KEEP WATCHING (2017)

Studio:       Screen Gems
Director:    Sean Carter
Writer:       Joseph Dembner
Producer:  Alex Heineman, Andrew Rona, Nicolas Chartier, Craig J. Flores
Stars:     Bella Thorne, Natalie Martinez, Chandler Riggs, Leigh Whannell, Ioan Gruffudd, James Connor, Maya Eshet, Matthew Willig, Jared Abrahamson

Review Score:

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Summary:

Masked intruders trap and torment a family in their home while broadcasting the entire ordeal through dozens of hidden cameras.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

A news broadcast reports on the murders of two families in their homes, which authorities believe are connected. Police theorize that the unidentified killers are playing a game by hiding cameras in victims’ houses and live-streaming their ordeals to online viewers. The reporter mentions that Marissa Vazquez, whose family was among those killed, is still missing.

While her family is on a 10-day vacation, masked murderers plant numerous hidden cameras in and around the home of teenager Jamie Miller, her stepmother Olivia, her father Adam, and her younger brother DJ. The killers begin a delayed broadcast from the camera feeds once the family returns. The broadcast also includes previously shot surveillance footage of Jamie, who continues struggling with the death of her mother.

DJ finds a lighter wrapped with a bow while taking out the trash. Having been kicked out by his wife, Adam’s brother Matt comes to spend the night. Jamie discovers she is pregnant.

While outside alone, Matt becomes distracted by strange sounds, an ‘X’ on the ground, and a camera drone. A masked killer attacks Matt from behind.

Masked men sneak into the house while everyone sleeps. They then put gates over doors and windows to trap the family inside.

Adam investigates the commotion downstairs. One of the killers suffocates Adam with a plastic bag before slitting his throat.

Terrified, Olivia barricades herself in a bedroom with Jamie and DJ. A nearby TV suddenly turns on. Voyeur videos taken at Jamie’s school and at a private therapy session reveal Jamie’s dislike of Olivia, sowing dissension among the trio.

Olivia, Jamie, and DJ eventually exit the room. They discover a taser wrapped in a bow along with the message “kill or be killed” written in Adam’s blood. DJ theorizes that the intruders want them to fight back.

A masked man briefly grabs Jamie before chasing her and the other two into the basement. In the cellar, Jamie finds a knife with a bow stabbed through her mother’s old running jersey. Police seemingly arrive outside, but the sounds turn out to be from a recording.

Jamie’s boyfriend Josh Canfield arrives at the house. One of the killers murders Josh before he can open the cellar doors.

Olivia finds another way out of the cellar and goes for help while Jamie stays behind with DJ. Olivia spots a key with a bow on it in front of a locked gate. While unlocking the gate, a masked killer attacks. Having recovered from being attacked earlier, Matt holds off the assailant. Although Matt dies, Olivia manages to unlock the gate and flee on foot. However, more masked men in a van recapture Olivia on the street.

One of the intruders attacks Jamie in the basement. Jamie tases and kills her attacker. Jamie then removes the mask from the dead intruder, who is revealed to be Marissa Vazquez.

Jamie goes back upstairs with DJ. Jamie finds one of the rooms staged according to a recurring dream she told to her therapist about her dead mother. Jamie pulls back a sheet draped over a body to find Olivia dead. The killers continue tormenting Jamie with baby sounds, her positive pregnancy test, and home movies of her birth.

The remaining masked man in the house forces Jamie and DJ to flee to another room. There, he nails a mask to the mantle and places a bow on it. Jamie answers a ringing telephone. The voice on the other end tells her that they are torturing her family because it is fun for the people watching. The voice adds that the only way for Jamie to survive is to become the darkness inside her.

Jamie dons the mask, arms herself with the knife, and attacks the remaining intruder. DJ douses the killer in gasoline, which was already being sprayed all over the living room. Following a fight between all three of them, Jamie lights the killer on fire. Jamie and DJ escape the house as it goes up in flames.

Once they make it to the street, more masked men abduct Jamie and DJ in a van. A video showing Marissa Vazquez explains that victims are being forcibly recruited to kill or be killed. As part of the ongoing game, Jamie is given an ultimatum to murder the next targeted family in order to spare her brother’s life.

