Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Michael Ledo A group of Australian kids test ghost summoning rituals they discover on the Internet. The one called "Beckoning the Butcher" seemed to have worked.The entire film is hand held camera. The story line wasn't good and the scenes were not scary. The acting wasn't too bad and in fact I thought heart throb Sophie Wright to be quite good. Unfortunately the film stank. This film is not related to Karl the Butcher, I think. Picture on cover is not in the film. DVD has no extra other than trailers.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity

moonmonday This is a really dull film. It's presented as a faux documentary, but the way it's assembled comes off as obviously fake and unconvincing, which makes it hard to suspend disbelief before even the opening credits.The main characters aren't particularly compelling or likable, and one has to wonder why anyone would take most of them along if all they're going to do is freak out at the slightest indication of weird happenings...after they've blithely engaged in a blood ritual! There's a sort of feeling about the whole affair that seems like they went down a checklist of things you do in found footage horror and added them, not because they made sense with the script, but because they were expected.It's especially odd when things happen like them finding a car they abandoned earlier because it didn't start and having a fit because...it didn't start. They were the ones that left it earlier! There are other leaps of illogic, like "we can't go to the main road, no cars will be on it at this time of night", so of course they don't go. But wouldn't it be a higher chance of cars being on it than a side road nobody knows about to an abandoned house? Couldn't you just wait a couple of hours until the road would be busier? Similarly, at one point they make a circle in salt on the floor and light a candle, saying they'll be safe as long as they stay in the circle. Almost immediately they hear a noise and all of them instantly leave the circle and abandon the candle, which they're shocked to find has gone out by the time they come back. You don't say! Added to this are things like characters just disappearing abruptly, but we don't really see it always happen clearly and it's just something we're supposed to assume after the fact. The incoherent ending was also pretty amazing in its confusion, and it was just an unsatisfying mess.The acting was pretty good for most of the cast, and the photography was also solid enough, even for a found footage film. The scares and effects were mostly pretty good, although some will stand out as ridiculous. There's a shot of something that looks like it was picked up on the cheap at a Spirit Halloween store, and it's very obvious; they don't cut the shot quick enough, so it's easy to notice.The scares start about ten to fifteen minutes from the end, which really is waiting too long. So much nothing happens. It would have been a better film at half its length, and it was barely over an hour. Its short running time makes it worth a watch if vaguely spooky found footage is your thing, but don't expect it to challenge the genre or your expectations, and expect to be disappointed by the ridiculous ending and some of the laughably inane captions the "documentary" provides.It can do some good, solid scares, but for whatever reason it only seems to have about three and they're all saved for the last few minutes. If only they could have sprinkled them throughout the rest of the film to keep it interesting!

Nigel P Found footage films, as a way of telling a story, has really taken off since 'The Blair Witch Project'. The approach has its fans and detractors, but to me remains an intriguing and legitimate way of telling a story. More than that, the approach invites us here to become the sixth member of a five-person group. We are invited into their mildly intimate thoughts by way of their ongoing filmed blogging (designed to be uploaded onto a website specialising in ghost-hunts), and we get to know them all in a way that wouldn't be as effective as if this were a straightforward film. That way, when the whispered legend of 'the Butcher' begin to come true and mildly spooky things start happening in the remote building in which they are staying, the scares make us jump too. We're even mildly irritated when Tara (Stephanie Mauro) is the only one to refuse to produce blood next to her signature when agreeing to take part in the project, although that has fatal repercussion later.Many of the successful elements of 'Blair Witch' are present in this Australian slow-burner (watches stopping, member of the group going missing, trying to escape but going round in circles etc). So while the boxes are ticked, there is no lessening of their impact – this is a successful formula, and 'Beckoning the Butcher' uses it very well. It doesn't reinvent the 'found footage' formula, but it utilises every successful element of the genre. And on a personal note, it works entirely – after watching this I've just tentatively visited every room in my apartment to make sure there is no-one there. Irrational? Embarrassing? Both, more than likely, but if a low-budget film like this can have that effect on a jaded old long-time horror-fan, then 'found footage' is medium that has secured a DIFFERENT way to scare.The five main cast members are good, natural performers. There's no element of 'putting on a show'. Only the physicist Shannon (Janet Watson-Kruse) threatens to dampen the illusion, and that's because she's been lumbered with fanciful eulogising dialogue about 'spiritual intervention' and 'time bubbles.' However, it is her words that come to mind when the group's collective time-pieces stop working. They are captured in perpetual night (3.am) that will not end until 'the Butcher' has had his way with them.'Beckoning the Butcher' is non-specific title, and the DVD cover, featuring the cast in a selection of horrified grimace, could almost suggest a comedy. Don't be fooled, this is no comedy; it is one of the best examples of its kind.

chrismackey1972 Five friends go to an out-of-the-way house to summon a ghost called The Butcher. Nobody thinks it's real, so they believe they'll have one or two days of just sitting back and trying not to laugh too hard as they conduct a ritual to summon the spirit. Unfortunately for them, the ghost turns out to be all too real. This is filmed through camcorders, as most of these found-footage films are, so don't expect anything out of the cinematography.I have to disagree with one of the other reviewers who said it's the best found footage film since The Blair Witch Project. It was interesting, but kinda boring until the entity finally showed up. First of all, it was only 69 minutes long. When you have 5 characters in such a short film, it's hard to build enough of an attachment for the audience to care about them. That's what happened here. Plus, it's not as though a group of people looking for a ghost by using dark magic hasn't happened before in a movie, so it wasn't very original. And then the clichés of no cellphone service and the car not working happened. There were a few scenes of special effects, but it wasn't over-used, so I think they got that about right.I gave this a 5-star rating, because the acting was pretty good, and the people conveyed a real sense of fear. However, I've seen better found-footage films. Still, it was entertaining enough for what it was. I'm glad it wasn't longer, because I couldn't take much more of the screaming and the jerky camera footage from the running. If you're a found-footage fan, I recommend this. However, if you have limited time to put into movies, I'd advice you keep looking.