Another week and another found footage horror film for review, this time with the Mark Andrew Bowers directed Cyprus horror Its Name Was Mormo. A quick search of the word 'Mormo' states it was a female spirit in Greek folklore whose name was invoked by mothers to keep their children from misbehaving. This horror contains actual moments of horror, this made for a nice change, but the ninety minute runtime saw my interest waning before the finish.
The found footage is presented as if it is part of recovered evidence by the 'Truths: Criminal Psychology' group who are investigating the strange case of a family that resulted in the parents (Mark played by the director, Marcela played by Marcela Cardenas) found dead in the ruins of an old village, and their young child Mia (Mia Bowers) missing. The found footage takes the form of three recovered videos found at the scene and at the family's home, as well as audio recordings, dossiers, and photos. The three videos chart Mark discovering a strange box at the site of the village and deciding to take it home with him, with the subsequent videos showing the terror this unleashed, with the family home seeming to be haunted by an angry spirit.
First off, I did like the wraparound segment showing how this footage had been discovered. It felt more fresh than the typical screen of text explaining things. The three films almost created the feeling of an anthology, neatly splitting the film up into three distinct mood pieces. The first seventeen minutes show the day time discovery of the box. My initial annoyances were just why Mark decided to take the box in the first place! Covered in chains, and buried under a mound of rocks should have been warning enough, but failing that, the discovery that it contained a load of bones and old coins should have been a klaxon call to leave the damn thing where it was! I guess that wouldn't have made for an interesting film, but the decision to take the box irked me for the remainder of the movie.
The second act falls more into Paranormal Activity type, with Mark opening this segment (that lasted around forty seven minutes) stating that due to weird stuff happening in the home over the past few months, he has decided to make video diaries, as well as set up cameras all around the property. You get all the usual things, such as doors opening and closing on their own, and unexplained sounds, but much like the rest of the film, this goes on far too long with little really being shown. I admit there was a decent almost Skinamarink feeling of constant terror here, mainly thanks to Mia, the best actor in the film, mainly due to her probably not even realising she was in a film. Second best actor was the dog, which just left Mark and Marcela. Marcela was great at sounding terrified, Mark wasn't so much, with his delivery of his lines feeling stilted and awkward. It led to me inadvertently laughing whenever he shouted out in fear or urgently called the names of his loved ones, which I am sure wasn't the intended response. There was some attempt to explain why the family hadn't looked for help (they didn't speak the local language), but no explanation again as to why they decided to keep that damn box, or why they made no attempt to not stay at their obviously now haunted home!
This leads to the final twenty five minutes which had plenty of pretty effective moments. Again though, this section was just too long, not helped by two different viewpoints of murky, near pitch black rambling through an effective looking location. I was impressed with the camera glitches that actually look authentic rather than the usual artificial looking effects, but for this final section to have worked it really needed to be cut down in size. The whole film would have worked in a much more lean format, each of the three segments had their moments, but all outstayed their welcome.
Its Name Was Mormo had great sound design, and some unsettling prolonged moments of horror. Where it let itself down however was with the long length for relatively little being shown, and the two adult characters who I frequently was unable to take seriously. This wasn't terrible by any means, but it was a bit frustrating to see a great found footage movie trapped under too much bloat.
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