The Last Broadcast

source: The Last Broadcast

THE LAST BROADCAST is a fake documentary executed in a similar style to THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, a very famous movie that it is often compared to whether in a positive or negative context. The plot of the documentary is actually very interesting. A fictional TV series is seeing its viewing figures dwindle. In an effort to prevent its end, the producers decide to film an episode showing a search for a local mythical legend known as the "Jersey Devil". The start of the movie explains how 3 of the 4 TV crew were found dead. The sole survivor was charged with and found guilty of the murders of the others. A filmmaker decides to gather the evidence surrounding the case to prove the survivor's innocence. The documentary he makes constitutes THE LAST BROADCAST. Despite an interesting concept (a documentary examining in great detail the evidence of a murder case in order to disprove a convicted man's innocence) and also an interesting embedded story (the search for a local legend in the woods), sitting through THE LAST BROADCAST is one massive endurance test. I barely made it to the end and was constantly looking at the elapsed running time, cheering myself for surviving another minute of this cinematic torture. Now I'll go through the individual elements to demonstrate why THE LAST BROADCAST is so terrible. First, the narration. This is a fake documentary. As such, there is plenty of narration and often over still images. For this to capture interest, the narrator has to convince us that there is some significance to these images in relation to the rest of the work. Unfortunately, the narration is - as another reviewer has pointed out on here - done in a very monotone manner that fails to invoke even the slightest interest. Second, the direction. For this story to work, the "interviews", video extracts, still images of exhibits and so on must all be carefully co-ordinated to ensure a clear narrative. Unfortunately, everything just seems to be jumbled up, without a specific order or structure. This makes it highly difficult to keep track of what the "documentary" is trying to tell us. Also, the home video extracts are very poorly filmed with no tension, suspense, scares, thrills or even laughs. Third, the acting. The actors can be divided into three categories - the narration (done by the "director"), the crew of the fictional TV series and the "inteviewees" (police investigators, reporters, psychologists and so on). The acting is poor right across the board. Anyone who has seen an episode of a real documentary series (THE FBI FILES for example) will immediately be able to tell that the "experts" in this fake documentary are actors (and very bad ones at that). The crew of the fictional TV series do not seem the least bit scared or even interested by the investigation they are doing. And as already mentioned, the narration is monotone. The only positive comment I can make about this excuse for a movie is the twist ending where there is actually a scene that is interesting to watch. Unfortunately it is not worth sitting through the remaining 80+ minutes to reach. If you want to see a truly great fake documentary, I highly recommend GHOSTWATCH - an excellent piece of work that is carefully scripted, genuinely puts you on the edge of your seat, contains great scares and still makes you question what you've seen even when you know it's a phony. If you want to see a great horror movie done in the style of a camcorder home video, I highly recommend REC, a fast-paced thrill ride from beginning to end that is genuinely scary and tense. Finally, I advise everyone to avoid THE LAST BROADCAST like the plague!

As an independent filmmaker I am always hesitant to be so critical of colleagues, knowing what it takes to put a film together -- even a bad one. And although I admire the efforts of Avalos and Weiler, and concede a certain level of originality, this "film" is just plain horrible. Taken together with "The Blair Witch Project", I think it's clear we're in for a slew of these home video projects masquerading as legitimate film efforts. As further evidence I would call your attention to "Trans" -- yet another home video feature of little consequence. I am confused as to the fascination with these video productions. Are we so completely dulled by the mindless crap flowing out of LA like a river of lava that we're willing to embrace anything done by young filmmakers using camcorders and desktop editing as brilliant and the cutting edge? Are we trying to induce a "New Wave" just for the sake of it? I accept the idea of new filmmaking techniques. But I think the critics and public alike, embrace works like these simply to feel "connected" to something unique and fresh. But videos like "The Last Broadcast" are quickly becoming commonplace and stale. Filmmakers like Avalos and Weiler seem to think that a cheap video production imitating cinema verite will somehow replace critical elements such as a compelling story, interesting characters and good performances. I feel they are sadly mistaken. "The Last Broadcast" offered none of these necessary ingredients. And it showed. Compare this video against truly creative independent works such as "Corn Dog Man" and you gain a quick perspective on the differences between new wave home-video and traditional independent film. On the positive side, I think the sound work for "The Last Broadcast" was excellent and most effective. There was obviously a lot of work put into this production.

I accept this as important in terms of an early found footage genre film. Unfortunately, there is little to no entertainment value. The story probably would've worked better as a 45 minute semi-short film as much of it becames repetitive and tedious. If you are a die-hard FF fan, then maybe you can appreciate it for being one of the first (as far as I'm aware). But don't expect to enjoy it.

