The Levenger Tapes Movie Review
After three college kids go missing in a wilderness preserve, police find a tape the trio had recorded. As the police try to piece together the clues about the students, they are also trying to solve the case of a missing child, and as fate would have it, the kid is on the tape as well. These elements add up to a hybrid type movie--it's mostly shot as a found footage film, but there are also many parts that are shot more traditionally--while not completely original, this combination does still stand out. Much of the beginning of the film is spent getting to know the three college students. We have the lead, Amanda (Johanna Braddy, The Grudge 3); her best friend, Kim (Lili Mirojnick of Cloverfield); and Chase (Morgan Krantz), the dude who kind of wants both of them. After arriving at their destination, Chase and the girls end up walking across land that happens to also be a burial site--we all know how that goes.
"We're going where?!"
Indeed, there is a lot to sit through before getting to the action, but this one has a somewhat smarter feel to it than most found footage films. Part of the credit for this has to be given to the writer and director, Mark Edwin Robinson, as he avoided the horror trappings of college-aged characters--he managed to make them more than one-dimensional caricatures of real-life people, which is what we usually get with similar movies, and he didn't make them so obnoxious you can't wait to see them die. On the flip side, this movie does fall victim to one obstacle most found footage movies cannot escape--why, even during the most dire of times, is the person holding the camera still focused on recording everything? This is addressed to a degree, as there are times in the film the characters use the camera for light, but more frequently, we see them focused in on the horrors in front of them instead of trying to escape them. The primary villain, or monster, of the movie is a bit too generic and undefined to leave a lasting impression, though there are a couple scary moments in the film. Unfortunately, the ending will leave you a bit disappointed as well. The Levenger Tapes is a decent horror flick, but ultimately one that does not live up to its potential.
On A Scale Of One To Ten: 5
The Levenger Tapes Movie Trailer
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