The secrets of Area 51 are pretty lame

Area 51 (2015 film)

Cast: Reid Warner, Darrin Bragg, Ben Rovner, Jelena Nik

Director: Oren Peli

Genre: Found footage, science fiction, horror

Release Date: May 15th, 2015

When someone says the words ‘Area 51’, you only think of one thing; aliens. That Area 51 is the home to extraterrestrial life and the US Government is housing an alien spacecraft. Well, you'll get all of that in this film but will end up being extremely annoyed with the result.

Area 51 has been in development hell since 2009. The film had gone through many reshoots during its production for unknown reasons. It was finally released slated for release in May of 2015. After hearing that Oren Peli was directing and writing this film, I had high hopes. I enjoyed Paranormal Activity as it was one of the better horror of the recent decade.

Reid(Reid Warner), the ring leader of the UFO obsessed group, convinces his best friends Darren(Darrin Bragg), and Ben(Ben Rovner), to join him on the journey to the notorious base. They meet up with Jelena(Jelena Nik), whose father just happened to work at Area 51 but was killed because he asked ‘too many questions’. The group has been planning this adventure for 3 months. In order to ensure they will get into the base, they along a ton of high tech gear, such as thermal suits and a signal jammer. Along with the gear, each of them take high levels of ammonia pills to ensure they won’t be detection while sneaking into the base.

Sadly, more than half of the movie is directed to the preparation of getting into Area 51. The group only spends about the last 25-30 minutes in the base itself. It doesn't help that the film is only 90 minutes long, so none of the scares happen until later on.

I understand that this is a found footage film but the camera work was very disturbing. You could never tell what is going on when the movie finally gets us inside Area 51. Every time something creepy happens, the camera immediately shakes, so you never get a clear image of what the hell is going on.

With horror films, we usually get to see the villain or the one terrorizing the group. Well, Area 51 doesn’t do any of that. All we get is little glimpses of shadows running by the camera, and that's it, which is very frustrating. Being a movie set in Area 51, we want to be able to see whatever is chasing the group. Just a little 3-4 second scene would be perfect for this film.

Once you finish the movie, you'll be like, ‘that’s it? that’s the ending?’. The ending makes you feel like you just wasted 90 minutes of your life. Nothing special, nothing interesting, it just ends with no closure whatsoever.

Area 51 doesn't bring anything new or improved to the table. It’s just another horror film that didn't work. The movie wasn't scary enough and never had any suspenseful moments until about an hour in. I was never on the edge of my seat to see what happens next as I could simply guess what was going to happen next. Yes it does leave an open mind about what could possibly be inside Area 51, but if you are looking to be disappointed, watch this film.

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