The Last Broadcast (1998)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Highly Overrated But Still Good

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Obviously this is shot on really low quality cameras with very rudimentary special effects. The sound quality is poor at best with much wind noise and bass rumble on the microphones. Then again it is deliberate and perfectly fits the intended tone. This is probably the cleverest use of budget. There is no budget and they make a quite well crafted horror out of it. You get the feeling that they are really passionate about making films. There is some repetition as they struggled slightly to fill the time but overall it is interesting throughout. There are some really creepy moments that they could have taken further. I didn't like the third person ending; they could have kept it part of the documentary. It is inspirational for those wanting to make movies with a bit of substance with no money. Add some more thrills and this would have been much bigger. Obvious deliberate technical deficiencies are made up for by passion and suspense.

When you read the plot and/or see the DVD cover, this movie seems really attractive. Then wait until you watch it..The movie was released in 1998 and so the DVD cover proudly says "May have influenced Blair Witch... it certainly preceded it". I don't know when the production and the filming has started for this Last Broadcast, but The Blair Witch's production started in 1994 till 1997 when they started the filming. Then the Blair Witch was released in 1999. So the "preceded" thing is very relative.To come back to the Last Broadcast, all is cheap. Some parts are cosy indeed (the geeks, the clothes, the computers), but the film is more than slow and really goes nowhere, plus all effects are deeply amateurish. I was very disappointed.The Blair Witch Project is no genius work neither but it works! (at least the first time you watch it).Regards.

As a big fan of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, there was no way I could really avoid seeing this film. Touted as a precursor to that horror phenomenon, indeed the two films are similar in many ways and it's difficult to believe that the creators of the BWP didn't see this film before they began work on theirs. In terms of horror, BWP has the edge slightly, but THE LAST BROADCAST still manages to be extremely frightening during some key scenes.Instead of relying solely on recovered footage, this takes the form of a mock-documentary. All sorts of evidence is thrown in our faces - tape recordings, interviews with key players, newspaper articles, courtroom verdicts, and, of course, the key footage, making this a well-rounded and interesting film. Unfortunately, for the first hour, it's pretty slow-moving too, with the real horrors only beginning towards the end of the film. As a side note, clever use of the Internet as a factor in the incident is used.The low budget, amateurish feel is clear, yet this really does make the film feel like a cheapie documentary you might see on a cable channel. While we never get to sympathise with the characters as much as we did in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (none of them are particularly likable), the acting is all rather good considering that no famous names are involved and most people involved are, indeed, amateurs. Special mention should go to David Beard, who plays the maker of the documentary and acts as a narrator for the film's running length, as he is surprisingly good and surpasses first impressions.The film plays more like a murder mystery than a horror film for the first hour, but crime fans will enjoy the clues and twists that are included. When a crinkled reel of videotape is discovered, the horror really begins. We're subjected to some grainy, jumpy scenes heavily resembling key moments in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, which are just as frightening. One of the party disappears and the others go to look for him, eventually discovering a huge quantity of blood in the snow - this scene is actually terrifying. More creepiness ensues when reconstruction of a crucial frame is applied, which purports to show the killer's face. As the fuzzy features become clear, this is highly disturbing...And then the twist comes. It's completely unexpected, and confused/annoyed a lot of people. A problem with the ending is that events are suddenly played out in third person, whereas for the rest of the film they haven't been, and this ruins the atmosphere by taking the viewer out of the film entirely. While this aspect destroyed all credibility for me, the identity of the killer is actually well thought out, and when you think about it, you'll realise a number of clues have been shown in the film's running time. THE LAST BROADCAST is a curiosity that deserves looking into, and probably one of the most interesting and best horror films of 1998.

... a twist that apparently wasn't that popular.Yes, this is The Last Broadcast, a movie that's suffered the undignified fate of never being reviewed without someone mentioning "The Blair Witch Project", despite the fact that this was released over ten months earlier.In all essences it's a superior work, though a strangely uncompelling one. The concept of parodying the documentary format works well, and has much to say. Sadly, however, what it does say isn't always as interesting as it could be, the narrative pull lacking urgency.By the time we get to the twist - which is arguably satisfying, even if it eliminates the mystery and doesn't even make sense (who is filming those final long shots?) - then whatever compulsion the picture had has already dissipated. A very clever idea and decently made on the budget, but the execution fails to live up to the potential.