Why THE PYRAMID Is The WORST Found Footage Film
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- čas přidán 4. 07. 2024
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ABOUT THE SHOW:
This show celebrates Ryan's love for film, games, art and entertainment through personal retrospective analysis that aims to explore what made them so good.
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TIME STAMPS:
00:00 - Introducing The Pyramid
04:30 - Sponsored by VESSI
06:03 - The Characters & Setting
12:24 - The Awful Filmmaking Rant
18:55 - Ending Creature Reveal! - Zábava
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*Tell me... is truly is the WORST found footage film?* Also... any good alternative recommendations?
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I'd say "Unfriended: Dark Web" is the worst
But maybe "Megan Is Missing" is way worse than that
I think that the Paranormal Activity sequels are up there in terms of worst found footage movies.
Oh and here's my obligatory recommendations for Night in the Woods and Pink Floyd's The Wall.
SPREE is a fun dark comedy about a streamer going on a killing spree from his rideshare car (starring Steve Harrington himself!). The movie isn't perfect but Keery is amazing as the energetic, dead-behind-the-eyes internet personality desperate for an ounce of recognition.
I actually saw it at Sundance and the director talked about how he set up the rig in the car with go-pros hooked up all over the car, and the constant need to replace them because of constant overheating because they're not built to film entire movies.
Two of my recommendations serve as great alternatives! Totally check out As Above, So Below (2014) & Mr. Jones (2013) sometime. Edit: Ah-ha, you actually mentioned AASB in this video, nice! I'm glad you have it up there with Grave Encounters.
My other three:
Underworld series (2003-2017)
Soulmate (2013)
Spike (2008)
I don't think it's found footage but I refuse to go back and check: The Catacombs
Did they really try and make Anubis the villain? Anubis is a protector and guide of the dead. They should have used Sett, he's a pretty big antagonistic force in Egyptian mythology.
Anubis even though he is the God of Death wasn't evil. Neither was Osiris God of the Underworld.
@@melissalayson7275 Right, kinda sucks the enjoyment from a film when there's no understanding of the mythology.
@@CrystalHedgehog1 Speaking of Ancient Egyptian mythology why not have Amit the monster from the underworld trapped in the pyramid, eating peoples hearts. Or like you said Sett the Ancient Egyptian God of Chaos.
@@melissalayson7275 Might be sadly because of how well known Anubis is in terms of his job in the mythology, and people who don't understand how he is in mythology and just assuming being connected to death makes him evil.
@@CrystalHedgehog1 Also Osiris the Ancient Egyptian God of Underworld. I love the series Supernatural but I hated how they portrayed Osiris as evil as Hades just because their both Gods of the Underworld in their mythologies.
When it was released in France, there was a promotional video of sorts featuring three prominent french CZcamsrs who had the opportunity to ask questions to the director of the movie. One of them asked him why he made the choice to have some parts that were not actually found footage in it, thus breaking the narrative format of the movie for no apparent reason. His answer was "I don't think the average moviegoer will notice".
Seriously.
Another example of people in the movie industry greatly underestimating the intelligence of their audience.
@@tristanhartup4936 I mean. As the past few years have proven, a lot of people are extraordinarily stupid.
The director shouldn’t be in the film industry.
honestly ifgaf, its not gonna take me out of the movie.. i already know its fake. ppl that let that ruin a movie or think directors only need those shots are dumb af
Ah yes of course the normal viewer would never notice a jarring camera change
I heard Anubis was able to get around the pyramid interior so quickly and comfortably because he was wearing Vessi Footware.
Plus he manscapes so he has more freedom in his neither region
@@frankieb9444 so THAT'S why he looks like a naked kitty🤔
Raid shadow legends
Ayyyyy!
@@frankieb9444 and he can use his raycon airbuds to listen to walk like an Egyptian while chasing the main characters
I want to see a movie in which the protagonists are the immortal Egyptian beings, dwelling in a pyramid, and they have to pull together to fight off the invading group of greedy, unrealistically-attractive treasure hunters. Sort of a "Tucker and Dale..." thing, but in a genre-reversing setting like an ancient pyramid. Surely I'm not the only one.
PLEASE PLEASE I WANT THIS
DEPICT THE EGYPTIAN GODS AS GOOD GUYS FOR ONCE
Kinda like "Mummies Alive" but instead of babysitting some dumb kid their protecting their final resting place?
Basically the premise of an old text adventure "Infidel".
Basically an ancient mummy performing some home alone level of traps on intruders
Some of them would be captured like in the “Tucker and Dale VS Evil” film, where they reveal to some of those that they’re basically doing the equivalent of B&E, or something
the fact that the monster looks a lot like the CGI creatures from the live action Scooby Doo movie is killing me lmao
Don't insult those movies like that scooby had fairly good CG for the time 😂
I finished the movie like an hour ago and when I first saw the monster I thought the same fucking thing.
@@milkinanime7047Ehhhhhh…I disagree, but I’ll give Scooby-Doo a pass since the monsters looking cartoonish works in that movie’s favor!
@@skinnysnorlax9356 have you seen some of the effects from movies back then? They were ass.
LMAO YOU PUT IT PERFECTLY
Ryan genuinely seems like such an open minded reviewer howyever he’s bringing the claws out for this one and I’m loving it
Hœver
Someone needs to make a compilation video of all his "howyever"s and find the video that carries the most instances
*hoiyever
Hawywhevur
Hiyuever
Can we PLEASE stop making Anubis the bad guy in movies? He isn't even close to it in the myths. This wouldn't bother me as much if we literally didn't have Set and Apep as GODS OF EVIL.
