Hangar 10

Hangar 10

Starring Danny Shayle, Abbie Salt, Robert Curtis

Directed by Daniel Simpson

The Story:
33 years after the events that occurred in the Rendlesham forest, friends Gus (Danny Shayle), his girlfriend Sally (Abbie Salt), and her ex-boyfriend Jake (Robert Curtis) decide to investigate the forest in search of gold.  As they travel deeper into the forest, they see lights, hear weird sounds, and encounter a secret that's been locked away for decades.

The Synopsis:
Hurray!  Another found footage movie!  Right at the start we're told this is the tapes that were found, which of course means no one survives, which means we don't have to give a lick about them!  Good news, one less thing to think about.

This proves to be a good thing, because all three leads are insufferable in their roles.  Gus, the leader, was a former military guy who's extremely over-protective of his girlfriend, yet travels into the middle of nowhere with her and her ex-boyfriend.  Talk about awkward.  Then there's Sally, the girlfriend, who spends most of the film crying or yelling about something.  Finally there's Jake, the ex, who obviously still pines for his lost love to the point where he creepily films her at every moment, igniting the ire of Gus, who shouldn't have invited him in the first place.

The point of their travels?  To find gold with metal detectors, as Gus is a metal detector enthusiast (I didn't know those kinds of people existed).  They heard rumors about what happened in the woods, but only Jake was interested.  Of course, the tales they heard were true, as they stumble upon the deadly secret of the forest, which, as we saw from the start of the film, takes their lives.  I'd say that was a spoiler, but since it's a) mentioned right at the beginning and b) a found footage film, it's not much of a spoiler.

Getting back to these found footage films, I must say I get very irritated when they follow the same pattern.
First, there's the title card that says this is the footage found.  So someone took the time to edit it all together to make an actual story instead of just leaving the tapes raw?  Makes sense.
Second, every second has to be filmed.  This includes the several painstaking minutes of them wandering around somewhere, running, shaking the camera, and useless chatter.  This goes on until something bad happens, and they immediately start yelling at each other to stop filming which, of course, they don't.
Third, near the end of the film everything starts happening, and someone goes missing, which results in those left to wander the area yelling the name of the missing person.  Then they find the person and realize the stark truth that they've faced, and it all goes downhill.

So is there anything good about this film?  Surprisingly, yes.  The effects near the end really stand out as surprisingly decent for such a cheap flick, and offered some surprisingly tense and scary situations.  If only the film didn't bore me to death during the previous hour and a half, I would've been more intrigued at the final fifteen minutes.

"Hangar 10" and "Area 51" are two of the same type of films.  Both are found footage, both feature idiots wandering into areas they should never go to, and both involve aliens.  If I had to recommend one over the other (which is basically recommending either a loud, non-smelling fart or a silent but deadly one), I would go with "Hangar 10," because at least their ending was entertaining.

Now I want to diverge from the main point and say a little bit about the actual Rendlesham Incident, since I am a huge fan of the paranormal and aliens, and this story is actually entertaining.

In late December 1980, a series of UFO sightings were reported over Rendlesham Forest in England.  Now known as the Roswell of Britain, there were rumors of alien spaceships landing in the forest, near a USAF base.  It's the tapes of Lieutenant Charles Halt that ignited the controversy and garnered the event international appeal, since it's rare to have a USAF soldier readily report on seeing such a fascinating event.  Whether it's true or not depends on your belief, but I personally believed it happened.

And then "Hangar 10" happened, and I wish that it didn't.

The Synopsis:
"Hangar 10" is a paint-by-numbers found footage film that heralds back to "The Blair Witch Project," but with aliens.  At least the ending was salvagable.

The Score: C-