The Last Broadcast
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List Price:
$19.95
Computers-Internet Price:
$17.99
Your Savings: $ 1.96 ( 10% )
Subject To Change Without Notice
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Heretic Films
Starring: David Beard, Lance Weiler, Stefan Avalos, Jim Seward, Rein Clabbers
Directed By: Lance Weiler, Stefan Avalos
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Ryko Distribution
EAN: 0858964001119
Format: Color
Label: Heretic Films
Manufacturer: Heretic Films
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Heretic Films
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2006-09-26
Running Time: 86
Studio: Heretic Films
Theatrical Release Date: 1998-10-23
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Editorial Reviews:
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Studio: Wea-des Moines Video Release Date: 09/26/2006
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Surpasses other "mockumentary" Horror Vids
Comment: I used to love the old documentaries in the 70's, "In Search of", Sasquatch, Bermuda Triangle etc. As a kid, this fare was especially scary because at that impressionable age it all seemed real.
This video is a fake for sure, but presented in a reality documentary format with all of the unanswered questions and speculation teasing the viewer. Unlike predecessor and alleged copycat "Blair Witch Project", there is a mix of "raw" tape footage with interviews and TV news report clips added to good effect.
The story is this video was made for a thousand bucks if so, another thousand bucks would have really helped clean up the few holes this highly watchable video is. These directors really made the most of their budget.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a few good elements but mostly just dull
Comment: I could barely stay awake while watching this, and I forced myself to watch it all the way to the end...which turned out to be poorly conceived. It would have been better if the filmmakers had shown ambiguous footage that implied a real Jersey Devil, rather than just having the killer turn out to be a regular, dull human being after all.
It's also difficult to watch because of all the effects, blurriness, wavering lines, and static that they seem to think makes it more realistic but is actually just irritating.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Reminds me of "In Search Of" with a twist...
Comment: I heard of this about the time "Blair Witch" came out, and just had to see it. It reminded me of the old "In Search Of" episodes, with the creepy synth music and the basic, simple camera work. I was also impressed that for such a small amount of money (purported to be under 1000 dollars,) and with such simple digital equipment, the makers did such a good job.
Now, I'm a big guy, and the ending even gave me a bit of the shakes toward the end; I found myself clutching a chair with sense of real disorientation. Some who like more conventional horror films, heavy on effect and light on story, might not like this; it takes a different sort of perspective.
Me, I liked it, so watch it for yourself, just make sure the house is locked up tight before you do...
Customer Rating:
Summary: The ending DESTROYS all that came before: BE WARNED!
Comment: This has an intersting premise (forget all the BLAIR WITCH comparisons)and they do an okay job building on the set up.
But the end -- the last 10 minutes -- discounts all that went before, so you're left with a bad aftertaste!
So rent it -- just to see how bad they screw up -- but don't buy it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hardly a thinking-man's "Blair Witch"
Comment: A bunch of media doofuses trek into remote woods in search of an old and horrific local legend - and are never seen alive again. By now, "Last Broadcast" will go down (for those few who've seen and remember it) as that other mock-documentary project about the supernatural. I wanted to give this flick a chance given how I've seen "Blair Witch", and not only does "Broadcast" fail by comparison, but fails to escape comparison - painfully ironic given that "Broadcast" is actually the older of the two movies.
WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT: "Broadcast" is a (wholly fictitious) documentary about the 1995 murders of several men who ran a local cable-access show called "Fact or Fiction". When ratings sag, Steve Avkast, Rein Clackin & Locus Wheeler decide to devote a show to the mysterious "Jersey Devil". With the "help" of a local magician and (alleged) psychic named Jim Suerd, our trio make a winter's journey deep into the remote "Pine Barrens". While there, they have their cameras and internet access - they're connected to the outside world, but not protected by it. Only Suerd will emerge alive from the Barrens - luckless, he will be convicted of the brutal murders of two of the others. No body is found of Avkast, precluding feckless prosecutors from pursuing a triple bill against Suerd. (Avkast's hat and gobs of his blood leave little doubt of his fate.) Lacking a confession, prosecutors seal Suerd's fate with his blood spattered clothes, but largely on the strength of preserved video footage showing him as randomly violent and (most importantly) the guy leading the group deeper into the barrens. The documentary begins after Suerd's mysterious death in prison - where he was to serve consecutive life sentences. When the documentarian receives battered remains of an additional video tape - the actual final broadcast of the "Final Broadcast" crew - producer David Leigh switches gears. Reconstructed footage critically undermines the timeline advanced by prosecutors at Suerd's trial, forcing Leigh to rethink the events leading up to the horrific multiple murders of the Pine Barrens, and the very meaning of such legends as "The Jersey Devil" in the modern digital age. (The flick was released in '98, based on events occurring in '95.)
WHAT GOES WRONG: overshadowed by "Blair Witch", "Broadcast" actually derives its inspiration from two other movies - but naming them would spoil the ending (which the producers obviously consider a real twist). "Blair" and "Broadcast" have similar sounding premises but each takes a different turn - one that informs the superiority of "Blair". While "Blair" just gave us the raw footage of 2 films (the documentary that Donahue was shooting AND the DAT she shot documenting her journey), "Final" is structured like a documentary itself - it's the single-minded product of Leigh's vision, complete with his voice-overs and his perspective. "Final" lacks that sense of natural transition from reasoned observation to mad desperation that we enjoyed in "Blair" as our heroes realized that they had become trapped in their own project. "Final" has Leigh directing us as much as his film - telling us what we were to think, what direction to pursue, what to expect. The story has some chills, but mostly that's undermined by its slickness - it looks produced rather than nurtured, with some computer graphics, and actors who bring admirable vigor to their characters without escaping the thin dossiers created for them. (Suerd is a laughable, if harmless idiot who thinks he really is a magician; Avkast, half the visible face of "Fact or Fiction" is a self-important hack desperate to save his stupid show, even though cable access slots are supposed to be given on a first-come basis; Wheeler & Clackin are just a couple of loudmouths who mercilessly ridicule anybody who takes their show seriously.) "Blair" excelled in its ability to show the nuanced changes suffered by its characters, but there's no nuance here.
If anything, "Broadcast" probably enjoyed, rather than suffered exposure to "Blair", offering an alternative to anybody turned off by the latter film's shameless promotion (vindicated by "Book of Shadows") or otherwise made into a "Blair Hater". Unlike "Blair" which relied on a steady stream of shocks, "Broadcast" leads up to a twist ending, one which requires suspension of our disbelief, and shamelessly relies on our reflexive skepticism of the media (and just about everybody else). Fans of this movie must think that if it's less popular than "Blair", it must be more worthwhile than that movie, more of a thinking-man's version of that movie, even though it doesn't evince any more thinking of its own.
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