Hell, why not Apophis? Considering that he’s actively trying to end the world, it would make sense.
@@animeotaku307 Apophis is Apep
You think white filmmakers will ever give a shit about or respect Egyptian mythology?
@@jevilcore ...why did you have to drag race into this? I'm white and I care.
SERIOUSLY ITS SO ANNOYING LIKE DUDE JUST WATCHES OVER THE DEAD
You know what would have made the anubis more freaky.
If it looked like how anubis is often depicted in old drawings. If he wasnt a monster he was a tall noble looking man.
Human(oid) terror would have been far more scary
Agreed. The film could’ve have addressed his more animalistic form with some lore but noooooooooooooo.
@@voidraker1736 it could of been as simple as a mask. That would of been a better and cheaper idea
His warriors from The Mummy Returns looked more terrifying than he did in this movie.
I agree. But I’m also tired of the bad rap Anubis gets. He was the guide for the dead and is the god of embalming, but he wasn’t a bad dude or outright villain. Set was much more antagonistic in Egyptian mythology, I mean he literally murdered his brother Osiris and did chop him up and scatter the pieces throughout Egypt after all (Isis really loved her husband to go picking up all those pieces to make him whole).
honestly YEAH it could have been something like this: instead of the freaking mars rober it was a guy who got trapped in the tomb (we never see the guy's face btw) so the crew goes to rescue him while also taking the chance for their more selfish reason, weid sh#$ happends they find "the guy" (anubis) try to escape yada yada yada only the girl left she found the corpse of the actual guy so anubis emmits domenic noises and kill her like she did to the rest the end.
predicable? yeah but it wouldnt have been stupid and looked so out of place
“Now I normally like to end these videos on a positive note… so goodbye.”
That sent me. You can feel how much Ryan hates this film, and I love it
Loved that part! 😆
The main gripe I have with "found footage" movies is that the footage has to be found in order for it to exist. As Above So Below was one of the few (and I mean few) to actually show that the footage survived and was able to be seen.
I hate that 99% of found footage horror movies end with the final girl/guy getting "unexpectedly" killed. It makes me give up on the characters before I even start watching
@@matman000000 Yeah, and unless we specifically see the fates of all the characters, main included, I don't like being told off the bat that "only their footage was found" or whatever, because otherwise I'll already feel spoiled that no one made it and won't even want to see how & why that happens.
@@matman000000 That's a big reason why I liked As Above So Below as much as I did. Straight-up half the cast makes it out alive.
Someone needs to make a found footage movie that takes the "House of Leaves" approach, where 70% of the movie is about HOW the footage was found, and the characters that found it. That might work better as a miniseries though...
"Cigarette Burns" did a great job with this, but I would have loved to see more of the rest of the in-universe "movie"
I’d love to see one released in the form of an archived live stream. Or even the performance itself actually being live. Would get rid of the need for it to be found and would make it unique
This film made me so angry 🤣 as an Egyptologist I try SO hard to give badly-researched shite like this the benefit of the doubt, but there was absolutely no excuse for this take on Anubis
they could’ve literally used seth or ammit i was so confused when it was revealed that the “bad guy” was anubis 😭
I am so mad about this disrespect, like they did not even try
You are so right-l don’t understand this hostility towards Anubis that so many Western filmmakers seem to have.
It's incredibly generous of you to find anything sympathetic about the setup to this movie. When the daughter and her boyfriend wanted to drag people into the pyramid despite the armed soldiers right there saying "You have to leave or you'll get left behind" I was ready for them to just be shot by the soldier and left in the desert as an unexplained disappearance.
I worked at a theater when this came out. Genuinely, it was the loudest movie I had ever had to sit through. It blew out our speakers. Unpleasant is the only way to describe it
FUNNY. I worked in a theatre that played it and it hit such high decibels that it distorted the audio.
Oof, good thing I rented it On Demand then.
@@DJtheBlack-RibbonedRose Your hearing thanks you
@@huntereitel8305 Tell me about it. And I thought Dune Part 1 (2021) was overbearing at times with how loud the theater got with its score.
The scariest thing about this film is the medical bill you're receiving after going deaf watching it.
"it gets a free pass because i simply don't remember a single thing that happened in it" is a wonderful line and also SUCH a mood lol.
great to see you back!
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is a great example of found footage cutting to cinematic pov. The cinematic camera behaves in an entirely different style, slavishly following the conventions of horror cinematography, and even has a different aspect ratio. And yet it's also completely seamless - because the found footage parts are basically like a behind the scenes of a slasher (but IRL), before the style cuts even happen you find yourself curious to know how this would feel if you saw these moments as a movie. And then bang - there it is as a movie. So when the film switches to being entirely cinematic in the final part, it's not jarring or confusing at all, but rather a natural consequence of the film's stylistic choices.
When he was talking about changing from found footage to cinematic Leslie Vernon was EXACTLY what I thought of as a great example! Glad someone else appreciated it as well
That movie is *so* good, truly underrated.
I also found that criticism to be baseless and weird. What's the problem of cutting from found footage to standard shots? It keeps the eye interested.
I honestly liked the fact that a majority of the deaths in the film are some dumb ass cartoony shit played straight, the spike trap, the collapsing floor, the sand pit, like what you'd see out of a children's game where you explore a pyramid, but only actually lethal to the characters.
I wanted this movie to work. A horror movie based on Egyptian mythology, in a claustrophobic setting of a pyramid. It’s like the mummy be inverted, where instead of the mummy being released it chases it deeper.
It’s essentially what makes a monster like the Minotaur interesting lad
This should have been awesome!
