DVD Review: The Paranormal Diaries: Clophill

By Brad Henderson

Man, I hope I’m not getting burnt out on found footage films. I can’t seem to find any that are halfway decent these days. Every week I’m faced with one and I just sit there wondering why the hell it feels like I’m watching the same thing over and over again. It seems out of 20 films I see I might find one that’s decent but those aren’t good odds. I’m actually not kidding when I say 20; I’ve watched about 20 found footage films this past month and only found one that I actually liked. The Paranormal Diaries: Clophill is not one of those films.

The Paranormal Diaries: Clophill was neither interesting nor eventful in any way. Usually these films have a great premise but poor execution or a OK premise with a ghost or monster that shows up at the very end. The Paranormal Diaries: Clophill has none of these things. Its half found footage and half psuedo-documentary on a group of witches from back in the day. Even the “scary” stuff in the film is a complete bore because you can’t make out what you are seeing and it replays and outlines the figures like those “Ghost Captured” videos on YouTube.

You know those boring docs on YouTube made by some person who just really likes the subject, be it ghosts or aliens? This film is like that. The directors have not had a good run in the past with their zombie films The Zombie Diaries 1 & 2. I wasn’t that impressed but they had potential even though it felt like something was missing. Now know what it was: they simply failed to portray the eerie qualities of the story.

I’m not going to rag on this film too much. It wasn’t my type of found footage film and I’m pretty easy to please when it comes to this method of storytelling. It seems that people are just making a quick flick for a quick buck.

The Paranormal Diaries: Clophill was released on September 30 by Image Entertainment.