The Levenger Tapes (2013)★★★☆☆

This movie had an interesting story, an overused implementation, and a weirdly uneven and often slow pace. It has its scary moments but for the most part it’s just boring.

The cast is okay. The only one I recognized was Johanna Braddy, and I didn’t feel like this was a particularly spectacular role for her. Everyone is mostly believable except for the older guy (who’s supposed to be a priest or something?).

The scenes with the detectives seem forced and out of place, and the tapes are often too dark or jumpy to make much out. There are some movies that use this to good effect (think The Blair Witch Project) but this one just uses this.

Also I’m not sure why they chose tape for the found footage medium. Maybe just so they could use the title they wanted? Perhaps the most unrealistic part of this movie (and it happened often enough to be noticeably distracting) was the obviously computer-generated “static” effect.

Overall this is okay background noise but I wish they would have spent more time on the creature or the church and less time on the boring drunken teenagers.