Specter Review

With the found footage horror genre continuing its wave of shoestring budgeted supernatural-horror copycat flicks, Specter throws its hat in the ring in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. Sadly, there's such an enormous variety of directions that can come out of this genre, yet the majority of these films tend to aim towards your typical jump scare frenzy haunted house or demonic possession releases. In the case of Specter however, there is refreshingly a bold sense of direction that delivers on its concept and mysterious angle involving a disastrous storm taking place in a town where unexplained supernatural events occur. Arguably the most fascinating thing about this entry however is the fact that the film was actually shot during a real life storm disaster. 

There aren't many films that I'm aware of throughout history that was actually filmed during a real life disastrous scenario utilizing such an event for storytelling purposes. The atmosphere, as a result of this unique component, ends up becoming a character in of itself and adds to the tension of the situations explored in the film's narrative. Every scene involving a flash flood, flying debris, boats crashing around, etc. is all taking place in real time from nature's very own powerful presentation. In a bizarre way, nature is providing its own spectacle-centered production values to the project. 

The brilliance here comes with the idea that, although the story does center around the storm, it's not entirely focused on it. What we have instead is your typical young adult crew engaging themselves in illegal activities until we see each of them individually getting picked off one by one by a supernatural force. Yes, it may sound like your run of the mill generic horror entry in that regard, but with the disastrous setting feeling realistic (because it is), there's this extra sense of "real terror" that surrounds our characters that we don't typically feel in other titles.

Speaking of characters, no one really stands out here as "the protagonist that you wanna root for" and the performances are pretty subpar which is to be expected with most titles of this cinematic style. The story itself isn't necessarily anything that we haven't seen before as we're given your basic premise and set up of an unknown supernatural force killing off a young and arrogant group of victims. However, it's all in the execution of said generic premise that acts as the big selling point here. Aside from the real natural disaster imagery, there's also this plot component revolving around wide scaled destruction within the narrative that I felt was well presented throughout.

There's an emphasis on the idea that this unknown force of destruction lurking behind the scenes has already killed off possibly the entire county during the cataclysmic storm. Highlighting this concept for the audience are these visually haunting shots of emptiness within the town setting in addition to the flaming remains of corpses scattered around the area. This type of imagery being inserted effectively adds a feeling of dread to the overall tone instead of just desperately attempting to shock the audience for a reaction.  I actually found myself a little on edge during the last few minutes of the film where the cameraman is shown searching for his friend throughout the chaos taking place. It was a chilling and nerve racking roller coaster of an experience as the brilliant utilization of audio and atmosphere dominates the senses. Truly one of the better final acts of a found footage horror entry to date.

In the end, Specter is a found footage film that puts a lot of effort in making an entertaining and haunting experience feel as real as the setting that the film surrounds itself in. Whether you've given up on this genre of not, I'd still recommend at least checking this one out as an interesting (due to its behind the scenes production) work of art at its core. It may not entirely recover my faith in the current state of horror cinema in this overly crowded library of generic cheap releases, but it will encourage me to keep an eye out for more talented filmmakers looking to try something creatively daring that can stand out from the rest.

Rating: 6/10