The Last Broadcast (1998)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

As a big fan of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, there was no way I could really avoid seeing this film. Touted as a precursor to that horror phenomenon, indeed the two films are similar in many ways and it's difficult to believe that the creators of the BWP didn't see this film before they began work on theirs. In terms of horror, BWP has the edge slightly, but THE LAST BROADCAST still manages to be extremely frightening during some key scenes.Instead of relying solely on recovered footage, this takes the form of a mock-documentary. All sorts of evidence is thrown in our faces - tape recordings, interviews with key players, newspaper articles, courtroom verdicts, and, of course, the key footage, making this a well-rounded and interesting film. Unfortunately, for the first hour, it's pretty slow-moving too, with the real horrors only beginning towards the end of the film. As a side note, clever use of the Internet as a factor in the incident is used.The low budget, amateurish feel is clear, yet this really does make the film feel like a cheapie documentary you might see on a cable channel. While we never get to sympathise with the characters as much as we did in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (none of them are particularly likable), the acting is all rather good considering that no famous names are involved and most people involved are, indeed, amateurs. Special mention should go to David Beard, who plays the maker of the documentary and acts as a narrator for the film's running length, as he is surprisingly good and surpasses first impressions.The film plays more like a murder mystery than a horror film for the first hour, but crime fans will enjoy the clues and twists that are included. When a crinkled reel of videotape is discovered, the horror really begins. We're subjected to some grainy, jumpy scenes heavily resembling key moments in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, which are just as frightening. One of the party disappears and the others go to look for him, eventually discovering a huge quantity of blood in the snow - this scene is actually terrifying. More creepiness ensues when reconstruction of a crucial frame is applied, which purports to show the killer's face. As the fuzzy features become clear, this is highly disturbing...And then the twist comes. It's completely unexpected, and confused/annoyed a lot of people. A problem with the ending is that events are suddenly played out in third person, whereas for the rest of the film they haven't been, and this ruins the atmosphere by taking the viewer out of the film entirely. While this aspect destroyed all credibility for me, the identity of the killer is actually well thought out, and when you think about it, you'll realise a number of clues have been shown in the film's running time. THE LAST BROADCAST is a curiosity that deserves looking into, and probably one of the most interesting and best horror films of 1998.

This is probably one of the worst movies I ever saw in my life. And let me tell you that I saw thousands of movies, really bad ones as well, but this one must be in the bottom. First of all I don't get why it is listed in the horror category. It's not horror at all. In fact there is no category yet for this kind of movies. They should make a category "Movies that nobody should ever watch because they are awful". I guess the producers with their 900 dollars budget are big fans of series like "Unsolved mysteries" or so and they wanted to make a movie about it. Well Unsolved mysteries is pretty low quality but it's about real crimes so it is still watchable. But The Last Broadcast is fiction, with an incredible boring story, incredible lousy filming and editing, incredible mediocre actors. There is absolutely nothing good about this movie. Nothing! Give me a camera and I make you a better movie with my eyes closed. And people that give this movie a higher rating then 2 stars should be banned forever on IMDb. They are falsifying the ratings. They obviously were in the team or at least knew somebody that was involved in the making of this garbage.

I love the camcorder style of filmaking. Blair Witch, cloverfield, quarantine, diary of the dead, and paranormal activity are all scary and entertaining. So what's wrong with one of the first to tackle this style of filmaking, why didn't I like it? Well, the main reason was that it was pretty boring, it was like solving a puzzle, but without the satisfaction of figuring it out. The characters are pretty bland, I can't even remember their names. Really all I remember is some dudes go looking for the jersey devil, they die, and the only survivor is convicted of the crime.ON a posotive note, it has a great twist ending. The killer, is something you will never believe. But it leads to it becoming third person. In the end, it isn't horrible, but I don't recommend it.

The film opens with a filmmaker who have to sit through a bunch of more or less destroyed videotapes of the last night of the makers of a TV-show with absurd themes like "we will follow a serial killer through the night". Of course that will be their last night. But who is the murderer? Made (most of the running time) clearly on videotape - this is without any doubt the inspiration for the much more hyped "Blairwith Proshit", ahem, "Blairwitch Project", but is far, very, very far more clever made. The first 60 minutes are a genius made (and intentionally "bad" filmed) psycho thriller, the rest is the "snuff movie" you really never want to see. One of the few really surprises in the cinema of the 90ies. And in a psycholicical way really creepy.