Area 407 is Found Footage Better Left Unfound

During what should have been a routine flight, two sisters find themselves involved in a plane crash. The sisters, as well as a few other survivors exit the plane to find they have crashed onto a dark area. Armed only with a camera and its light, the group sets out to find help. Along the way they find themselves being hunted by vicious creatures

Area 407 is another found-footage horror to the already overcrowded subgenre. The film is basically a found-footage version of Jurassic Park 3. It starts out introducing the characters on the plane where it’s identified that it takes place on New Year’s Eve. And of course right after everyone yells “Happy New Year!”, the plane crashes. The remainder of the film follows the survivors making some of the dumbest decisions that ultimately get them killed by the creatures. On top of the dumb decisions, these characters are so annoying, however the stewardess and air marshal were at least moderately tolerable. The most annoying character being the little girl, whom I could say is a combination of Emmanuelle Chriqui’s character from Wrong Turn combined with Dakota Fanning’s character in War of the Worlds. Not only does the script feature dumb characters, but it features some of the worst dialogue I’ve ever heard, where they have characters stating the obvious over and over. Don’t expect to get a full glimpse of the creatures until (as always) the final shot. And even then the CGI looks like something from a Sy-Fy film. I will say however, that this could very well have been a premise had it NOT been for the found footage and had just been a regular film (with better characters, acting, dialogue, etc.)

When it comes to the acting, no one stands out at all. Every performance is either over-acted, or way too wooden. It doesn’t help either that the actors don’t even try to make the best out of the horrible dialogue they are given. There is an instance when they are calling to someone for help and they don’t sound even the slightest bit desperate for help. One character yells “people are dead.” (notice I put a period instead of an exclamation point).

To be fair, the premise was semi-interesting and would have been better suited as a non-found footage film and given a better writer and actors.

–Cody Landman