Let’s see an older documentary with the team.
I think I luckily stumbled upon the first one (or one of the first) of this series. We are given more information about Steve Shippy (who goes by Prozak here) in the first five minutes than in any other film. One thing these guys might want to do is give this brief bios at the start of each movie.
I mentioned in the last review that whether these are real or fake isn’t what I’m examining here. To be honest, I’m pretty skeptical. However, a lot of people do believe in this stuff. However, we’re interested in how entertaining the film is.
The film quality takes a noticeable dip here (compared to the 2019 one we looked at last time). While this isn’t surprising, it is noticeable. The informative beginning allows the audience to link into the story a lot nicer than just being dropped in with the team. However, they do spend an awful lot of time talking about their gear and such.
This one runs more like a standard ghost hunting show than more of a narrative structure. I think this will limit the audience a bit. It is almost more of a lengthy introduction to the team and gives some insight into the behind-the-scenes of these groups.
While the visual quality isn’t great, the sound quality is a bit annoying. We get a lot of intrusive sound effects and distortions throughout the entire thing and it gives the whole thing a trying-to-hard to be serious vibe. We also have an issue with sound mixing. Some voices are too loud while others are too quiet. For folks watching with headphones it is an obnoxious experience.
The lower video quality is exacerbated by unneeded effects on the interviews and such. I get that they are wanting to be stylized, but it doesn’t work here. There’s a somewhat hammy vibe present.
I know I’ve been negative throughout this review so far, but the film isn’t a complete failure. Oddly, I think this would be a poor entry point to the group. They seem a little too self-serious rather than chill investigators just doing some research (funnily, they have kind of gone too far to the other side in 2019).
Fans of the series will like seeing how they started, but it is too highly stylized to be as informative, entertaining, or engaging as their other ones. This is more for die-hard fans I think.
I wish I could give this one a better review. They put in a ton of work on this one and it just didn’t translate as well this time.
Jay Hates Movies 