The Gracefield Incident

Does aliens really exist, or are we alone in the universe ?

I would not be surprised if there is some kind of life organism out there, since there are plenty of planets that we have not discovered out there. I don´t think all those people who say they were abducted by aliens are telling the truth, obviously most of them know that they can make money on stories like that. Also, we have seen fake videos, fake pictures of aliens in many years, so there is a business for this. Conspiracy theorists loves to get new material, so if you want to make money, make fake alien videos and they will guarantee pay you. I suppose that people want to believe in aliens visiting Earth, because it feels interesting, exciting, or mysterious. Who knows, maybe one day we will actually encounter some kind of life form out there. Aliens in science fiction films have been around for a very long time, and i personally feel that one of the biggest classics within this genre, is without a doubt director Steven Speilberg´s film Close Encounters Of The Third Kind from 1976. This was one of the films from my childhood, where i really got interested in alien science fiction films, mainly because this is a very well made film, with really good acting. The alien abduction theme was used really well in this film, and you also got a sense that director Steven Spielberg have researched UFO sightings, before making this film. The encounter with the aliens is one of those classic scenes in the end, that still works today. Hollywood continued making films, based on alien encounters, and in the year of 1993 we finally got a surprisingly good release called Fire In The Sky. Directed by Robert Lieberman, the film is based on the Travis Walton abduction, where he claimed he was abducted by aliens in 1975. Even if it has been confirmed, that Travis Walton lied about the abduction ( while he still believe all of this happened ), the film Fire In The Sky is one of the better films within the alien abduction area. With a solid cast, and good special effects as well, i highly recommend you try and buy the dvd online. Ever since the 1999 film The Blair Witch Project hit cinemas worldwide, found footage horror films have continued to survive in the horror community. And it seems that this genre is here to stay, as long as people enjoy seeing low budget horror film. I came across a found footage horror film called The Gracefield Incident on VOD, that is supposed to be a film where humans encounter an alien. Since very few found footage horror films actually works nowdays, does this new film finally give found footage horror a step into the right direction, or is The Gracefield Incident another release you don´t have to care about ?

Best friends Mathew Donovan ( Mathieu Ratthe ) with his wife Jessica Donovan ( Kimberly Laferriere ) and Joe Mendez ( Victor Andres Turgeon-Trelles ), with some close friends, go out to a cabin together in Gracefield, to have a fun vacation. Everything is going well, until a big fire object crash into the woods in night time. Matthew and Joe run off to investigate what came down from the sky. They are about to find out, that they are not alone in the woods.

Found footage horror films can either be good, or really bad. There are very few times where i have seen something really good, or anything really unique within this genre. The Gracefield Incident is not original in any way, and we have seen some of the elements used in here before. Alien found footage films have been done before, in different ways, and this one pretty much go in the same direction. Let´s start with the positive with this film. The alien hands coming out of the dark, is actually a pretty good idea. You don´t get to see the alien itself ( not until later in the film ), except for the hands an the arms. Using a big forest on the run from an alien, is also a good way to make a found footage film, and we do get some scenes where you can sense some kind of creepiness. Now, let´s talk about the negative sides of The Gracefield Incident. The acting is not good, and you don´t really care about the characters at all. If you are hiding from an alien, would you scream all the time ? This is one of those things that gets annoying, since i seriously doubt this would be the first thing you do, because the alien would most likely find you very easily. The CGI effects of the alien body is not very good. I realise that there is a limited budget here, but if you really want to make a film scary, you need to make sure that the alien looks creepy. Some scenes makes no sense, as when one of the guys suddenly leave a trail of balloons in the forest, with a yellow color, to make sure they find their way home. But in the cabin the balloons are red ? Did the balloons change color on their own, or did the German magician duo Siegfried & Roy do some magic tricks ? This could have been a fun horror film, if some details were improved before filming started. I can sense that director Mathieu Ratte wanted to give this genre a try, and i don´t blame him for doing so. Since this is his directorial debut as a full feature film, i realise that this is his first big try to make his own film. He has not failed completely, there are some good ideas within this film. But looking at the final results, it becomes clear that The Gracefield Incident has some flaws that should have been corrected. Not one of the worst found footage films i have seen, just nothing really interesting. I suggest you rent V/H/S/2 and see how found footage horror should look like. V/H/S/2 is a film made with passion, and have some wonderful gory scenes. If you are a fan of this genre, The Gracefield Incident might be worth a look, but don´t expect anything special. There are plenty of alien films i can recommend, and this is not one of them.

Rating: DD