Die Präsenz (2014) Reviews

• Die Präsenz: Cookie cutter flawed nonsense

  Platypuschow2019-01-10

  The Presence is yet another demonstration of just how much the Blair Witch Project (1999) has to answer for. Every filmmaker with minimal funds seems to be choosing this cheap and nasty sub-genre and making a carbon copy of a thousand movies that came before it. German made it tells the "Highly original" tale of 3 friends who perform a supernatural investigation in a castle. So cue the night vision, randomly moving objects, static, and lot's and lot's of screaming. I have nothing against found footage per say, I'm just tired of each movie being the same as the last. When it comes to the sub genre I'd say there is a neat little scale, at the top you'd have Rec (2007) and Grave Encounters (2011) and it goes all the way down to Fear Footage (2018) and Paranormal Entity (2009). At no point does it feel like this is being filmed inside a castle, it's limited to a couple of rooms and quite frankly they look like a combination of a persons house and a barn. I would have liked to see a castle setting, would have made a fresh change from asylums and haunted mansions. Alike most other movies in this sub-genre very little happens, it suffers with all the usual tropes and cliches and ultimately is boring, lifeless and more evidence that found footage needs putting on the shelf for a while. The Good: Nope The Bad: Music/sound effects have no place in found footage Very badly structured Wasted setting

• Paranormal Activity goes on a German holiday

  shieldfire2017-05-15

  And shouldn't have send the footage back to be honest. This is the most boring, non-scaring film I've seen since .... well another flick I found on Netflix. It's supposed to be about two guys and a girl going to a medieval castle to investigate paranormal activity. At least the boys are, the girlfriend of one is dragged along for the ride. It's setup with some very brief background info/lore and then we're off. To watch black and sepia couloured videos of people sleeping, of hearing bangs and other noises, and seeing blurred images as "stuff happen". Midway through the film the girl begs for them to leave, and I think that should have been the best really, as it would have cut this rubbish offering down to maybe half. The didn't get rid of her broken boyfriend and that in the end cost her dearly. And him of course. Cheap effects, cheap production in general, pointless script - half decent non-screaming acting is standable, which is kind of the kindest I could say about this mess.

• Different but a fairly marginal experience

  brittanydiane2016-07-03

  Let's break this down. Audio: If your English, this is in German and can be found on Netflix (subbed of course) and for its genre is fitting although some of the splats, bangs and other random 'scare' noises are pretty much stock sound effects. It doesn't fall short but it doesn't break into new territory so I'd say 5/10 Camera style: If you're familiar with the Paranormal movies, this is pretty much a cookie cut of that mold/style. Scenes generally of individuals standing and staring blankly at nothing, random shadows or people and the typical random flashes of white noises on the camera which has grown tiresome for me as this happens almost never in the real world under any circumstances. But, I wont entirely bash this as if it were a complete snorefest. There were some interesting scenes that made up for the cookie cutter approach from the first person perspective. The banging/slamming doors added some atmosphere to the overall composition/effect of what was being conveyed. Overall though there is nothing new here but perhaps plenty some different perspective/approaches that makes it worth a watch. 6.5/10 Plot: Using the backdrop/setting of an old German castle, a group of three individuals comprised of two males; Markus and Lucas and the girlfriend of Markus, Rebecca, wander off on a ghost adventure which quickly goes from fun with goosebumps to jump scares and creepy atmosphere. Naturally everyone but the genius to travel there wants to leave once things get crazy but unfortunately things go from bad to worse before too much can be done about it. The movie makes use of the world around it and of course the castle. I'd say pretty average at a 6.5/10 Casting: Characters/cast were fitting, nothing to complain about although some of the character interaction were a tad bland but for this style/genre acceptable. I can't really think of much to complain about but nor can I think of anything to rave about. For what it was, there were essentially 3 people in the entire film and an entity. Pretty simple, low budget film. 5/10 Ending: Well, not to add any spoilers and I did flag this as containing some, it may or may not be a spoiler depending on how to consider this. But the ending, was, if you were paying attention, what you would expect from this genre/style of movies. Again, it is not that far off from being a Paranormal style movie and pretty much follows the mode/style aside from it allegedly being based on a true story. That'll help bumps its scare err score up to 7.5/10 Overall: It's definitely a movie to recommend to someone who is looking for a decent jump scare/paranormal kind of movie. It's nothing setting or breaking new grounds but it tells an effective story of some ghost chasers finding what they were looking for, the end results being pretty horrific. I did enjoy it and although the score may appear low, I'm pretty rough on movies. Your mileage could easily vary. With that said, if you enjoy this genre of movies, you'll probably enjoy it but don't complain to me if its a sour grape! 30.5/50 or 61%

• Fun haunted castle found footage

  victoryismineblast2016-05-24

  I like to think of myself as a connoisseur of found footage movies, having listed about 145 of them. They tend to get low ratings here, for the most part, as this one has. The problem is that some of them can be pretty boring, with one dimensional characters and bad acting and/or dialogue. Some people can't take the shaky cam or hard to see video. This one however I found to be quite refreshing, if not entirely original. It concerns a trio of friends who go to investigate a haunted castle far out in the German boonies. The setting is quite creepy, both indoor and outdoor. The action doesn't take too long to get going and things get interesting pretty quickly. I found it pretty fun to watch and genuinely scary/creepy in just the right places. At 82 minutes, it doesn't slow down for long or overstay its welcome. All in all a fun watch. 7/10.

• Make up your own mind, but horses for courses...

  goldenarrow-998232018-03-30

  While I saw a load of scathing reviews on my way into this, I made a point of not reading them. My expectations were suitably low, making a nice surprise possible (but let's be honest, unlikely). I actually quite enjoyed it. Sorry to those throwing rotten vegetables at this film, but for what it is, I felt it did the job reasonably well. It's by no means perfect (or even 'really good') and I'm not going to ladle on the criticism because that'd be like shooting fish in a barrel, also, it's just mean. What this film does possess, when compared to Blair Witch and the other found-footage franchises is the actual quantity of the paranormal activity (note the lower case letters). The supernatural entity in this is more active, vocal and just plain loud than those I've seen before. While this would make being there even more terrifying without a doubt, to the viewer I always feel that less is more. With so much crashing and banging etc, with Becky scared out of her wits and the sleepwalking/nightmares that accompany it, that would be all the more reason to just jack it in and get the hell out of Dodge. "If you really loved me Markus, you'd save me from this hell..." (unfortunately not a direct quote from this) The one piece of 'constructive criticism' I'd offer is that duringthe PA-esque nighttime infrared sleeping scenes, they build up tension reasonably well with noises and camera interference. Why then ruin it with sudden loud music and camera zoomery for a cheap jump? Less is more, young German padowan. Food rotting from one moment to the next, while their back was turned was a nice little effect. Ditto with the ball disappearing then reappearing. Rebecca really, really should have told Markus that she didn't like it and she was leaving. Now. With or without him. But no. She moans and is terrified but goes through with it, even though she claims to have felt that the entity wanted to do them harm. Sounds like my ex wife: passive/aggressive. If you can't stand up when you need to and lay down the law, then I'm afraid that you're kinda asking for it. Enough of my marriage councelling/pop psychiatry... Insults/recriminations/threats etc inspired by my review of this please place below: