So close. So close to finishing this Cut without having to deal with another "found footage" film and instead one more has to sneak in at the zero hour. My husband and I had a long discussion last night about this subgenre of horror and what has and hasn't worked. Blair Witch played on the fact that everyone grew up with some sort of urban legend. Paranormal Activity brought the fright into our homes. Grave Encounters took the phenomena of ghost hunting shows and had their own twist on the absurdity of them as well as pushing horror to be a bit more extreme. Most generic found footage just keep taking a group of 20-somethings and putting them in a haunted space. You know what else had that plot? Scooby Doo! And the fucking Scooby gang is way more entertaining!
Strayed (Perdidos) does this same dead horse style plot. A group of 20-somethings go into a supposedly haunted building to record ghosts. They vanish and this is the footage found. The twist here is that we know a Rabbi had to do an exorcism in this building. The Rabbi also left a Dybbuk just chillin' in that space, which I feel you wouldn't want to leave hanging out for just anyone to find. Spooky scares happen and I can't read Hebrew to save my life so I have no idea what half of that stuff says. I couldn't even translate whats on that poster and I spent a good 20 minutes trying and just gave up assuming its one of the 72 names of god.
Surprisingly, Strayed was one of the better found footage films I've watched. The quick pans gliding by shadowy figures are decently scary but what this movie does that I really like is that the spirit has the ability to manipulate physical space. People find themselves in hallways that end up looping themselves, rooms will change at any point, and impossible space becomes possible. In the end though, these weren't enough to save the film from long periods of nothing and poor character interactions. I would have liked this better if it were a 20-30 minute short film. This way you get all killer/no filler.
I give Strayed (Perdidos) 1 rabbi clip art out of 5:
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