Nadir

Where did THIS come from??!?! Best cinematography for me, hands down! The texture, the rich colours, the smoke and light beams!!!! SOOO FUCKIN GOOOOOD!!!! Such a crazy concept, and done SO WELL!!! So many POV/Found Footage movies looked UGLY this year, but this was stunning! And the final shot of the movie?! what a VISION!!! crazy work team!

Big fan of this one.
Very creative use of the found footage genre.
Loved the atmosphere and vibe overall.
Technically it's very well put together. Great sound and lighting.
I do think it could have been a little shorter, but overall a very well made horror.
Hope if dose well in the competition.

Always Love these forays into a very scary place! Yikes what is in their heads!?
Awesome work, go far!

This is so good! 👏 Reminded me of creepy pasta vibes. I really liked the set design! The bells around the 'thing' is so cool. Kai pai 💐🎊

What I liked:
Smart not to really show this creature “in the box,” and overall this has a great horror vibe to it. Certainly some inspiration from “It Follows”, “Don’t Fall Asleep” and “Elm Street,” of course. The final shot is very cinematic, and there’s full commitment from the actor here. It’s very dark, but it does look good, and the different camera looks are well executed.

Take it or leave it:
Camera set-up – get it, and he’s holding one (a phone?). Is there a third set-up in the room, as we get a very convenient static shot too? My big pondering is who edited this together? And why? And the edit itself is too clean, really, not raw enough for found footage, and how that footage is actually found is never explained. With this genre, that is always my first question. The final scene in the hospital – I get the security camera footage, but who is filming the rest, as it looks like an actual film by that point? And why did this become part of the rest of the film? Who did that?! I don’t think you can really argue it’s POV at that point either. I just find all of that confusing, and it pulls me out of the film. The dialogue in the first scene just starts to get a bit repetitive, and so as mentioned above it starts to drag somewhat. Certainly, it could have been shorter.

Final hot air:
One of the better looking found footage films this year in CHCH and a really committed shoot. Just too many questions around the why and how of the footage for me. Great work getting on the shortlist though.

A mysterious box, seen only by those with exhaustion behind the eyes, opens and unleashes something incomprehensible.

What a fantastic way to tackle found footage! Utterly creepy, and the fact we never see the monster or the box itself leaves SO much to the imagination, in the best possible way. Monsters in the dark that are never revealed to the audience always feel SO much creepier than anything seen, it’s clear you all have gone into this shoot with such intentionality, and it’s all the better for it! Your lead actor’s performance got better throughout the film, and my god he sold that sleep deprived paranoia well! And that final scene in the hospital afterwards - holy hell the final reveal’s makeup, costume and performance is horrifying!

My only note would be, as noted by other reviewers here, that the end hospital scene largely departs from the found footage genre. I mean you really showed off your cinematic chops in this final moment, it was beautiful, haunting footage! However, that departure may hurt your chances getting further in the comp (judges have been sticklers for genre in the past), but in saying that - you guys wanted to put that together, and creatively it landed in every sense!

Overall, an absolute creeper of a film that is worthy of its place on the shortlist! Well done!

This was a film that we had the utmost confidence could either be a real contender for the top spot, or completely lost in the eyes of the judges - alas, the latter appeared to be the case. As the scores started to come in, and the comments were fairly consistent, we were pretty gutted for you guys. This is one of a couple of shortlisted teams this year that unfortunately fell victim to the impressive technical aspect not being enough for the judges to give it a higher score.

One comment from a judge that we wanted to say up top - the final of shot of this film is probably the best looking/crafted single shot of the competition this year. If we were able to give you some sort of public recognition of that beyond this review, we absolutely would do so. Beyond that, there was also unison in the consistent style and film making craft on display being very strong. The production work was awesome, the performance from your lead victm was great, particularly because they had to work hard to pull a lot of energy and emotion out of quite a thin foundation of lore and world building. The sound design was great and the atmosphere you built was very tense.

*I Heard A Rumour* that you had almost $10k worth of camera gear at your disposal for the weekend? Man, I can only imagine that getting handed this genre probably felt like a bit of a slap in the face - how does one exersice their teams strength when the requirement from them is very anti the teams strength? Alas, you find yourself in an interesting blend between Pie Face and Eleven Monkeys entries of 2025 - facing the uphill battle of the found footage genre when your team was ready for a cinematic masterpiece, and creating a film in the end that was firing on all cylinders technically, but falling short in both genre and plot, and so sadly, getting left behind.

We were worried that the judges wouldn't buy into the way you used genre, and other than a few that thought it was a good attempt, most felt it was not an authentic use of it. The shaky cam was justified, the other cameras in the room, not so much. The hospital camera makes sense, but to brake from format in the final moments of the film switched a lot of the judges off - despite the cinematography being outstanding. This issue, combined with so many unanwnsered questions from the story, meant this film just didn't land.

THE BEST THING: The film making craft going on in this team is top tier, undoubtly one of the strongest teams on a technical level this year

THE NEXT THING: Come back next year, pray to god almighty you don't land a genre that prevents you from having to limit your technical prowess, and absolutely blow us away with a solid story that takes us on a journey, and is true to the genre. Please come back next year and knock it out of the park! I believe in you!