror and trauma were far worse; this movie goes to the heart of darkness, and then keeps on going.We know what we are in for in the first scene, where Marty, a shy and bullied 5th Grader, finds a severed human head in a bag inside of his older brother Steve's bedroom closet. Turns out his big bro is a serial killer, a fact to which Marty's typically suburban parents are totally oblivious. Marty decides to keep this awful secret, for he loves his brother, the only member of the family with whom he can relate, but this proves to be a fateful mistake, as Marty, a kid who finds escape in horror movies, finds that his life is rapidly becoming one. Marty is no wisecracking tween from a Spielberg picture, but an emotionally immature and painfully withdrawn kid, very much like the ones you would find in any classroom in the real world. That is one of the reasons why this movie is so tough to take.Serial killers have become a pop culture trope in the past few decades, and in many TV shows and movies they have morphed into a variant of the super villain, like the character of James Patrick March in American HORROR STORY: HOTEL. But Steve is no Dexter, he is a nuclear bomb, and when he finally detonates, and his true nature is revealed, he will vaporize all those close to him and leave a wasteland of collateral damage for the survivors. There is torture, sadism, cannibalism, necrophilia, and full frontal, but the scenes of Marty being bullied have a special power to make the viewer squirm, as FOUND conveys the ugly truth that bullies, even when they are called out, never receive proper punishment; are never adequately paid back in equal measure for the pain they have dealt out. I found myself totally on Marty's side when he turns on one of his tormentors and puts a brutal beat down on him, then stands his ground when chastised by adults. Reportedly, FOUND was made for only $8,000 in Indiana, if so, then it is amazing how they did so much with so little. All credit to director Scott Schirmer and screenwriter, Todd Rigney, for putting big time Hollywood to shame. Some of the acting is not up to standard, but Gavin Brown as Marty, and Ethan Philbeck as Steve are spot on. And special thanks to S.A. Bradley at the Hell Bent for Horror podcast for steering me to this exceptional film. After watching it on Blu Ray, what I was feeling must have been akin to what the first audiences to see NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD felt when they walked out of the theater back in 1968.

Marty, 12 years old is a young Horror obsessed pre-teen. He also knows about his older brother Steve's darkest secret: That Steve is a serial killer. Bullied at school and by his own father, perhaps Marty has found even more than a protector in his brother? The only problem is what might happen to him if Steve discovers what his younger bro knows.FOUND isn't too far from perfection in the horror genre in my opinion. And it achieves this without even abusing the massacre and gore scenes. Don't panic gore hounds. This film will eventually deliver the goods. But what i liked the most about it is that i was glued to the screen from start to finish despite the slow burn style of FOUND. And it managed to scare me and disturb me even with so little. Because the film is a rare realistic portrait of a family, the most ordinary and average family at first sight, entangled in nothing but everyday problems. Some things that we as a society tend to ignore and/or shovel down deep inside and under the rugs.If there are things that i've always found hard to stand both in real life and in movies are things like violence on Women, kids, animals, racism and of course the ever present and growing problem that is bullying. That bullying happens in school or at home in the confort of what should be a safe place, it has become a matter with such amplitude that teachers will ignore the bullied like there was nothing that can possibly be done to end a feud between 2 kids. That until a bullied kid finally replies to a bully, which often results into having a nice kid grounded, and sometimes worst: Beaten in return and/or perceived as a young waste of flesh by our society's great thinkers.Briefly, bullying is such a nightmare and FOUND reflects that reality in such a scary way. This rarety in the Horror genre is to be witnessed at your own risks. This is not a subject matter that you bring to the table at dinner. And there is such a violence involved in this film that even the scenes where it is left to the viewer's imagination might enrage or disgust and disturb someone.

This is one of those well done, well rounded movies that focused on every aspect of the story. Only thing lacking in the whole movie might be the budget, not sure was the camera aimed to look 80's-90's-ish, but in a movie it doesn't even matter. Setback were indoors and outdoors scenes with bad sound quality, bad camera, looking like TV movies, but scenes were without any reproach. Maybe it could have been fixed in editing, since some scenes jump out from the movie with lack of quality, but than again, it might be the budget (although think it was sufficient). Anyhow, it's refreshing to see a story with unique standpoint, without a doubt has this been a big production it would be a blockbuster. Narative, scenes, everything is flowing in same direction, with few unavoidable clichés. Well rounded movie, deserves a solid score and definitely a recommendation.

This is really a teen angst drama with gore thrown in. Plenty of issues raised, and in the end it does pack a punch.Two big problems.First, the pace dragged. A lot of the writing was flat, with not enough information given in each scene, and some of the actors struggled with uninspired dialogue. I'd have preferred 15 mins shaved off the running time.Second, the conceit isn't really relevant to the plot. And we're given a motive based on a throw away comment from earlier in the story.On the violence and gore - pretty tame. The screening of Headless confused me, because it was a good opportunity to address violence, but they didn't make any intelligent points. And if they'd used the hero's graphic novel to fantasise the killer's story, instead of taking it so literally, it might have added some sophistication. They even had excellent illustrations in the opening credits. Or what if the hero was an unreliable narrator? Nothing like that - they just played it straight.I liked the drum music, but the eerie stuff hardly ever turned off and gave a depressing feel.Overall it's a good job on a small budget, but it's not really a horror - more a story of violence begetting violence.