The Pyramid

-
The Pyramid
Starring Ashley Hinshaw, Denis O'Hare, James Buckley, Chista Nicola
Directed by Gregory Levasseur

The Story:
There is unrest in Cairo as a team of archaeologists have uncovered a hidden pyramid deep in the sands, one that predates even the Great Pyramids.  Reporter Sunni (Christa Nicola) and her cameraman Fitzie (James Buckley) are working with father/daughter archaeology team Nora (Ashley Hinshaw) and Miles (Denis O'Hare) to discover what secrets lie inside the pyramid.

After sending in a robot, it mysteriously goes offline, which leads to the crew sneaking inside and investigating what happened.  They soon find themselves lost in the intricate labyrinth, and stalked by small creatures - and one huge one.

The Synopsis:
"The Pyramid" was lambasted as one of the worst films in a long time.  While I won't go that far, I will say it was pretty bad, but not as bad as most people make it out to be.  Maybe because I'm claustrophobic, so any movie where people are crawling through small inclosed spaces freaks me out (like "The Descent" or "The Cave").  On that part they did their job by completely unnerving me.

Other than that, it wasn't very frightening.  The budget was small, and spent most of it on the building itself, which was pretty to look at.  However, since the creatures were all CGI, they should've spent more money on that.  The main baddie (I won't spoil it for you), looked like a reject from the "Scooby Doo" movie.  If it was supposed to be frightening, it didn't do its job, although it was a notch above your average "SyFy" movie, but that's not saying much.

The acting was decent enough, if not repetitive.  A film that's touted as a "found footage" movie features the common dialogue in such - "Turn that camera off!" "You're not filming, are you?"  "Keep rolling."  Such typical cliches were found in droves here, and to top it all off, it wasn't a complete FF movie, because some shots were done in the typical third-person omniscient style, so it takes away from that found footage format and goes to general filming style, then back, and then changes again.  It took away from any sort of realism the film was trying to achieve.

The Summary:
If it has a bigger budget, better stars and a good story, "The Pyramid" could've been a great psychological horror film, but instead it looked like something done by a college senior study class.

The Score: C-    

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Major Theatrical Releases May 2019

-
Image
Major Theatrical Releases May 2019 After the hype that is "Avengers: Endgame," May offers a massive collection of differing types of movies, enough to entertain everyone. Here are the major theatrical releases for May 2019. **THERE WILL BE NO SPOILERS** **DATES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE**  The Intruder May 3 Dennis Quaid goes from starring the family-friendly "A Dog's Journey" to playing a total psycho in "The Intruder."  When a young couple purchases a home from Quaid's character Charlie, they didn't realize it came with an addition - Charlie himself, who can't seem to let his old home go.  I don't expect any twists or turns in this tale, and this looks like a film better fit for Lifetime than the big screen.  Long Shot May 3 Charlize Theron stars as Charlotte Field, the current Secretary of State and who's running for President.  Seth Rogen stars as Fred Flarsky, a...
Read more

Witch

-
Image
Witch Starring Russell Shaw, Ryan Spong, Sarah Alexandra Marks, Fabrizio Santino Directed by Craig Hinde & Marc Zammit Movies about witches are about a dime a dozen, and follow the same formula: typically set in a time period long ago (since now, fortunately, the stigma of witches has been lessened and the religious fervor has diminished), in a small Puritanical town, a girl is accused of witchcraft which spirals the town into a frenzy filled with suspicion, doubt, and murder until the witch is put to religious justice. While that's not necessarily a bad formula (Robert Eggers' "The VVitch" and Mario Bava's "Black Sunday" immediately come to mind), most films fall by the wayside. "Witch" is a small film that, at first glance, seems to follow the mold before completely shattering it in a second act twist that's daring, provocative, and works in a lot of levels, but could've been more pronounced if given a bigger budget. In the small ...
Read more

Special Review: "Midwest Sessions"

-
Image
Special Review: "Midwest Sessions" Directed by Mario Ricciardi Independent filmmaking is a fascinating concept, wherein the director and everyone involved sets out to make something unique, different, and go against the traditional status quo of what's defined as a "blockbuster." These films aren't usually seen by the masses and won't be included in the top ten highest grossing movies of all time, but they offer something those films don't: a heart and commitment by the people involved to craft something wholly distinctive that tell a story in their own way. Such is "Midwest Sessions," a local film directed by Mario Ricciardi that centers on the city of Youngstown, Ohio, and the captivating people who live there. Told in different vignettes that seem distinct and different from one another but coming together as a whole in the end, it's an engrossing film that utilizes its shoestring budget and gives great performances, decent effects a...
Read more