The Last Broadcast definitely has an intriguing premise and setup, but it's ultimately mostly squandered. The first half of this movie is definitely better than the second half. They do an effective job at explaining the situation and giving us some backstory on the characters. The acting during the interview segments is, for the most part, effective and comes off as genuine. I was really excited to see where everything was going to go but... It really starts to drag in the second half. They keep repeating the same things and the same footage we've already seen and heard. It really got boring after a while. I just kind of wanted them to get to the point but it only got worse. The film completely loses focus. In the last half hour it suddenly becomes a commentary on media? The 'message' feels clumsy and tacked on. And then there's the ending, the twist, the big reveal. I caught on a few minutes before it was revealed but thought there was no way it was actually going to happen. But it did. And it sucked. I get what they were going for, it's supposed to be this huge reveal that you aren't actually watching a documentary but everyone who's ever watched this movie knew they were watching a movie. It just comes off as silly and nonsensical. And oh my god, does the camera work look terrible after it changes styles. It's unbelievably cheap looking compared to the rest of the movie. It's almost parody levels of stupid as far as twists are concerned. It is such a disappointing payoff. Everything falls apart in the end. Starts off promising but gradually goes downhill before completely going off the rails at the end.

I have seen many reviews of this film that all too quickly brand it as a 'Blair Witch rip-off' despite the fact it preceded the Blair Witch Project. You may or may not know that The Last Broadcast was made on a budget of $900, this is inspirational to anyone who wishes to work in the film industry such as myself. It is great to know that movies of this quality have been made on such a minute budget. This movie really got my mind racing, a horror movie rarely has this effect on me anymore. Maybe there is something out there, lurking in the Pine Barrens.

This is probably one of the worst movies I ever saw in my life. And let me tell you that I saw thousands of movies, really bad ones as well, but this one must be in the bottom. First of all I don't get why it is listed in the horror category. It's not horror at all. In fact there is no category yet for this kind of movies. They should make a category "Movies that nobody should ever watch because they are awful". I guess the producers with their 900 dollars budget are big fans of series like "Unsolved mysteries" or so and they wanted to make a movie about it. Well Unsolved mysteries is pretty low quality but it's about real crimes so it is still watchable. But The Last Broadcast is fiction, with an incredible boring story, incredible lousy filming and editing, incredible mediocre actors. There is absolutely nothing good about this movie. Nothing! Give me a camera and I make you a better movie with my eyes closed. And people that give this movie a higher rating then 2 stars should be banned forever on IMDb. They are falsifying the ratings. They obviously were in the team or at least knew somebody that was involved in the making of this garbage.

I had heard so much about this film, particularly when all the discussions about the Blair Witch Project came out, that when the opportunity came to watch it I seized the day and sat down. Two producers of a failing cable show Fact Or Fiction go on a hike into the woods with a soundman and a local boy to search for the famed Jersey Devil. Only the local boy comes back, and reports the other three as missing. The case that follows, and the footage shot by the crew that night, lead to a trial and conviction for murder. The question remains, however, did he commit murder? The film takes the form of another documentary maker investigating the case. Slowly the evidence is gathered, and tape previously unusable is painstakingly recreated until......... The style perfectly suits the film, and the fleeting glimpses of police photographs, evidence and glimpses of the tapes effectively builds a growing feeling of impending and catastrophic doom. For the vast majority of this film, you are taken on an increasingly dark journey into what happened that night. Had the film ended with the final caption, and then the last restored image, it would have been a brilliant film. Unfortunately, it does not, and as others have said here the film is spoiled by that. If not for that, I think this film would have acheived the fame and circulation of Blair Witch. As it stands, it is cerytainly worth watching, but you may want to switch off after that last caption......

I had this one on my watchlist for quite some time now and decided to give it a spin this evening. It started of pretty good and I was hooked, but after 30 minutes or so the movie just kept dragging on and became very boring. I noticed that I wasn't closely paying attention because of this and was eager to turn it off. After a minute or 60, it became interesting again for a few minutes but then went back to it's dragging self. The movie has some similarities to the Blair Witch Project, but doesn't even come close. A lot of the found footage material was so badly shot and 'damaged' that it wasn't even fun to watch anymore because you hardly could see anything. The acting was decent at best and at some points not even convincing. The characters were dull and had very little backstory. Without giving anything away, the big revelation is a big letdown and nothing is really explained about the 'how' and 'why', which makes it very frustrating. Don't be fooled by the 5,5 rating which is pretty good for a horror movie on IMDb these days, it's definitely not worth wasting an hour and a half on. If you haven't seen the Blair Witch Project, you should definitely view that in favor of The Last Broadcast.

The poster cover of the Last Broadcast claims 'Don't see it Alone'. This is a joke. This is not a horror film. It's not scary. The ending is a total anti-climax. I am baffled by comments claiming this has caused some viewers sleepless nights. I mean, come on people, really. When I watched this alone, my reaction was: 'is that it?' When I watched it a second time with my mates, after it ended, their reaction was: 'hey, where were the scary moments?' Forget this and go for the Blair Witch Project. A much superior film.