Into The Storm Review

A recent trend over the past five years is the rise of found footage movies. Found footage involves handheld cameras showing a larger than life event through the POV of strictly one person or a group of people. These are typically horror films that showcase a group of people experiencing a supernatural event of some sort. However, more different genres have tried the found footage style. Some have worked, like the 2012 superhero film Chronicle. Others not so well, like the 2011 sci-fi film Apollo 18. The most recent entry in the found footage style, Into the Storm, tries mixing the disaster sub-genre with the found footage style. The end result is a fun and unintentionally hilarious 90 minutes that could have benefited from a stronger script.

What really made this film work was the technical aspects. The visual effects are astounding in this film particularly. The storm is very realistic looking and the damage done with the storm makes it look believable. The cinematography helped make the storm sequences even more intense. You get a good glance of it throughout and actually witness the intensity brings very well. Even the few shaky handheld shots in this film worked well in the environment they are used in.

Although the visual and technical aspects were fantastic, you can tell watching this film that the director mainly put his focus towards the effects and not the script. While the actors tried in their roles, anyone could have played them. These characters really have no distinctive personality at all and are very cliché disaster movie characters. Same goes with the plot, other than the storm there is really nothing else interesting throughout the film. Not to mention the script throws elements from other films we've seen thousands of times, such as certain characters' backstories. The film itself is very predictable, but the predictability helps its unintentional humor.

In the end, Into The Storm is an entertaining mixed bag. The star of the film really is the storm itself and it saves the film from complete mediocrity. Although I really do wish that more time was put into the script and characters, I was never bored in its 90 minute span and I do feel that the found footage style is very effective here. Into The Storm is basically a big-budget SyFy channel film: entertaining, short, unintentionally hilarious and fun when nothing else is playing.

Rating: 6/10