Writer/director Oren Peli returns to the director’s chair for new alien based found footage thriller ‘Area 51’. Hot on the heels of ‘Alien Abduction’ and ‘Extraterrestrial’ this new alien-themed feature once more attempts to give us some close encounter scares and thrills but sadly misses the mark entirely. A group of young conspiracy theorists plan a trip to the mysterious military base Area 51 to try and unlock the secrets of this highly classified government location. Aside from the fact that Area 51 itself has been the subject of many sci-fi horrors to date there is a great deal more here that’s uninspiring simply than just the overused backdrop.
‘Area 51’ is full to the brim with all the typical found footage tropes that we’re very much used to and unfortunately not a lot else. For a movie that is the first directorial feature since ‘Paranormal Activity’ for director Oren Peli, a man who has been heavily involved in a number of other and more impressive found footage projects over the past few years, ‘Area 51’ sadly falls drastically short of his other efforts. With Peli at the helm and Blumhouse producing I was fairly excited by the prospect especially as the found footage genre has been awash lately with subpar alien-based concepts.
Unfortunately the movie does feel a little outdated and that’s no surprise considering the fact it began production 6 years ago. Peli began working on the project back in 2009 and then through rewrites, reshoots and tinkering it took until now for it to get completed and to finally see an official release. The crux of it is ‘Area 51’ has simply taken too long to emerge and the concept and the style has been seen no end of times since making this feature suffer even more in the originality stakes. There have been plenty of movies in this genre that have come and gone since then that have been far superior. The fact that the movie was worked on for 6 years makes the final product even that more disappointing.
There was very little suspense throughout the movie and the typical ‘set-up’ plot that fills up at least an hour of the story is uninteresting and something that could have quite easily have been condensed drastically. There is a brief and fairly tense home invasion scene which ultimately goes nowhere and once the gang actually enter Area 51 there is a little more excitement which quickly diminishes once you realise that nothing of any horror note is likely to happen aside from a lot of running, hiding and incomprehensible action.
Back in 2012 Peli produced and co-wrote found footage chiller ‘Chernobyl Diaries’. Whilst reactions to the movie were a little lacklustre the comparisons between it and ‘Area 51’ are quite striking and it does that feel many ideas have been skimmed from the unfinished project. In fact just by switching a devastated Eastern European city with that of Groom Lake and then peppering in a few other notes the similarities between the two seem even more prominent.
Unfortunately it’s movies such as ‘Area 51’ that do not help the genres reputation with many critics and horror fans alike who now simply have little or no expectations from a found footage movie and some who simply bypass them altogether. The genre itself, although wavering to a great extent, still has masses of potential as long as it can move away from the typically run-of-the-mill seen it all before styles that are consistently employed within them. Time and time again they do seem to follow a cookie-cutter set of rules and plot development that incorporates an uneventful first half full of quite annoying ‘getting to know’ moments between the main characters, followed up with a certain level of danger, threat or jeopardy and then finally topped off with a lot of running, screaming, shaky camera action and a frustrating ending.
There are still endless examples of horror features that still utilise the style to great effect, such as the 2013 British effort ‘The Borderlands’, the excellent ‘The Taking of Deborah Logan’ and of course the ‘Banshee Chapter’. Found footage is like any other sub-genre of horror. Whilst studios and independents constantly churn out teen slasher movies and haunted house films why does no one think that they should stop getting made? The fact that found footage can often be created on a shoestring budget is what makes it all the more appealing to filmmakers, particularly first timers. But it’s the ones that tackle the concept with more originality that live long in the memory.
OVERALL SUMMARY
‘Area 51’ will struggle to stand the test of time and there are far better found footage features out there to enjoy. With the plot aside there isn’t a great deal going on and even though for this type of project, that does tread familiar ground, even the characters and performances fail to engage you on any level. The natural quality that found footage actors sometimes portray can really help draw you in to the action but the interaction between the main cast here doesn’t feel authentic and doesn’t help the audience feel sympathetic to their plight. Ultimately ‘Area 51’ is majorly disappointing and it will leave plenty of viewers rolling their eyes in displeasure and frustration once those 90 long, long minutes have finally dragged by.
