DVD Review: Evidence

By Brad Henderson

Sometimes we stumble upon a film we think we are not going to like; maybe that is because of the director, an actor, writer, or even the theme or setting. You might end up loving the film anyway or even consider it a “guilty pleasure”. Recently the film Evidence was released from the director of The Fourth Kind, which I did not really care for, so I wasn’t really expecting to like it, let alone expecting it to keep my attention.

Let me start by saying this film isn’t great but it is entertaining to say the least. It does a new spin on found footage, which I enjoyed quite a bit (I’m a found footage aficionado) and the overall story is pretty decent as well. Basically it’s about a team called “The Unblinking Eye” (played by Radha Mitchell and Stephen Moyer) who step in to review footage of crimes seeking evidence that most wouldn’t see. Recently police have investigated a brutal crime at an abandoned gas station where a couple of video cameras were found at the scene. It is up to this team to find out what really happened while those cameras were on.

In addition, the film tells the story of three people who go on a trip to Las Vegas. On their way to Vegas the bus has to make a stop to pick up one more passenger. During the bus trip into the middle of nowhere, an accident turns the bus over and they are stranded at this abandoned gas station. Of course phones don’t work but at least they have their cameras! Yay! Long story short, people start getting killed off by a sadistic killer with a blowtorch (super cool by the way) and they run around like silly people getting offed. Boom.

So, we have the found footage segments but the movie also flips around to detectives and their team investigating what they are witnessing. The plot and what happens unfolds with the team, telling the audience what is happening. This is what I didn’t mind, that we jump back and forth with the found footage and the detectives. This gives us a break with the shaky-cam and screaming.

Don’t expect to see a great film but if you want to watch something fun in the found footage genre, I would recommend this. Yes, there are way better found footage films, but Evidence isn’t that bad.

Evidence was released on DVD by Image Entertainment on August 20.