What destroyed this movie the most was the fact that just like with Hades, they made Anubis the bad guy just because he's the god of the underworld...
@@Nekoszowa That's one of the reasons, but a big one. Honestly, why couldn't it have been Set? He's already linked with a pyramid in mythology, and as the god of the desert he would more things to attack them, like scorpions and mummified vultures. In fact, why not have both Anubis and Set in the movie. In some versions of the story, Set is the father of Anubis, but Anubis sided with Horus. What if Anubis was acting as the guard of this pyramid trying to keep these idiots from accidentally releasing Set? You would have two monsters trying to play the humans at their game. Anubis trying to chase them out and Set trying to use mind games to trick them into freeing him.
Yeah- I was hoping it would be like The Ruins if the ruins spent more time inside the pyramid (which was honestly the only negative you can say against that movie/book it was great but I also wanna see inside a cool pyramid?)
@@Nekoszowa Seriously- it doesn't make sense why the ancient Egyptians would trap Anubis. Maybe if they had done Set instead who is actually nasty. He's also the god of foreigners so it would make sense why he would go after the foreign researchers
@@Nekoszowa YES. OMG, that trope needs to DIE. Hades/Pluto, Anubis , Hel, etc, are NOT SATAN.
And they totally fuck up the weighing of the heart. I don't recall what, but they don't use an ostrich feather (or a feather of any kind) to weigh the heart.
Also, man I'd LOVE to see a really well done modern take on Anubis, visually speaking. Sadly, this wasn't it...
The best thing about As Above, So Below is that the movie is pretty entertaining, nonstop, the entire time. You get sucked into it without even trying to the point the cheesy scares actually scare you. Same with Grave Encounters, the atmosphere pulls you in and you find yourself believing everything that's happening.
Exactly! AASB kicks off with a bang as we follow Scarlett in Iran searching for the Rose Key, in a cave that we learn will soon be blown apart, as well as giving early hints to the haunting before she's even reached Paris. Immediately you're hooked, and want to see where this will all lead, but without waiting aimlessly for the catacombs venture. There's just as much intrigue in its build-up as there is diving in.
Same goes to Tsernobyl Diares and Apollo 18. Found footage doesn't need to be amazing to work, only thing I really ask is the cool setting, characters who feel like real people and that it's not too bad or stupid to watch.
I even made a found footage movie myself with very limited budget and it turned out okay.
My only problem with AASB is that they don't explain enough about the characters for you to understand all of the symbolism later on.
I unironically think As Above, So Below is really underrated, maybe even a solid B- if I'm honest. The premise and atmosphere are just too interesting for me to hate the bad aspects, and it keeps up a good pace. If nothing else, it's the best Tomb Raider movie ever made LMAO
The best found footage gets going FAST
My mom took me and my sister to the movies to see this for my birthday one year. I unfortunately made the mistake of not bothering to look up any reviews or ratings before we went. When we got into the theatre I should’ve known something was up considering literally no one else was there to watch it but we proceeded to watch the movie anyway. To this day it is cemented as the worst movie I have ever sat through in theaters. The best part was the end credits when they played this super edgy rock music, and since no one else was in the theater, my sister and I went up in front of the screen and started jumping around and head banging. Later that night my mom came down with a bad case of food poisoning, but I maintain that The Pyramid (2014) was so bad that it ruined my birthday and made my mom throw up. The end.
The Gallows did have that one scene where the girl is crying in a corridor and you can just see the monster watching her in the background. I haven't seen that in many films and I was surprised to see it in such a pile of garbage. It did genuinely freak me out a little bit.
I watched this movie years ago and I still think to that scene where you just barely see him vanish in the background on a stair if I remember correctly. Spooky😅
@@cameronsnow7156 I know! I wish the whole movie had been like that, but also I don't, because I know I would have lost sleep.
@@EddieM1994 I did that night 😝
This is the only movie Chris Stuckmann ever walked out of.
That was literally his review of it.
And I watched it anyway like a f**king idiot.
And he sat through the entirety of 'Movie 43', so that should tell you something right there.
where did you find that? couldn't find a review
@@unknownflickz1289 He literally posted it on his Twitter stating that he walked out and wouldn't make an official review, but that him walking out is all you need to know about the movie
@@michaelandrews117 oh I already saw the trainwreck and made a review, I just don't check twitter much
I actually watch Chris Stuckmann's reviews to see what movie's he likes . That way I know they are not worth watching . He can be right about bad movie's, but the ones he praises for being good I generally hate .
Heck yes more awful movies please! Yeah this movie was both hilariously and frustratingly awful. It was just long and boring enough to make the dumbness unfunny
That's the one thing that is missing from horror. Using mythologies instead of judeo-christian demons and stuff would be amazing.
The Ritual is one of my favorite horror movies because the creature isn't a generic demon or monster. It's a Norse Jotunn (Giant) and one of Loki's offspring. It's intelligent and it knows what it's doing.
Just imagine; a found footage movie set in Ireland where the cast have to evade a Dullahan, or Samhain or any other creatures found in mythology.
Yer but that would require screenwriters to do actual research
the Ritual was like a 6/10 until the Jotunn showed up, then it became one of my favorite creature features of all time
@@OddMike That's how I felt too. Before, you think it's some generic monster in the woods, but when the cult shows up and you see it, it changes everything.
It even shows us that the Jotunn isn't mindless. It kills those who resist, but those that submit to it, it leaves alone and grants them things, like long life.
My friends and I enjoyed The Ritual, though we called it Silent Hill: Scandinavia. Considering the guilt ridden protagonist, and a weird cult with a freaky monster using said protagonist's own mental hangups against him.
