DARK AMAZON ** U.S.A. 2014 Dir: Darcyana Moreno Izel 81 mins
When a cure for cancer is discovered in Brazil researchers Mina and Ben take a documentary team out with them as they go on a journey to find this cure for themselves. All is not as it seems though as they are not warmly welcomed by the locals who believe the foreigners presence has angered the forest spirit Ayanga. Could this spirit be responsible for sabotaging the first lot of research or are the culprits closer than they think? At first it starts off with their research being destroyed but when members of their team begin disappearing and winding up dead the dwindling group end up fighting for their lives.
Filmed mostly on location in Brazil this is shot entirely in a found footage style complete with the obligatory “The film you are about to see was pieced together from actual footage” blurb and panic stricken night vision footage at the start. In all fairness this is done pretty well, the acting is great from all involved and features Robert Fleet (Player/J.Edgar) as John who originally discovers the cure. It does take a while to get going though; there are odd supernatural blips in the recordings, weird growls and an odd chirpy whistling sound going on from the start but for anything of interest to happen you have to wait a while. The special effects are ok but there is a lot of shaky camera syndrome going on and the night vision shots don’t shed a whole lot of light on the situation, many of the kills remain off camera or in the dark. As far as found footage movies go this is quite good, obvious comparisons can be drawn to THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and so forth but its definitely not as creepy or as successful in its supernatural attempts or execution and unfortunately tends to veer off topic slightly at the end. Its soundtrack is effectively sparse with Anthony Espina lending his writing skills to the main track. If it pops up on your watch list recommendations then check it out but maybe don’t have high hopes for it the acting is the best bit about it.
Review by Sarah Budd