Bright Falls (2010)

When I usually watch video game movies whether they're the "adaptations" that continue to give them bad names when really they have better plots then most action movies - just poorly carried out by a producer or something or the fan films which generally are very good - even if at times newcomers don't get the plot or characters, it might seem way too hypocritical to say this about movies made by fans for fans but I judge an adaptation, prequel mini-series or whatever on the merits of an adaptation and as "will newcomers get lost".In Bright Falls, this is probably the best I have seen do this. I mean while Mass Effect: Red Sand was good at this too, it doesn't have as interesting of a plot as this does.Speaking of, a reporter named Jake Fischer has gone to Bright Falls to write for an article (I really don't know whether it's newspaper, magazine or online) on Dr Emil Hartman's new book. But when he gets there he hits a deer only for it to vanish and then he begins to have black-outs where he doesn't know where he is when he wakes up half the time and he might have done something terrible while he has been blacked out.Okay, in terms of what people who enjoyed the game will not like it's pretty trivial but I'll go down a list. First of all, a couple of people in Bright Falls talk at one point or another as if there is something wrong with the town, which even though there is they shouldn't know about it because the evil spirit that's doing everything makes people forget the ones fighting it even existed. There is no Old Gods Of Asgard and even though it might sound as if I wanted to hear Poets Of The Fall sing in this mini series it set up the atmosphere for the town and there's no Taken, which would make Jake question his sanity even more-so then black-outs.Whereas if you aren't a gamer or don't own an Xbox 360 then this is actually a decent story that may be interpreted as someone's decent into madness (hell, the black-outs could make people easily believe it's split personality disorder) so if this kind of story is one that you like then I suggest checking it out.In terms of just plain technical elements this is done well on it's own merits, for a web series it actually looks really good. I mean it's the usual standard stuff that you'd expect for the 2 locations of "small country town" and "woods" but it does look great in places.If you want to watch this either fan of the game or not, then this is for you. If you like the game then this is an interesting little continuation of the story and if you're not then it can easily be looked at as a short movie about a guy slipping into madness. I'd say if you want to watch it I'd say go for it.

Well, I watched it at night! And it worked! Just got myself an Alan Wake game and stumbled upon these series by chance.It's great opportunity to be engaged by the dark movie's atmosphere and be introduced to some in-game persons.It's kinda scary watch it an night, not because of some special effects, but because of obscurity and dark fears nesting deep down inside the soul of each other human being.Directing is good: it says not much, just enough for your ming to start working. Guessing.Worth watching!

This series starts strangely - a guy in a new town eats at a diner full of weird locals then hits a deer on the road. It quickly picks up after that when he starts blacking out and hallucinating as he interviews a local doctor who wrote a self help book. He finds notes he doesn't remember taking. Crazy notes. And then sees a man carrying a deers head that looks like an illustration he doesn't doesn't remember drawing, which suggests he somehow drew this man into existence.It isn't a bad setup and what adds to it is the fact that the blackouts and the uneasy feeling of the story really make you feel strange yourself. The episodes feel like they stain your subconscious and you start to not trust the motives of the characters or the reality of the main guy.As his blackouts get worse he looses track of time and begins to suspect himself in the abduction of a man - the motel owner that runs the motel where he's staying. You get the sense that somehow this same loss of control is happening to others in the town, including an obese woman who bites a cop, and that it may all connect back to the deer he hit. Is there some kind of contagious darkness in Bright Falls? I don't know, but it's not so much the concept as how it's pulled off that makes this series work so well. It would probably be a good case study for psychologists because it feels like it's dealing with mental imbalance or schizophrenia, but from the perspective of the schizophrenic, so that every disturbing realization feels real rather imagined. Definitely watch this but be careful not to do it at night. This kind of material can really mess you up if you're not careful.

Bright Falls is better than some of the most popular series on TV today. It does in a few short episodes what might take a full series an entire season.The performances are exceptional and the mysteries are frightening and engaging. I'm blown away by this series and hope to see more of it soon. Every episode was truly scary at some point - not bad fabricated scares or horror movie clichés but the kind of scary that gets under your skin and stays with you. I found the plot really easy to follow, which made the strange digressions and weird encounters all the more engaging. I never felt like they were for a trivial purpose - there's a definite, frightening order to the way the main character interacts with the townspeople and the things he finds out about the town and himself.The last episode paid off on all the mysteries set up without telling us specifics and without letting up on the creepiness - if anything, in answering questions, it also raised bigger ones, and scarier ones that make me want more!Bright Falls is how a series should be!!!