There is a game on Steam that I can’t for the life of me remember, but it was a brother and sister making their way through the dark woods. Early in the game, you see the shadowy forms of big hulking jotun that you had to sneak past while following some train tracks. Normally, big humanoid creatures like ogres, giants, orcs, etc. don’t scare me, but I was *extremely* unsettled by them. I can’t remember if they made a noise, but there was this sense of extreme dread that I normally only got with creatures human-size or smaller, probably because I knew deep down that those giants were smart and pernicious, nothing at all like the giants in Skyrim where they leave you alone if they spot you, unless you stray too far to them. No, I had this persistent feeling that the second they sensed me and my brother’s presence, it was over. 😭
This is my favorite bad movie. Sitting with a group of historian friends and picking out all the inaccuracies is a good time.
bring a kemetic pagan and let the furyposting commence.
Okay but Willow Creek has a 23 minute sequence of the two leads sitting in their tent acting scared while a PA walks around outside occasionally slapping the tent or hitting an audio cue for the actors to react to spooky bigfoot sounds.
You know, as someone who genuinely loved Willow Creek, I can one thousand percent agree with this. I think that it going on so long is what honestly makes it feel like real found footage. You don't go looking for Bigfoot, then hear some noises, and only record for a minute and a half, especially if you're terrified that Bigfoot actually found you.
That said, if you weren't absorbed by it immediately like I was, yeah, it's gonna feel like just staring at people for 20 minutes. But it felt real enough to me that it actually hooked me.
The worst found footage for me is the one with me dancing at a party.
I agree, it was like watched the tape from The Ring
@@frankieb9444 Now i'm gonna get your soul in 7 days.
It's so disappointing that Denis O'Hare is in it too; he is an acclaimed character actor who I use as a "is it good or bad" gauge. Meaning, if he's in it, it's probably decent. I hate to see film productions waste such great talent.
O’Hare ‘acclaim’ is only somewhat recent, and even that’s come with caveats-he got probably the worst notices in his career for his disastrous, offensive performance as ‘the Baker’ in ‘Into the Woods’ at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater in 2012.
Frankly, I’ll never forgive him for what he did in that production. Subsequently, I’m always relieved whenever he’s not in a season of ‘AHS’.
@@boynamedalexxx Interesting! I had never heard of this. The first film I saw him in was The Anniversary Party from I think 2001-ish? I love that movie, and he's great in it. I was actually surprised when he started showing up in AHS (I've only see Season 1 in it's entirety, just bits and pieces of the next few seasons) because I'd only ever seen him in smaller character roles. Definitely going to read about this Baker role though!
@@boynamedalexxx I’ve literally never heard any of this even after googling this. You’re a weirdo
A good example of staying coherent when breaking found footage is in Archive 81. We see a character watching found footage tapes and then we cut to a more traditional filming of that found footage scene. But we only get to see what the character recorded. So you can have it both ways. Great show actually.
Some found footage should just stay lost…
Omg!
@@RyanHollinger Sometimes its true.......maybe
Chernobyl Diaries had a similar problem. It has the style of found footage but no one acknowledges the cameraman. It took me outta the immersion.
Chernobyl Diaries isn't found footage
@@quitpayload I stated it had the style, but obviously didn't commit to it. Like they imitated it but still did the traditional way.
I was so excited when I heard there was going to be a found footage horror based in Egypt, it appealed so much to the archaeology nerd in me! Even when I started watching it I tried so hard to stay positive about it, but when the big Anubis reveal happened I drew the line. Why is Anubis the bad guy?! Anubis is never the bad guy! I assume they just royally screwed up and mixed him up with Set(also technically not a bad guy but traditionally portrayed as one), which makes me genuinely angry. Poor Anubis is a diety who just judges whether someone can enter the afterlife, whys he locked in this pyramid acting like a cartoon baddy?!
Same. I did enjoy this movie though I know it's not fantastic. But yer the ending made me go wtf
There are so many deities that get a bad rap or get portrayed as evil/villains just because they aren't "fluffy." Death/chaos/Underworld deities particularly get the short end of the stick. Like Anubis in this movie or Kali in Indiana Jones or Hades in Hercules. Look how they massacred my boy.
THIS IS WHAT I WAS THINKING. anubis is a protector and guide diety. if you want a bestial diety as the villain then ammit is right there!! have her be the villain. shes so much scarier than a wolf, you dont have to change her from her traditional portrayal, and she makes much more sense from a morality play angle, since she eats the hearts of the wicked. have her go after the protags for tresspassing in a sacred place.
it's insanely enraging with Hades because he's not done anything bad but he's the bad guy and Zeus is a good guy even those he's a RAPEIST
@@Scalesthelizardwizard3399 The worst thing you can argue is that Hades kidnapped Persephone...and apparently in some versions that was due to Zeus tricking Hades to get revenge on Demeter! They have the healthiest relationships of the Greek gods...and Hades is the bad guy?! So backwards.
I remember buying a ticket to see this then accidentally walked into Nightcrawler. Best mistake ever
A lot of these “found footage” films really want to be “Blair Witch” or the first “Paranormal Activity”.
Or "Grave Encounters."
@@DJtheBlack-RibbonedRose thank you. I forgot about “Grave Encounters”.
@@NickNapoli Lol that's okay, you should *see* the amount of "investigative team in haunted asylum" knock-offs that GE incited. I think the only one I found somewhat decent was titled "The Crying Dead." (Yes seriously).
@@DJtheBlack-RibbonedRose also don’t forget “REC”.
