Hate Crime (2012, James Cullen Bressack)

It's hard for me, at this point, to be thoroughly even-handed when dealing with the exasperatingly homogeneous 'found footage' genre. I wouldn't say that I'm one of those people that has a comprehensive dislike for this style of horror film-making - I just feel that it's been heavily reduced to a medium in which indie 'up-and-comers' can simply discard 'traditional' (for lack of a better term) movie-making components and, above all, STYLE, and just sorta... wing it. I don't typically see a lot of artistry and 'character' within the 'found footage' mark since I can't help but feel that it has run it's course. That's not to say I can't find this type of thing enjoyable from time to time... It's just getting harder for me...

James Cullen Bressack's "Hate Crime" details the home-invasion of a Jewish family by a trio of masked neo-Nazi's who wish to "welcome" their new neighbors. It kicks off with the dad recording his kid's birthday party on their home camcorder when they are suddenly ravaged by the bigoted maniacs. The film follows the torture and ruthless torment the family endures throughout the course of the night as the camera captures it all.

My main gripe with "Hate Crime" is a complaint I have with a lot of 'found footage' films and that would be that more of them should apply a mixture of POV and 'conventional' film-making elements. This, of course, isn't specific to HC, but with many of these kinds of flicks, it stops making sense WHY we're seeing what we're seeing. The first 3-5 minutes of HC bothered me for the fact that the dad positions the camera with he and his wife PERFECTLY in frame while they quietly bicker in the kitchen. Why would he want the birthday celebration home-video broken up with marital squabbling? And when the Aryan Brotherhood goons come barging in, the dad takes off running - camera still in tow. Break it over the fucker's head, dude! This is followed by a lengthy scene in the basement where the family is tied up, raped, FORCED to rape and brutalized while the aggressors now record their tomfoolery. This actually made more sense up until a point - kinda like the "August Underground" films (of which this reminded me a LOT of) where the killer's are the ones who actually bring the camera into the situation out of a general love of documenting their heinous crimes. Still, there came a certain point where I felt that even these vicious hate crime thugs would abandon the whole video-recording thing, but... eh...

On the plus-side, the performances are mostly strong. The big body-builder guy (named "Three" - all of the bad guys code-named themselves 1, 2 and 3) was good as the real unpredictable SICKO of the group, even as he was occasionally over-the-top.

So, like I said, "Hate Crime" reminded me a lot of the much more violent and disgusting "August Underground" series as well as the awesome Spanish film "Kidnapped". I don't think the POV shit really worked with this film. However, I know there are people out there that really dig brutal 'faux-snuff' themed films who would probably like to check this out.
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