The Garlock Incident (2012) Reviews

• Too Little, Too Late

  factor402017-09-15

  POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW There are no adequate words to describe how bad this is but I'll give it a shot. The setting was perfect for a great story, there is lots of atmosphere for thrills and gotcha moments. The table was set for a decent film. Unfortunately, these people failed miserably. They instead moved forward with a boring, poorly acted script that never played into the surroundings, never quite lived up to what was always lingering in the background, just out of reach. The camera is held at waist level, leaving the viewer with a very awkward and unnatural point of view, considering there was supposed to be someone behind that camera. Are we supposed to believe they were shooting from the hip the whole time? Also why is there a mine on the cover? Apart from the last 30 seconds, they never go into the mine! That would have been the best possible place to shoot some great scenes. This film is very formulaic, almost cliché. Viewers should be smart and approach this thing in a different way. When you realize that all of these people are in the arts, it makes much more sense that they would flip out like they do after being "stranded" for only 48 hours. That's it...look at it as more of a comedy! Notice I put quotes around the word "stranded"? It's comic genius because they weren't stranded, they were right next to what looked like a state road or highway. That's a laugh riot! What a bunch of stupid, privileged, snobby children who don't know any better than to walk down the paved road in either direction. Hilarious! I actually started hoping that they would all die. What's my point? Basic film making...something called suspension of disbelief. In a nutshell, it's a willingness to suspend one's critical faculties and believe the unbelievable; a sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment. The makers of this film failed from the first scene to achieve this and the whole thing suffered and fell apart because of it. Lesson learned, you can't just steal ideas from past found footage movies and think they will work in yours. There has to be something original in your art, otherwise you're just phoning it in. It took almost 3 years for the filmmakers to convince someone to release this movie. The reason is obvious...it stinks. EDIT: Just watched trailer...wow what a HUGE misrepresentation. Absolutely shameful.

  More

• Complete Garbage

  spammer-088842017-12-29

  Let's grab a camcorder; recruit some actors from the local acting school and churn out another found footage turd. We are seeing a lot of this kind of movie, trying to emulate Paranormal Activity and the Blair Witch Project.....and failing badly. This movie is awful. If you like a wobbly camera with bad acting then by all means waste your time on this fecal matter.

  More

• Great setting - Awful movie

  naraeol2017-11-12

  An abandoned mining town is a cool spot to film a movie, whether it's about ghosts haunting the houses or the mines, crazy people living there, a cult, it being a body dump and so on . . . after watching the Garlock incident, I actually don't know what this film in particular was about. To be fair, about 20 minutes in I started to browse the net and only partially paid attention because it was boring as heck, but still. I guess it was about them losing it after being lost, then again, they parked right at the parking lot close to the road, are they that stupid, that they can't walk half an hour? Someone here (judging by the 100% rating he gave, a person who is affiliated with the crew) said that the 'actors' were not given a script and everything was improvised . . . well, that shows. There's literally nothing going on, then random screaming and whining. Not even good enough to have it on as background noise - avoid like the plague.

  More

• A Layman's Review

  morgansmarcos2012-12-06

  The Garlock Incident is a wonderful take on the "Found Footage" genre. Instead of focusing on horror like most other movies in this category, Evan Cholfin's first feature length film takes a different route and explores the psychology of a small group when they become isolated from the rest of the world, much in the same way that Lord of The Flies shows the deterioration of social conduct when deprived of the most basic human needs (food, water, shelter). Throughout the film there is a looming supernatural element that keeps the viewer questioning the nature of the characters' impending fate. This only adds the the characters' fears and encourages a more rapid fall into "Fight or Flight" animal instincts. What is also truly astounding about the film are a few things that I learned from a Q n A with the cast and director: The film was shot in it entirety over a period of four days. The actors were given no scripts, just a general history of their characters and direction of how the scene was supposed to progress. The film was shot in chronological order. All-in-all, The Garlock Incident is excellent and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to see a psychological thriller.

  More