Keep Watching – a review

A family of four return home after a well earned vacation. Little do they know that they are going to be the main contestants of a macabre online reality show. Who will survive – you’ll only find out if you…

Troubled movie releases

Every once in a while you get a movie with a rather suspicious release.

Take this movie for instance. This movie was shot years ago. Back then it was called Home invasion (a title change- the first clue that something is amiss). But since then it’s been shelved. Originally this movie was set to come out in 2016.

Another movie that follow this same path is the between/ don't let me go made in 2013 (another title change). That little girl from Orphan (Isabelle Fuhrman) tried some drama after her turn in horror – never released so far.

This isn’t always a bad thing mind you. The cabin in the woods was shelved for years before somebody realized the cult-status gold that this movie is (or maybe the distributer thought they could bank on Chris Hemsworth –Thor- fame).

But at least with the Cabin in the woods the distributors decided to go all out and give the movie a theatrical release. Keep watching only got a small release in March direct on DVD. Like the studio is ashamed of this movie and wishes to get rid of it.

They shouldn’t be ashamed; Keep watching is a perfectly fine movie and actually rather intriguing in its genre.

Not a themed release?

If a studio or a distributer doesn’t have enough fate in a movie they tend to churn it out with very little fanfare. But at least they release it at the right moment. Take Better watch out (2016) for example. A nice take on the home-invasion during Christmas movie (yes there are several) but nothing fancy. Of course this movie got released around Christmastime.

I blame this movie for not going all out as The Babysitter (2017) did.

Instead it stayed well between the lines of horror, comedy and thriller

making it a rather predictable and forgetful mix -with only the acting

and the last five minutes being a bit more interesting.

What joy would we have had if we had a true no hold barred horror-movie?

Why wasn’t Keep watching released around Halloween? Why the March drop after all the time on the shelve?

The actual review

Keep watching is a fine movie but not a great movie; not by a long shot. Script wise all the classic tropes are there front and centre: archetype (cannon fodder) characters, invincible villains, the flee-fight-overcome story arch and so on.

Then there are plain and simple errors like: dropped plotlines, spontaneous stupidity, sudden lack of empathy and many, many more.  In short: you have to accept that Keep watching is your average horror/thriller going in.

You might even begin to suspect that this movie has been recut.

That would explain why the ending comes across so out of sync with what came before it.

The cast

There is quite the interesting cast in this picture. Here we have a professional ghost hunter, a zombie slayer and Captain Fantastic all in one family. And each of the actors try to make do with the scarce material they are handed. But, of course, this movie is truly Bella Thorne’s show.

Thorne has built quite the resume when it comes to horror. Playing a creepy child in Forget me not and then, gradually, moving on to use the Disney image people have of her to her advantage by getting sliced and diced as she did in the Scream premier and The Babysitter.

In Keep watching she actually gets to act normal for a change. Not those over the top near hysteria her roles often require her to do, which is a nice change. But, alas, it isn’t her acting that’s the main reason for Bella’s casting. The girl spends most of the movie running around in skimpy sleepwear.

The gimmick

But if the script is mediocre and the acting unchallenging then what makes this movie worth watching? The technology used.

We have grown quite accustomed to the 'found footage'-genre over the years. And the interesting thing about this genre is that it evolves as technology evolves. From one single camera in The Blair witch project we now have movies comprised of various sources ranging from smartphones, drones and even traffic cams because video recording has become easier over time.

Keep watching then takes this all one step further. In this movie an entire house is filled to the brim with hidden cameras (as horror movies and thrillers often do). Just twenty years ago this amount of cameras was a science fiction joke in The Truman show. But now it is actually possible. Keep watching takes something that is possible and takes the next possible step.

Though I have to admit that the amount of cameras is ludicrously large.

Cinematographically this concept of letting the movie be recorded by hidden camera all around the house is a nice gimmick the movie plays with. Apart from the added layer of ‘realness’.

And in the Hitchcockian sense of Rope this movie breaks its own rules on one or two occasions.

E.g. the focus on the child’s drawing.

Cinematography

Keep watching has a lot of fun ‘hiding’ these cameras in microwave ovens, clocks and ceiling fans. This offers quite a selection of interesting shots that aren’t constantly being shaken about as it would normally in a found footage movie. Moreover, the light used and the mise-en-scene in some of these shots bring are quite brilliant (Like, a spider walking around in front of the camera or a reflexion in a magnifying glass).

To sidetrack a bit, I would also argue that Keep watching also makes fun of its own concept in a meta sense as there are cameras all around the house except the bathroom (or the spots in the bathroom that matter). On the one hand it feels like the filmmakers are making the point of questioning voyeurism and violence. On the other it shows that the filmmakers are having all kinds of fun trying to hide all the bits and pieces. A strategically placed faucet knob for instance reminded me of Metal Gear Solid 2's drinking cup.

A final fun trick Keep watching uses are the various crosses.

ahhh so that’s why the dialogue referred to an X-box.

Like Scarface (or The departed) before the X’s have an important part to play in this particular movie. In fact, I would even argue an –I believe- Final Destination 5 influence of warning the audience that there’s a death scene coming (even though the movie is pretty mild – PG-13).  It’s a nice little homage.

Conclusion

But that’s basically all the Keep watching is. It’s a fun little movie with some creative shots and a fright or two. Not a very good scary movie. Still, it didn’t deserve two years on the shelf though.