Polaroid

Polaroid details the horror that ensues after a high schooler (Kathryn Prescott’s Bird) gets her hands on an old (and haunted) self-developing camera, as characters who have their picture taken with said camera are eventually murdered by a mysterious, vengeful apparition. It’s a rather silly premise that is, at the outset, employed to better-than-expected effect by Lars Klevberg, as the filmmaker, who kicks the proceedings off with a compelling, Scream-like opening, delivers a teen-slasher first half that’s been packed with stylish and suspenseful kill sequences – with the relative strength of this stretch heightened by Prescott’s above-average turn as the progressively panicky heroine. It’s disappointing to note, then, that Polaroid eventually (and inevitably) emphasizes the surviving protagonists’ investigation into the camera’s tragic past, with such scenes possessing an overly familiar, cookie-cutter-like feel that obliterates whatever momentum the picture had managed to acquire up to that point. By the time the movie trudges into its padded-out and rather anticlimactic third act, Polaroid has, unfortunately, confirmed its place as a padded-out endeavor that can’t quite justify a feature-length running time (ie it’s certainly not surprising to discover that the film started out as a 15 minute short).

** out of ****