Phoenix Forgotten (2017)
Genre: Horror / Mystery
Duration: 80 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Justin Barber
Stars: Florence Hartigan, Chelsea Lopez and Justin Matthews
IMDb score:
5,4 (7.681)
Releasedate: 21 April 2017
Phoenix Forgotten plot
"Based on Shocking Untold True Events"
Phoenix, Arizona on March 13, 1997. A family uses their home video camera to record a mysterious event at night. They film seven lights in the dark sky. Three teenagers then decide to find out what's going on and travel in the direction the lights disappeared. The three young men are never heard from again. Based on true events.
Actors and actresses
Sophie
Josh
Ashley
Mark
Steve
Caroline
Walt
Melissa Foster
Jack Foster
Daniel Abrams
Reviews & comments
Collins
-
- 7346 messages
- 4342 votes
An average Found Footage type film. The intriguing choice of subject is startling and arouses curiosity. It turns out to be the only remarkable thing about the film. Furthermore, there is nothing new under the sun.
They succeed in creating a mysterious atmosphere in the structure. That atmosphere persists in the middle section. That is a bit more difficult. The scenes take on a somewhat dragging character and there is a lot of visual repetition. Yet the link between the disappearance of three young people and the Phoenix Lights remains just intriguing enough and thus prevents loss of concentration.
The climax is accompanied by a lot of shaking of the camera. Too much as far as I'm concerned. The usual camera failure is also amply used as a means of increasing tension. These are the regular and well-known tricks from the genre. They always cause mild irritation for me. Nevertheless, it remains quite interesting. The ending is even satisfying.
A satisfying ending because clarity is provided to a certain extent. And that is something that is not guaranteed with every Found Footage.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Shadowed
-
- 11421 messages
- 6719 votes
Not good.
The concept and design are ultimately more interesting than the execution itself. Such films that present themselves a bit as a documentary are a type of film that I often like. The really scary films are certainly these types of films for me, outside of the usual scare films, but they also instill fear in a different way.
Phoenix Forgotten is one of those films that regularly seems to forget its purpose and is a mix between found footage and faux-docu. Neither of them really works well, especially because the film feels too much like found footage, making you often forget that it's all supposed to be a documentary. Moreover, the found footage itself is anything but realistic (in a different way).
For so-called found material, the directors show the viewer the most useless things. Introductions and backgrounds are completely unnecessary in these types of films, and that takes away from the overall experience. It never really feels 'found' and that is a shame, but such a film can still save itself with an entertainment value.
However, this can also be called mediocre. There are great moments in this film that show that there was still some money involved during the making, but the overall flow is slow. The characters are not interesting at all, and they are given far too much focus. The progression of the story is also not good due to the aforementioned lack of realism.
Overall, this is at times a tiring film to get through, saved by some good acting and some lovely scenes. Certainly the 'Phoenix Lights' is a scene that deserves to be mentioned, because those are the scenes where this film can score. Furthermore, this is a disappointment, because it was a film that I was looking forward to seeing in advance.
Translated from Dutch · View original
mrkos
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- 1034 messages
- 1809 votes
Phoenix Forgotten
Quite an interesting Found Footage. UFOs are always mysterious, including this film. One evening, a family sees lights floating above the city of Phoenix. These lights are not lights from airplanes or anything like that, but from something more mysterious. The brother of the family becomes obsessed with this and wants to know what it is and from that day on films everything related to the possible UFOs.
Years later we know that the brother is missing and that his sister is making a documentary about it. What happened to her brother, his girlfriend and a friend of his?! I think the structure of the story is excellent. Little by little we get to know what happened, what people think about it, etc. Unfortunately, it didn't really get very exciting anywhere and I hoped to see that. The last half hour (the last tape) was unfortunately depicted rather vaguely.
It's interesting that part of it actually happened. What did people see over Phoenix in 1997?
2.5 stars.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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