@@NickNapoli Eh, I actually haven't seen that many zombie Found Footage flicks, unless we're just referring to its "mysterious disturbance in a specified location" premise. In that case I could list off The Chernobyl Diaries, Devil's Pass, and "Safe Haven" from V/H/S 2.
If you want to talk about a good blending of different camera types, End of Watch does it fantastically. Switching between car cameras, body cameras, and traditional camera work. I know it’s not horror, but it’s a great example.
OMG I knew I’d forgotten something!
That Movie so Fucking good!!! Highly recommend to anyone who has not seen that gem
@@dsquare3033 David Ayer gets a lot of shit for Suicide Squad (the studio cut anyway) but his filmography is quite neat in my opinion. End of Watch might be one of his best
End of Watch is so good, glad I saw it in theaters
@@sunsetman22 WHAT!?? I didn’t know David Ayer did both of those movies that’s crazy
The Netflix adaptation of Archive 81 actually pulls off switching rapidly between traditional cinematography and found footage without breaking immersion. It's done so well that there are times when the jump from found footage to a traditional POV lands like an emotional gut punch, because you're rooting so hard for the characters in the footage but you're faced with the fact that there's no hope for them.
"You can write whatever you want, so long as it isn't boring"
Best advice I've ever heard.
Edit: That can't be Anubis, as he doesn't do stuff like that. Set? Set I could believe
A: the rover is probably insured, B. If they weren’t supposed to use it for this dig they could say it got stolen because they were in a literal war zone
C) Have the daughter and boyfriend sneak around to go after it without fathers permission (highlighting the rebellion dynamic), D) have the documentary chick egg them on because she wants more drama(highlighting her scummy practices) E)dad goes into the pyramid to get them and camera operator comes with to help (highlighting they are both decent dudes) F) have Anubis want the dad for his pure heart, giving daughter a chance to make up for her choices by sacrificing for him. Or we destroy all copies and just pretend this never happened at all.
This movie was actually decent found footage horror... Until we saw who was hunting the main characters...
And... Dam, it was stupid
It really could have worked if not for the CGI
@@RyanHollinger , I mean, if it was a mummy, that would have been cool actually, cause there aren't many good horror movies with mummies in it.
But the creators decided: "Nahhh, we will go with Anubis instead"
@@jeepamir508 Well at least he wasn't white-washed, which I can't say about another Egyptian mythology film released two years later.
@@jeepamir508 And it's especially stupid since anyone with a basic understanding of mythology knows that Anubis was considered one of the good guys in Egyptian mythos. They could've gone with Set or Apep who are actual bad guys in Egyptian myth.
@@firemoonalice3117 or Sobek or Thoth, since crocodiles are actually scary, and ibis are... well, I've never seen a horror movie with an ibis.
In many ways, I remember being disappointed that this wasn't a mummy movie. Especially considering how much could have been done through suggestion. It just seemed like an ideal scenario for a found footage horror.
In retrospect though, I do think working in the egyptian gods like Anubis couldve offered up something unique. Almost like a cosmic fear of the death and the unknown, which would have made Anubis an interesting presence in the plot. Sucks that they kind of just made him another werewolf zombie jackal though. :P
Love that you mentioned As Above, So Below and Grave Encounters in the same sentence, as I love them both immensely.
The worst part is there are fleeting moments with decent atmosphere. Its just too bad no one with actual talent was infront of the camera.
Yeah like this movie had a really interesting concept. A mysterious hidden pyramid sealed a way for a reason is a good freakin start but just failed the moment they started exploring it.
Anubis as a creature is also a cool concept just because it plays into the mythology but yet again poorly executed as a result.
Honestly a survival movie starring Anubis hunting bad souls would be kinda awesome
Honestly it would make more sense if Anubis was hunting them because they were greedy and wanted to lie to make money
@@merchantfan YES. And maybe one of your main characters is rally into Egyptology (maybe as even part of their job), and figures out what's going on, and stops the other good guys from interfering with him.
@@fisheyenomiko Yup or since it's horror tries and fails/dies before telling them the truth. There's a couple ways you could do it but there needed to be someone who liked Egyptology involved in the script. Nerds into Egypt was a major demographic for their audience
Except that in Egyptian mythology, Anubis is not an evil god.
i would bet serious money that you'd really enjoy spree (2020). it's a found footage comedy that hits a lot of the same notes as creep (2014), but with an entirely different premise and a unique setting, with the cameras mainly being security (well...you'll have to watch to see that that might not be a TOTALLY accurate description) cameras set up in the car of a definitely-not-a-uber-ripoff driver. i really wasn't expecting much out of it but it's stupid and fun and it's clearly been made by somebody who understands the internet, which is always refreshing.
I was so saddened by how bad this movie turned out to be.
I was a huge creepypasta fan and a bunch of the big creepy pasta youtubers promoted this film with awesome mummy stories. It made me so excited for the movie..
welcome back ryan!! we missed you ❤️ hope you're doing well.
I feel you can only go really good or really bad with found footage, but given how cheap it can be to make, most go in the bad route
"Now I usually like to end on a positive note..." *Proceeds to immediately wrap things up so he doesn't say something mean*
Love that
WOW. They couldn't even half ass themselves a better Egyptian god? Anubis isn't even an evil god! Ammit would have been a better choice for the "devour the soul" thing, since that was her whole m.o., have it be that the pyramid was not a prison but was a passage to the egyptian afterlife. Or if they wanted it to be a prison, have it contain Apep! He actually wanted to eat the sun! But this would be giving the movie the credit of actually thinking this project through.
