Exists

Directed by Eduardo Sánchez, Exists follows five friends (Chris Osborn’s Brian, Samuel Davis’ Matt, Roger Edwards’ Todd, Denise Williamson’s Elizabeth, and Dora Madison Burge’s Dora) as they head into the woods for a weekend of fun and debauchery – with complications ensuing after it becomes increasingly clear that the characters are being stalked by a sinister, menacing figure. Filmmaker Sánchez, working from a screenplay by Jamie Nash, delivers a hit-and-miss endeavor that suffers from the myriad of problems one associates with the found footage genre, as Exists is chockablock with one-dimensional characters and an overuse of shaky, incoherent camerawork – which inevitably paves the way for a pervasively (and lamentably) erratic midsection. It’s surprising to note, then, that the picture remains fairly watchable for the duration of its appropriately brisk running time, as Sánchez does a nice job of peppering the proceedings with compelling, suspenseful sequences that elevate the viewer’s interest on an ongoing basis. (There is, for example, a fantastic interlude in which one of the protagonists is stalked after he leaves his friends to call for help.) And although the various characters remain virtually impossible to root for – the story’s villain is ultimately a more sympathetic figure than any of these people – Exists, which closes with an impressively visceral and engaging climactic stretch, ultimately comes off as a perfectly passable entry within a genre that predominantly fares much, much worse.

**1/2 out of ****