Exhibit A (2007)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

This is an excellent film - fantastic acting, directing, and writing. I'm very glad I had the luck of finding out about it as it has completely lost me for words. It does the job of generating ten good horror movies' worth of tension in a 1h25m run time, which I've never seen before. The subject matter is also very heavy, though this is not a criticism but a massive praise of the film. Never have I been so shocked - superb work by everyone involved. Such a shame that it couldn't get the recognition it deserves - it's so unfair that such intelligent work gets unnoticed.

I am a fan of found footage movies but this isn't one of them. I found it to be tedious, so much so that I found the shaky camera thing that is the deal with this movies to be as incredibly irritating as the actors themselves, specifically the father.While I realize that this genre involves the use of hand held cameras in a pseudo documentary style, there is often little rational as to why the actors would feel the need to document what they do. Specifically in this case. Why would the daughter and then the father feel the need to document the disintegration of their lives? Just not at all plausible to me.I guess some like it but again it was a tedious bore for me and like my title says, I saw the end coming much too soon to make the film even remotely interesting.

The found footage genre gets quite a lot of stick. Admittedly it does feel like a new found footage horror film is churned out every week and most of them feel like the same film. Some are quite brilliant though. REC, is probably the finest example the sub-genre has to offer and the criminally under seen Noroi: The Curse is probably the scariest film I have ever sat through. I had never heard of Exhibit A until I stumbled across it on a list which featured the scariest found footage movie moments. Because I'm a twisted individual, the idea of a family crumbling in front of their own camcorder appealed to me and so I sought it out immediately.I made a point of reading very little about it because it clearly had a shocking ending which I didn't want spoilt. I'd urge everyone else to do the same, however if you do know the ending outcome, don't worry because it's still worth the watch. It's a wonderful idea for a found footage film. There are no Spanish zombies, or Blair witches and there are no Norwegian trolls either. It's all about a regular nuclear family, probably not dissimilar to yours or someone you know and that's where the disturbing horror really lies.The film has obviously (and probably literally) been made on a shoestring, but it's all the more authentic for it. Exhibit A could've easily turned into an embarrassing PSHCE film if it felt false, but thankfully it doesn't. It helps that the performances are so good, especially by the Dad who doesn't have an easy role to play at all. The Mum sometimes felt a little wooden, but towards the end she crucially pulls out a powerful and authentic performance.The trouble with most found footage films is that they don't actually feel like they've been found. Diary of the Dead, for example uses multiple cameras and even has music playing over some scenes! Exhibit A is by far the most 'real' found footage film I've seen. They've obviously shot on an actual cheap camcorder and used a lot of improvisation. You buy into the story and actually begin to feel like you know the characters, thus you care about what happens to them.Exhibit A is about a man slowly cracking under financial pressures. It starts out comically with lots of funny and warm family moments. I also liked how we got to uncover lots of little things about Judith, the daughter who does the majority of the filming. In the end it becomes a film about secrets and how every family has them. There's a great moment mid-way through where the film starts to take an uneasy turn into psychological horror. What begins as the Dad trying to humorously stage a video for You've Been Framed becomes a desperate act of anger, verging on insanity.It's a very slow film to get going, with a lot of unnecessary scenes which slow the film down, however this does add to the authenticity of it all. It's the final half hour where things take a disturbing turn and it becomes gripping to watch. The final five minutes are an incredibly harrowing watch. It has imagery that will sear its way into your brain and stay there for a long time.Exhibit A is a great no budget horror film. It basically tells the same disturbing tale as Michael Haneke's striking debut, The Seventh Continent. Whilst, Exhibit A isn't as mind-numbingly depressing as The Seventh Continent, it is almost as effect. The acting is great and features some very powerful scenes which will stay with you. It may be a little slow to begin, but it's well worth sticking with as you feel immersed in the life of this family. It's a remarkable little film which deserves way more attention than it has received.

Exhibit A tells the timely story of a normal family disintegrating under financial pressure, eventually driven to the unimaginable.All is not as it seems as the King family go about their day-to-day lives oblivious of the horror to come. Dad And is nursing a secret that ultimately leads to terrible consequences for them all.We witness these chilling events unfold through daughter Judith's video camera....Very topical even two years on and the thing that makes this all the more unsettling is that this sort of thing (minus the ending) happens on a day to day basis. But the fact that Andy hides his failures to the camera is only the tip of the iceberg in his persona.If you look deep into the film, his personal belongings and attributes could indicate that he had a very sad child hood, and his outbursts of mania could indicate that he suffers from cyclothemic personality disorder.There is never an equilibrium with Andy. he is either really, really up, or depressed beyond belief, and this is evident in his mannerisms and body language.It's a brilliantly made piece of work, although it's not an enjoyable experience to watch. In fact it's unbearable toward the end, with only a little light at the end of the tunnel.The performances are outstanding, and this is one of the better 'found footage' films made.It loses a couple of points for the confrontation at the barbecue, but all in all, it's solid, shocking stuff.