Bruh it’s just a movie calm down lmao
I really love how you’re a genuinely respectful and considerate critic 99% of the time, giving even the most lambasted second hand shop filler movies their fair dues. It makes it all the more satisfying when you tear into something that truly deserves it.
To make things worse to me I'm not really a fan of the ''Anubis bad'' cliche beccause western obsession with demonization of death.
Hades: "Sit, come have a drink with me man and let's talk about it."
Anubis: "Thanks."
@@DJtheBlack-RibbonedRose I'm tempted to make an illustration with that dialogue XD
@@Creep700 Oh my gosh please do, it'd be so wholesome! Will I get credit?
It’s funny, isn’t it, how the West is terrified of death but our Christian teachings emphasize that heaven is 1000x better than anything we have going on right now. Seems like a real contradiction to equate Death figures with Satan or demons if being alive is just one big long wait in line in the DMV. Of course death is scary, of course death is something to fear and hope never comes, but it’s like they demonize the phenomenon of death itself along with the entity that doles it out.
IDK, the Victorian Age had a very elaborate mourning culture that developed centuries after demonizing Hades and such because of the aforementioned analogizing to Satan, as if God isn’t in fact the entity that has full control over life and death. It isn’t Satan who supposedly decides who lives or dies, it’s God. So that’s even more cognitive dissonance at work. And purposeful misinterpretation of other cultures.
I'd argue that it's because the West has largely abandoned Christianity/religion and if there truly is nothing after death then death is terrifying in its finality.
It's so disappointing that this movie does not start with James Buckley looking at the camera and saying "Morning, benders. Follow me to the pyramid to get some proper clunge."
I remember this movie. I loved the premise but not the execution. I would love to see more movies dealing with mythological monsters and fairy tales, but so far it seems to be a niche genre.
Anumbus...
Anubis wasn't a evil God. He didn't care for your soul, only the weight of your guild. He was running funeral home.
It should have been Seth. I hate it when they don't take time to Google "evil Egyptian gods"
I also hate when Hades is labled as Satan.
Or Ammit, at the very least, would have been an impressive and refreshing antagonist.
Set*
@@oxymoron02 autocorrect...
Spoilers for the movie below:
Can we talk about the laziness of using another cultures mythology and just going "God of the Underworld? Guess that means he's evil!" It takes rich mythology and replaces it with Christian beliefs, with any God associated with the Underworld being turned into a more Satan-like/Evil figure. I think I would have just preferred it being aliens.
Like, if they went with, Anubis, guardian of the dead, is hunting them because they broke into a tomb, I'd be a bit less tiffed.
Maybe.
Hear, hear! As a Nordic person, I'm so tired of that trope. Since the old Norse god of the underworld is even called Hel... She's so fucked.
My favorite Greek god is also Hades... They all get shafted, no matter the mythology. As a fan of mythologies in general, it annoys the hell out of me when they seem to apply Christian beliefs on all mythologies and their gods. Fits even worse on mythologies such as the ancient Greek one, since the major god is the biggest douchebag and the underworld god is more or less one of the very few good gods. There are so many myths like that, no matter the region. I wish people could take their Abrahamic beliefs and shove them up their ass when writing films like this one.
(Edited for spelling mistakes.)
Yep it's bullshit and lazy
Also Anubis only took the dead's hearts to judge. Never when they were still alive.
@@yennefer440 And he wasn't the one who ate the hearts of the impure. I forgot the gods name but it was the alligator headed one I think. Anubis merely judges the dead, and decides if they go to the underworld, or have their heart and soul eaten.
I feel the "found footage transition to regular camera" thing can work out if it's got a plot reason (like Rec 3, where iirc the cameraman gets got, then the movie stops with the found-footage style and moves to standard filming), though this then also brings up the problem of "where did the found footage come from?". Splicing regular camera stuff with the found footage stuff seems to mostly just break the 4th wall and it doesn't really do well for that (unless being intentionally done as a parody, satire, or comedy-horror, for instance).
The one thing I hated about this movie when I worked at the theater is how this film thinks that loud equals scary.
I like that it's universally agreed that The Mummy (1999) is the best mummy film. 😁
A while ago I found an article where someone attempted to modernize the Universal Monsters for the upcoming movies (this was the weekend Leigh Whannells Invisible Man came out) and concluded they couldn’t come up with a scary Mummy movie. But I got one. Remember in the first Frasier flick where he kills all the guys for their flesh and life after they took his organ jars? Well imagine a serial killer movie where it’s a fucking mummy. Make it gruesome, make it sad, and make it utterly tragic. Beyond that, yes The Mummy ‘99 is a masterpiece
@@FearHimself666 Imhotep was a scary af mummy, I’m sure there’s ways to do that again
excuse you what about the legendary 2005 masterpiece "Scooby-Doo! in Where's My Mummy?"?
@@BlueJaguarRangerMan that was a trip. Especially with the reveal of who the mummy was.
This isn't even a mummy movie. The poster was a complete lie and the trailers were edited in a way where you can't see Anubis well.
I would say the worst found footage film for me is Devil's Due, but this definitely would come close
Oh my god, I literally forgot all about this movie! I saw it in theatre and it was so incredibly boring, that I fell asleep and woke up 15 minutes later when my best friend accidentally hit me in the side with her elbow. I would've slept through the entire movie otherwise and honestly? That would've probably been for the better. Devil's Due was so bad, holy sh*t.
So I’m not alone in this. That’s reassuring.
I love how much credit Ryan can give to Rob Zombie's Halloween 1 and 2 of all movies, and yet, it's at The Pyramid where he completely gives up on being the Devil's advocate. Just the fact that he makes Cannibal Holocaust look like an artistic masterpiece by comparison says a lot about the quality of this movie.
