Review of Mockingbird (2014) by Frank H — 28 Nov 2014

Mockingbird is a 2014 found footage horror thriller film co-written, produced, and directed by Bryan Bertino, co-written by Sam Esmail, produced by Jason Blum, and starring Audrey Marie Anderson, Todd Stashwick, Natalie Alyn Lind, Emily Alyn Lind, Alyvia Alyn Lind, Benjamin Stockham, Lee Garlington, Spencer List, Alexandra Lydon, Isabella Murad, Barak Hardley, Colby French, and Kai Caster.

Upon finding a video camera on his doorstep, father and husband Tom (Todd Stashwick) begins filming his family, under the impression that the camera is part of an entry to a competition his wife signed up for. A lonely college girl (Alexandra Lydon) has also found a similar camera, giving her something to do other than having late night conversations with her mother on the phone. The third and final camera is in the hands of a social misfit (Barak Hardley) who lives with his mother, and is convinced he'll win ten thousand dollars from the competition. They must keep recording or else people will die.

And thus we reach the final chapter of my Thanksgiving weekend quintet of reviews. In case y'all haven't been checking up on this, the four films I previously reviewed were Mercy, Stretch, The Town that Dreaded Sundown, and Not Safe for Work, all four of which I enjoyed. Unfortunately, with Mockingbird, the quintet ends on a rather unsatisfying note.

Now, the film's concept is actually very good. Keep the cameras rolling or someone dies. What I like about this idea is that it actually gives a reason why the characters don't put the camera down and stop recording. It's very interesting idea for a found footage horror film. Also, there are a few creepy and suspenseful moments here and there. Sadly, the execution of the concept is rather weak. I blame writer/director Bryan Bertino, who had impressed me before with The Strangers. Mockingbird, unfortunately, was his long-awaited follow-up, and sad to say, it was disappointing.

The characters are horrendously typical and quite boring, and for an 82-minute-long film, it goes by at a slow pace. Universal did very little to promote this film, and there's a good reason why. While there are some decent moments of creepy suspense, Bryan Bertino's poorly-penned screenplay unfortunately relies on several found footage tropes. In a way, this feels like a deleted sketch from one of the V/H/S movies, except low in quality, and beyond bloated.

Mockingbird starts off promisingly, and even the ending shocked the shit out of me (it's actually pretty ungodly fucking stupid, but hey, it did shock me, so there's that), but most of what happens in-between is nothing more, nothing less than boring filler, the one exception being Barak Hardley's character, an overzealous misfit who lives with his mom and wears clown make-up. This character was actually interesting, unlike the others.

FINAL SCORE: 4/10.

Honestly, I can't really say any more because Mockingbird was just so forgettable and boring. The characters are dull, the ending is stupid (although shocking), the pacing is slow, the writing is below-average, and the story is nonsense, plus it poorly executed such a great concept. Barak Hardley's character was very intriguing, and there are some decent moments of creepy suspense, but overall, I don?t recommend Mockingbird. I hope Bryan Bertino's upcoming There Are Monsters makes up for this mess.