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Review:

The movie doesn’t have the same handheld shakiness or excessive night vision commonly seen in haunted asylum or cursed woods investigations, but home invasion thriller “Keep Watching” essentially uses a “found footage” frame.  Although it may not look like a typical “found footage” film, never fear.  The fetid flick still recycles plenty of boring beats to be a derivatively disposable horror movie all the same.

Authorities are baffled.  Masked murderers have been infiltrating suburban homes, planting numerous hidden cameras, and live-streaming the torture of innocent families to entertain online audiences who don’t know what they are watching is real.

The killers’ latest target is the family of teenager Jamie Miller.  Before tonight, Jamie’s biggest problems involved an unplanned pregnancy, a disliked new stepmom, and ongoing trauma stemming from the death of her mother.  Now, Jamie and her family must contend with true terror when unknown intruders turn their home into a prison before it becomes a slaughterhouse.

Slight cinematic flair supersedes believability in this simple and simply absurd setup.  Countless cameras are placed in preposterous positions such as behind a microwave’s button panel, beneath a sink drain, on a rotating spice rack, inside an LED alarm clock display, or on a ceiling fan blade.  These aren’t places killers would consider for maximum voyeurism.  These are places a director and cinematographer choose to make visually interesting camera angles.

One exterior camera perfectly positions three trashcans in the foreground for when Chandler Riggs takes out the garbage.  Another attaches itself to a flipping foosball figure for a 10-second game between Riggs and Leigh Whannell.  What kind of serial murderers preplan for this possibility?

A majority of discomfort induced comes from vague inappropriateness as opposed to actual horror.  I’m sure some viewers may enjoy the tease of watching Bella Thorne undress for a bath through a spycam.  Keep in mind Thorne was turning 16 when “Keep Watching” began filming as “Home Invasion” way back in 2013.  Suddenly such a scene only seems provocative if you’re a Subway pitchman.

Almost as uncomfortable: the film’s odd obsession with Natalie Martinez playing a woman lusted after by both her brother-in-law and preteen stepson.  As her husband’s brother, Leigh Whannell remarks, “you’re too hot for this guy!” in reference to his sibling.  As her stepson, Chandler Riggs snaps a picture of Martinez bending over and captions it “my stepmom’s hot!” on social media.  “Keep Watching” feels skeezy, not scary.

Then again, feeling anything at all may be preferable to the nothing felt while watching the rest of the movie.  So much of the first act features irrelevant fluff.  Dad owes some sort of debt to a mystery man.  Dad’s brother was just kicked out by his wife (how timely that he arrives on the same night multiple murders are planned for broadcast).  Jamie doesn’t know how to tell her boyfriend about her pregnancy.  None of these details ever matter.  They are merely noise meant to pad exposition before the home invasion finally happens.

When it does happen, action initially limits itself to the usual unknown intruder shenanigans.  Items like a phone charger mysteriously go missing, causing Jamie to blame her brother.  Other antics inspire similar discord among family members.

The underlying concept isn’t awful, even though home invasion scenarios are almost as overused in horror as “found footage.”  However, the conceit never fulfills its job of creating an immersive illusion like it is supposed to.  “Keep Watching” feels staged from the start.

Situational character exchanges are functionally useless.  After witnessing a masked intruder suffocating one of their own with a plastic bag, three family members race upstairs to barricade themselves in a bedroom.  With only a few seconds having elapsed, and the sound of approaching footsteps coming from the staircase, one of them whispers, “is it okay?”  Other dumb dialogue gems include evergreen staples such as “who are you,” “why are you doing this,” and “leave us alone!”

“Keep Watching” provides further proof that with the exceptions of Maury/Bustillo joints, which are in unusual circumstances of their own, nearly nothing good ever comes when a finished film sits for four years before a wide release.  After “Amityville: The Awakening” (review here) and now this, Bella Thorne needs just one more long-delayed dud to dethrone Mischa Barton as the queen of forgettable thrillers dumped to home video.

“Keep Watching” has a premise, but no real plot.  The difference between the two is that the latter includes a story, and “Keep Watching” does not.  The movie’s scant substance makes me retroactively appreciate Adam Mason’s “Hangman” (review here), a “found footage” film featuring a similar concept, as the more effective effort.  Though if one really wants “found footage” frights from a home-invading serial killer, seek out “The Poughkeepsie Tapes” instead (review here).

Review Score:  25

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