Skip to main content

The KAOS Brief (2017) / The Demonic Tapes (2007)




First up on Tubi, I watched this 2017 found footage sci-fi horror about 4 teens who go camping and encounter strange happenings.










The movie begins with a transmission from a mysterious organization called KAOS (they’re supposed to be like Anonymous), with a guy in a mask telling the viewer that the following broadcast is footage that they stole by hacking and are playing it to the world to let the truth be known. The footage shows Skylar, a web vlogger who frequently uploads videos to his channel called SKYLARTV. He brings his camera and a drone with him to document his camping trip with his boyfriend Corey, Skylar’s twin sister Dakota, and her boyfriend Tren. At first he just captures silly shenanigans of them laughing, setting up camp, going to the lake, etc. Then one night, Tren notices something strange and wakes the others to show them. They notice some strange lights in the sky, which Skylar records and uploads to his channel. The next morning, they awake to find a bunch of rocks piled on top of each other in an odd formation. They dismiss it as probably being the work of someone pranking them, and soon head home, thinking nothing of it. Skylar and Dakota’s parents are away on vacation, so the 4 spend the next few days hanging out. Soon enough, several strange things begin to happen, including a mysterious black car that is parked outside the house and is watching them, and finding their garbage cans piled up on top of each other like the rocks at the camp. Skylar installs a bunch of security cameras around the house to try and document the strange occurrences going on.











The movie is pretty cheesy for the most part. The transmission at the beginning from the KAOS organization is particularly laughable, oozing with amateur energy. The four leads do their best, but they’re clearly not professional actors, so the performances range from so-so to cringe, especially during the more dramatic moments. Despite a decent attempt at something creepy and mysterious, it comes off as a homemade movie made by a group of friends. The filmmaker throws in all the predictable tropes you would expect from an alien encounter flick, including the men in black, strange orb lights, alien implants, lost time, conspiracy theories, a mysterious video from Skylar and Dakota’s childhood, and even the name Indrid Cold (the mysterious entity from the Mothman Prophecies). It’s not a particular great movie, but it’s definitely not the worst I’ve seen. Check it out if you're in the mood for some UFO related silliness.











The 2nd movie I watched was this 2007 London produced horror about a guy who finds some creepy tapes in his basement.





The main character is staying at a home for the Christmas holiday. While unpacking and cleaning, he hears strange noises coming from the basement. He find an old tape recorder playing in a box with some tapes. They appear to have belonged to the previous owner of the place. He begins to listen to them as he sets up his Christmas tree and unpacks. They appear to document a medium who is investigating ghostly activity. When he looks up her name online, he finds that she had died under mysterious circumstances. As he continues to listen to the tapes, he starts getting plagued by strange dreams and visions.












The movie is mostly a one man show, with the main character being the only one who appears on screen for most of its runtime, save for the voice on the tape, and the sister of the medium who appears briefly. There are some creepy moments, and the desolate location and winter setting help to set the eerie mood. That being said, it does tend to drag at times, and could have better developed the main character, as he’s not all that interesting. Still, it does a decent job of creating some dread. It’s not the best movie, but for a low budget film, it wasn’t too bad. If you prefer slow burn films, you may enjoy this one. I watched it on YouTube, on a channel called Mansfield Dark Horror.








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Help Me… I’m Possessed (1974) / #Missingcouple (2024)

I've watched some weird, obscure horror movies throughout my life. I can now add this lurid 1974 schlockfest to that growing list. In a castle in the desert, Dr. Arthur Blackwood runs a sanitarium filled with mentally disturbed patients (as well as staff). He claims to be working on finding a way to cure people of any violent tendencies they have, and brags about his younger sister, innocent, child-like Melanie, as evidence that his treatment works. When she was a child, their parents had to keep her locked up and chained in the basement, to control her violent fits. Now that he's cured her, Arthur has his wife Diane come to the castle to meet Melanie, so that they can be one big, happy family. Diane begins to grow suspicious that something is amiss after a Sheriff shows up investigating the murder of 2 local teens, and sets about on her own investigation, hoping to uncover the sinister secrets that she feels her husband is hiding. Help Me... I'm Possessed is an outrageous,...
Post a Comment
Read more

RicSan Custom Toys Kyōrū Kaiju (Titanosaurus)

My latest kaiju figure purchase is the Titanosaurus made by Ricsan Custom Toys. I own and love the Varan & Gabara, so of course I had to preorder this one when it was available. He was delivered earlier this week. This kaiju hails from the last Godzilla film of the Showa era, 1975's Terror of Mechagodzilla. The Black Hole aliens are back, rebuilding their robot in another effort to take over the planet. They enlist the help of an ostracized Earth scientist named Mafune and his daughter Katsura, who are able to control an aquatic dinosaur named Titanosaurus. They plan to use both kaiju and mecha to attack Japan. Titano was a cool monster, with his tail that opened into a fish fin, and he would use it to create whirlpools in the sea, and high winds on land. I'm hoping that S.H. Monsterarts makes one for the 50th anniversary of the film, but when I saw this Ricsan Custom version, I couldn't pass it up. Titanosaurus (called the Kyōrū Kaiju), comes in a white box, with its n...
Post a Comment
Read more

S.H. MonsterArts Anguirus 1972

One of my most anticipated figure releases of 2025 was finally delivered this last week. Godzilla's trusty sidekick, S. H. MonsterArts Anguirus (based on the 1972 suit). From the early video and photo reviews I had seen, he looked to have turned out a great figure. Now that I have him in hand, he absolutely is! This Ankylosaurus is based on the suit that was introduced in 1968's Destroy All Monsters, and made subsequent appearances in Godzilla vs. Gigan (72), Godzilla vs. Megalon (73), and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (74). Anguirus was the 2nd Toho monster to ever appear on screen, dueling with the big G in 1955's Godzilla Raids Again. For the later films, he became Godzilla's buddy, helping him out in his various battles. I'm a bit surprised that it took Bandai this long to release Anguirus in the MonsterArts line, as he's one of the more popular kaiju, but better late than never. He's painted in a chocolate brown, with pale yellow on his various spikes, hor...
Post a Comment
Read more