21:10 I still can't believe this movie had the AUDACITY to try to recreate the iconic Alien 3 scene where the xenomorph doesn't kill Ripley but gives her a good sniff because it knows she has a new queen growing inside of her. I'm sorry bad CGI Anubis but you could never.
The ONLY Found Footage I'm mostly familiar with is The Blair Witch Project.
Heck, even Scooby-Doo & The Gang did their own parody of that film.
That is not a joke at all right now, that really happened 20+ Years Ago!!
Remind me how the whole gang we're sometime asshole to each other in that parody which for me make it better
@@zeroofachances5389 True
I remenber that on Cartoon Network. Loved it.
@@anubusx Same
This movie is like a guilty pleasure for my family I'm so happy you covered it
Tbh it’s a guilty pleasure for me too lol
My mom usually despises Found Footage movies (save for a *very* select few) so we rented this one for its premise because she loves Egyptian history/mythology and we were left with mixed feelings about it.
My mom got is for us to watch around when it came out and introduced me to it by saying “I’ve heard people say this movie is so bad the director should never be allowed to touch a camera again.” It was fun to pick apart with her
The thing that irks me most about this film is that it could have been really great.
The setting of an ancient Egyptian pyramid provides the perfect, claustrophobic environment (not unlike the french catacombs in “as above, so below”) and Egyptian mythology has a lot of interesting creatures they could have used to as a monster. Hell, since it is an ancient tomb, they could use conventional traps like spike walls and such to kill off a character or two. Sort of like a horror version of an Indiana Jones story.
It’s a shame that for every Taking of Deborah Logan and As Above So Below, there’s awful use of found footage like this. It’s a format I genuinely enjoy and nothing beats seeing it used to its strength.
It sucked but I am kind of an Egypt buff and I did get oddly excited to see Anubis, even though he looked like he was rendered on a toaster.
I just finished Archival 81 and they mixed found footage and traditional cinematography in such a great way! It was refreshing to watch someone not fuck it up. Much better than this.
I liked the jump scare at the end with the monster attacking the kid and the main character. I worked at a theater at the time and the theater was empty so I started checking to see if it needed go be cleaned still and I never jumped so high at a jump scare
I’m really loving this newer video style. It feels like a blend of Ryan’s older style combined with everything he’s learned over his years making videos
I remember seeing this with my friends YEARS AGO!!! we were literally the only ones in the theater and we clowned this movie from start to finish. Abysmal film, but damn it helped to make some hilarious memories
Just wanted to drop a line and say how much I appreciate your reviewing style. You find something thoughtful in what others might call a bad movie. Even a movie you utterly dislike - like this one - you still go out of your way to say 'Let's support the art.' I cannot watch horror for the most part and watching them through the eyes of someone who appreciates it, is wonderful. And the few horrors I saw (REC, 28 series), you analysed exceedingly well. I always look forward to your notifications and I hope you will review many found footage movies in the future.
Just wanna say that the Werewolf designs for Dog Soldiers are among my favorite werewolf presentations, so appreciate the shout-out.
That being said: I always hate it when movies paint Anubis as an evil entity. Set is, like, right there. Even looks similar in depictions. And Set is very much the villain in egyptian mythology.
Did they seriously use ANUBIS as a fucking villain and monster? Are you fucking kidding me? The god of the fucking afterlife just felt quirky and wanted to kill people? Are you fucking joking???? AND THEY MADE HIM BE TRAPPED??? Oh my god it's so obvious they didn't do any research about Egyptian mythology holy fucking shit
What did you expect?? It's the same dumbasses that turn every Hades in their movies into a villain just because he's the god of the underground. Even though even in Egypt most of the other gods are assholes 24/7.
A case of "everybody hates Hades" tropes.
the worst is that they could have replace that with Seth or apep, those two could have work way better.
stop demonizing my boy set. set doesnt deserve it.
That awful 2012 Chernobyl film was just as puzzling. It's shot like a found footage movie, it looks like a found footage movie, and it adheres to many of the same conventions of a found footage movie. But one thing. It's not a found footage movie. My guess is those filmmakers couldn't decide on what kind of movie they wanted to make, so they made both, and later decided to mute the camera operator in post.
Okay but Anubis being the antagonist was pretty fucking sick
It's Anubis, Ryan! A Nimbus is what Harry potter uses when he's late for work
What makes me so mad about this movie is the fact that I love how it's like an ancient Egyptian supernatural phenomenon. Like the concept is so good I was one of those kids that was just absolutely obsessed with egypt. I wanted to be an egyptologist so bad and I still am really interested in ancient Egypt and their history and culture. Curses being placed on those who disturb a mummies tomb go all the way back to ancient Egypt themselves when they were writing these curses to protect their bodies and funerary goods. And I'm also a huge fan of the horror genre. So I just really love the idea of taking the rich history of Ancient Egypt and making it horror. The concept is much more interesting than the vast majority of all horror movies and games in the west which are haunted house, demons, lovecraftian tentacle monster or man kills his family. Literally 99.9% of all movies and games in the western horror genre will fall into one of those four categories. So I was really hoping this would be better. That's what makes it so much worse for me. I had a lot of Hope for this I really wanted to like this movie and I'm upset that it wasn't as good as I was expecting
I call em sand movies, if they contain vast amounts of sand, I'm usually very interested.
@@tehkill3r lmao I'm going to start calling them that too! Yeah that whole region in the Middle East it's just absolutely fascinating. The ancient cultures and the history is just so full of interesting legends and religions and superstitions and concepts. I really wish Western media would make movies or shows about that versus recycling the same superhero franchises over and over and over again.
