DAGR - Solid Idea, Horrible Execution! (Wales, 2024)

Sometimes the footage should never be found.

Here we are, yet another found footage movie that tries to pretend it’s based on a true story, as if anyone watching it would ever believe that.

There was a time when found footage movies were awesome. I am going to sound like a boomer, but The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity are the highlights of the genre for me, and a handful of Asian titles like Gonjiam Haunted Asylum and Incantation have shown what the genre can do with more modern technology.

And that’s where Dagr comes in. Apparently, most of the movie was filmed on iPhones (except for the obvious bits that weren’t) and the two lead characters are YouTubers who create prank-style videos who want to take down the patriarchy and smash capitalism.

This movie couldn’t be more Gen Z if it tried.

PLOT

Two girls who run a popular social media channel where they cause mischief are on the way to the set of their latest prank where they are disguising themselves as catering staff for a luxury commercial shoot.

Their plan is to steal and sell all the expensive goods and donate the proceedings to charity.

However, before they arrive at the location, the film crew and the actors of the production unknowingly unleash a druid demon who begins to hunt them down after they play around with an ancient dagger.

ABOUT THE FILM

For me this is definitely a movie of love and hate. I loved the story idea and thought it was brilliant, but I hated the execution of the film, specifically the characters.

Every character, with the exception of the production assistant Hattie, was truly awful. Awful is too simplistic a word - they are absolutely horrible people and I have never cheered on the death of characters more than I have with this film.

Thea and Louise, our two antagonists, a genuinely vile. Inane, garbage dialogue - hilariously most of it was adlibbed which goes to say something - is only matched by their utter lack of humanity, only daring to care for people when the shit hits the fan.

Likewise, the commercial cast and crew are just pathetic grovellers or narcissistic actors, and when the dagger scene finally happens I couldn’t help but smile that one of the pathetic simpletons was no longer on screen. Now I just had to wait for the rest of them to be thinned out.

One of the other big issues with found footage movies is the need to setup the scenario. This usually involves long stretches of the film where we are introduced to characters and watch them do the most mundane things. In this movie’s case, I was forced to look up the nose of Thea while she took a pee in the woods. Riveting. Almost a riveting as watching their painful car ride to the location where they stop their car to interact with two sheep who have the biggest look of disdain on their faces.

Those two sheep, and the cow they also meet, are the best parts of the film.

What a shame, because the idea of a druid demon who is unleashed when a dagger is used sounds like my kind of movie. Just if that kind of movie had better characters and wasn’t shoehorned into a found footage format where the filmmaker was under no obligation to create an ending.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Found footage + awful characters = a movie I am going to hate. I’m glad it lived up to its expectation.

Using my patent pending GHOST rating, which stands for Great Horror or Stupid Trash, this movie gets 2 ghosts. It scored the extra ghost because it has an idea that needs to be developed more and made into a proper movie.

If I never see another Gen Z horror movie again, I’ll be happy.

But as always, what did you think of it?

Genre Horror Found Footage
Director Matthew Butler-Hart
Starring Riz Moritz, Ellie Duckles, Emma King
Original Title Dagr
Alternative Title N/A
Country of Origin Wales
Release Date 24 March 2024

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