Fan of Found Footage!
I greet any attempt at the genre with open arms but this film took a few steps in the wrong direction;
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Dialogue is dialogue and just really there to fill in the gap, so I don't have an issue with what people were saying, even though it was a little forced.
The threat wasn't real. We met the killer earlier in the film and he looked like a fine arts student. Either, don't meet him, so we can 'make up' how scary he must be, or have the protagonists have a go at taking him down. For all this talk, camcorder holder #1 was rendered motionless at the sight of him.
Escape and return? Upon escaping from the tunnels, the main characters decide to return there. It was a shoddy plot device to have them view a message that dragged them back there. You'd prepare for the scary mask man by either getting weapons, from your own home or the home of the killer, and you would notify the police.
The execution of the scenes and the techniques employed to create an ominous environment resorted to keeping the camera pointed at the ground or moving the camera in circles around the area that the characters were walking towards. Obviously, this is an attempt to avoid focus in the scene but it was too stunted to look like a natural attempt. A little work on that will help no end. Consider the rise of found footage horror that actually uses static cameras now to create the same sense of dread and mystery, without going all 'shaky cam'.
Atmosphere. If there is one way to shatter any kind of atmosphere your film is creating, it's to slap on some non-diagetic sound! Overlay soundtracks in a film that is supposed to represent a person's last minutes on camera is a little cringe-worthy. It totally shatters the illusion of realism that a film of this nature is trying to generate.
END SPOILERS END SPOILERS END SPOILERS END SPOILERS END SPOILERS END SPOILERS
But still, they made something that I couldn't make so well done for that. And they did it on a tight budget. Remember that credibility and suspension of disbelief is key! I constantly ask myself, "Would I do that?" when watching this kind of film. I've done it since I first started watching horror and in this film, the answer was more often than not, "No, I would not." which leads to frustration rather than fear for the viewer.
I wouldn't want to meet the creators of this film and say, "Boo! You are terrible! Don't make films!" Because I want people to experiment with the genre and who knows, maybe they will come back and do better?
Sorry, English is not my first language.