The idea sounded very interesting and creative, so there was enough to make one want to see it. The cover looked quite eerie. So saw 'The Monster Project' with genuine interest and wanting to at least sort of like it even if it had many problems.

Seeing it, well 'The Monster Project' certainly did have many problems and it is pretty much exactly the same feelings had when watching a few other films recently. The bad news was that there is more bad than good. Having prepared myself to like it being intrigued by the concept, that was disappointing. Not a terrible film or without redeeming qualities, and there is far worse out there of the genre and overall. Liked the concept for 'The Monster Project', despite it being found footage which always makes me feel nervous, the execution was just wanting.

'The Monster Project' at least didn't insult my intelligence. It at least didn't make me angry watching it. Despite giving it a relatively low score and negative review, it even didn't make me regret watching it altogether.

It started off quite promisingly in an unsettling sort of way.

Setting was quite spooky at times as was the lighting. The acting generally was not bad, Yvonne Zimo being the standout, and some of the effects are okay.

Unfortunately, 'The Monster Project' did lack tension and suspense and the infrequent creepiness was never that eerie and rather obvious. The script is stilted and very repetitive while the direction tends to be static and pedestrian. Even for the very minimal budget, 'The Monster Project' looked as though it was made in a rush and it shows in its cheap look. The music is fairly intrusive and recorded with too much favour over it.

Was let down by the story. Conceptually interesting and wasn't too bad starting, at least too there actually was one, but the dull pace, due to some very uneventful stretches in particularly the middle, and the muddled way it was structured, meaning things didn't make sense, cheapened things. The characters are flimsily developed and bland even though the actors do their best. It can feel vague and while nothing is intelligence insulting there is both ridiculousness and trying to take it too seriously. The nadir of the film is the excruciatingly irritating and borderline offensive character of Jamal, with terrible over-acting from Jamal Quezaire.

Overall, well intentioned but lacklustre. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Another day, another found footage indie horror flick consisting of three stories explored by a documentary film crew. Their remit is to meet and interview three real-life monsters, who take the form of a demon, a vampire, and a skinwalker. What this all boils down to is the usual shaky-camera material and a mix of slow and boring interview snippets with some night camera incidents borrowed from the likes of BLAIR WITCH and REC (or QUARANTINE). It's all very low rent, predictable, and not at all scary.

Devon (Justin Bruening) and Jamal (Jamal Quezaire) are amateur "monster" film makers who post their hoaxes on U-tube. Devon gets the idea to film "real" monsters by placing an ad in an LA newspaper. His circle includes ex-junkie Bryan, who is a quiet religious person and later we get a deeper story. There is also Murielle (Murielle Zuker) Devon's ex-girlfriend, a girl Bryan (Toby Hemingway) thinks he has a shot at until Devon asks Murielle to direct his film.

The ad has turned up three people, a vampire (Yvonne Zima) a demon possessed girl (Shiori Ideta) and a Navajo skin-walker (Steven Flores). They are to be interviewed at an old out of the way home during a lunar eclipse. Once the characters are well established the film picks up with a smartly written interview of the vampire who was well portrayed in spite of the contacts. Likewise the other interviews were fairly decent and then they killed the film when they killed the lights. At this point everything went to green first person head cam which was shaky and poorly shot. Sometimes there was a floor cam and other times we had a monster point of view, even though they weren't wearing a cam.

As the film slid downhill, they decided to get cute and end it with a twist, one that was poorly conceive and executed.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.