Watch Me
Australia
Scopofile Production
This is one of the best films for sheer horror that I have seen
this year. It’s an independent production but has a really polished look to it
that defies its low-budget origins.
“Watch Me” is the title of an email attachment that is making the
rounds, but it has a couple of unusual features. While the attachment is a
revolting film clip of a snuff movie, it is not the attachment that is the
problem. The viewer will receive a visit from a ghostly redhaired
girl dressed in yellow who will kill them then sew
their eyes shut. The attachment then sends itself on to someone else from the
receiver’s contacts list.
Tess Hooper is a film student. She is helped by a fellow student,
a rather sleazy merchant of obscure porn and other films. He seems to know more
about Watch Me than he says and it turns out that he has seen the clip and
survived. He forces Tess to watch the clip and she
survives as well. Why? Why did the ghost leave her alone when so many others
are dying? Since the two appear to have nothing in common it is hard to see how
they can help each other but they both realise they must stop Watch Me somehow.
Neither remember that attachments can be sent in other
ways. Tess thinks she can stop the slaughter if she can break the chain by
stopping the attachment mailing itself to anyone else, but Watch Me has a mind
of its own..
Producer / directors Sam Voutas and
Melanie Ansley have come up with a brilliant piece of
work. I particularly liked the way that they didn’t make everything look dark
and gloomy, which seems to be a cliché in such films. I did find the modem
noises each time a computer dialled up to be rather old fashioned. Surely
students have caught up with broadband by now? That’s the only minor flaw I
noticed in the film – otherwise it’s solid tension and terror all the way
through.
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