Camera Obscura

camera-obscura.jpg

So, my friend Cameron Burns helped write this film, when he requested I watch and review I was worried this might be a friendship ender. However, I was pleased to find this wasn't bad, and for an debut film actually pretty good. The core idea here is pretty interesting, and I do love psychological horror films. The issues I find with this film is a uniform lack of polish. A little tweaking and tightening on the script would have helped streamline this film and deliver a better experience. The film's mechanics and some elements get muddled, and there are a couple of overused and unnecessary tropes at play (looking at you Mr. '2 weeks earlier'). Visually, the direction is well done, but some places the top compositing and color grading actually diminish the effectiveness of the scenes. This does a good job of portraying the main character's fractured mental state and handles it sympathetically as the movie is working to be a metaphor for PTSD. The main actors are decent, but the rest is a mixed bag. However, flaws aside, this is a decent debut entry that leaves me interested in whatever projects this team comes up with next.

B