Hating on Found Footage films certainly seems to be the “cool” thing to do right now. I myself, find many films of the subgenre to be quite entertaining and often down-right frightening. There’s something about the minimalistic nature of the process that gets me, and filmmakers are just now getting to a point where they’re able to put creative spins on the format. My personal favorite trend is the “mockumentary” style. This allows quality gear to be used. Not your standard “Johnny got a camera for his birthday and wants to film everything” type scenario. These films are usually filmed by characters that work in the industry–so shots are well established and crisp. It’s been done successfully many times, so it should come as no surprise that a film like The Vatican Exorcisms would want to adopt the style.

The film is all about one man, and that one man happens to be the actual writer and director of the film; Joe Marino. Joe embarks on a trip to expose the Vatican…i think….and to come face to face with the devil….i think. We get no clear guidelines or mission other than “the truth”, and as a result, the subsequent scenes carry very little weight. At some point, Joe meets a priest that is 100% down to lead him to various possessed individuals for the purpose of filming exorcisms. These often occur in broad daylight and feature performances from folks making awkward noises and rocking back and forth. Not a single second is convincing, or even entertaining for that matter.

And as for the often successful mockumentary angle? I’ve never seen it fall so flat. The tentative 1-way conversations with the camera come off forced and are typically accompanied by uber-cheesy background music that would feel more at home in the SNES “Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego” game. Even the climactic scene is nothing more than a contortionist rolling around on the ground…doing the type of shit contortionists do on street corners across America. It’s all terribly underwhelming, and when you are combining two angles that are severely overplayed (Exocism flicks and Found Footage), you REALLY have to bring the thunder. The Vatican Exorcisms fails to do that in practically every way imaginable.

I hate to be negative and offer very little in terms of constructive criticism, but I can’t imagine a single target audience that this would work for. Do yourself a favor and skip this one over. Found Footage has a bad enough wrap already.

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