And I thought "The Devil Inside" was the worst found footage movies.
To my knowledge, it was immensely loathed when it came out.
Lmao, it wouldn't even be remembered had it not been for that cop-out of an ending. 😆
I remember when I wanted to see that, ah to be an ignorant teen.
Y'know, I just realized that this movie has the exact same problem as Disney's Hercules: They made the god of the dead/underworld the villain when the actual mythology depicts him as quite the opposite. Working with dead people does not automatically equal evil!
For me, I think "Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story" is the worst found footage movie I've seen. While most found footage movies have some type of justification for why it's found footage, whether it's good or bad, Always Watching just feels like someone went "Well the web series was found footage, so the movie needs to be as well!". Which makes sense until you watch it. There were so many scenes where it felt like there was absolutely no reason for the character to be filming at all other than he has to because otherwise the movie wouldn't exist. I wish it didn't exist.
Anubis isn't even a villainous God. He's a god that guides the dead to the underworld. Now if it was Set (God of Chaos) then that would make sense as he is a villainous god.
Let’s face it. Hollywood constantly makes it that Anubis is an evil God because he is more well known than the actual villainous gods like Set.
They do the same shit for Hades even tho Zeus is more of an asshole.
The Dad: Be responsible for your actions.
Random woman: *Shrieks in response*
Me: Excuse me?
I would love to see a full review of As Above So Below. It's not the best horror movie by any means but as @Ryan Kelly says a bit further down in the comments you just get sucked in. I remember staying incredibly silent the first time I watched it.
That's pretty much the same reaction you get when you say that to a woman at a protest on a university campus.
@@Firguy Ooh don't cut yourself on that edge. You're gonna need that hand on lonely nights.
@@Firguy username fits
throwing out a request for the found footage movie Yellowbrickroad. It was my favorite movie for a while....when I was 12. I've never met anyone who knew what it was or seen any video or post about it. I assume its very low budget, and probably not very good. But 12 year old me saw something in it, maybe you will too! or maybe its bad enough to be a fun little video
I tend to avoid “negative review videos”. Too often I find myself annoyed by them, even if it's about something that I also don't care for. However, you seem to approach the situation with enough good humor that I still enjoy the video. I just wanted to let you know I appreciate that.
We honestly haven't had much good mummy/Egypt horror in the modern day, so I guess this one failing stings a little more.
it's a shame because this flick actually has a pretty neat concept, people being trapped in a pyramid with either a mummy or in this case the egyptian god of mummification in a seriously bad mood, such a shame
I mean, I love Ancient Egyptian mythology and this premise sounds really interesting, but they should have used Apep or Amit as the monster, rather than Anubis.
@@Phoebe5448 Amit would definently have been awesome as well i completely agree, or if they really wanted to go with a true god from the pantheon Good ol, reliable god of chaos Set would have also have been a good choice
I'm an archaeologist. Can confirm 10:52 is the exact face we make when someone brings up aliens
12:00 "Frankenstein's Army" is my personal choice for "immediate abandonment of concept". It's a found footage movie about a Soviet patrol in WWII, and the first thing we see is the Russian main character, addressing his Russian commanders, speaking English.
It's honestly not the worst FF movie I've seen, but I've also never seen a movie shoot its entire premise in the foot within the first 10 seconds. It's kind of remarkable.
I really love Chronicle even though it eventually runs out of logical excuses to continue to be a found footage movie.
Same. Live action Akira!!!
You say you cant think of a good mummy film since "the mummy" but you are clearly forgetting the existence of bubba ho tep
HOLY SHIT. And here I am planned on actually covering that one!!
Would love to see you cover it, great wee film
The thing I hate about this movie (And many other modern found footage movies) is that they use insanely high budget movie cameras instead of using lower budget camcorders. It loses the feel of "Found footage", and with this movie, they obviously use the same camera for the found footage part and the cinematography part, god I hate how this movie is shot.
Outside of anything with "Mummy" in the title, one of the few other ancient Egyptian themed horror films that springs to mind would be "Manhattan Baby". The connection of course is obviously unmistakable.
The *BEST* found footage is IMO actually an episode of a TV-show called Psych, season 7 episode 3 "Lassie Jerky", they nail it from start to finish it's brilliant! I was genuinely shocked how amazing it was.
You should definitely watch it anyway you can get ahold of it.
Yes!
Ryan, please watch The McPherson Tape on Shudder. Its a found footage film that's so bad its funny. Theres literally a scene where they play go fish for 15 minutes just to extend the runtime of the movie where no important dialog or plot is pushed. Its just an uncut clip of them playing go fish... for 15 f'ing minutes... This movie is a gem compared to The McPherson Tape. You don't even need to make a video on it. Its just a movie you have to experience once in your life.
Oh no! Not Go Fish! Families have gone to war over it. That and Monopoly. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist that sounds extremely stupid)
That rover was absolutely an Amazon daily deal, and NASA was taking the piss out of them. That's the real horror.
Just the start of it is bad. You run a rover in because the air is toxic. But you loose it and are like, "well we gotta go get that rover out."
There are so many terrible found footage movies that I've wanted to see you cover.
Saw Jeruzalem a while back and didn’t hate it. They used Google glass as part of the recording plot, which I thought was going to be the worst thing ever. It was actually pretty effective, could have been worse. Great filming locations, too.
That was underrated. Also felt like Cloverfield + As Above So Below
Two things:
1. Anubis isn't a cat so why do film makers always make him look like one?
2. Anubis and Hades just can't catch a break, always made to be evil because they're associated with the underworld and or death.