the audience applauded

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I may be a little biased, being from southern Arizona myself, but upon first hearing of this 2017 flick I was skeptical. I'm not the biggest fan of the nauseating genre, but this one is certainly different.. I made an account for the first time just to leave this review.If you're into found footage, you probably know about the cheesy scares, disorientating cameraman, and bad acting. However, this one has some excellent pacing, decent acting that isn't a distraction for once, and honestly, one of the best payoffs for a FF film I've ever seen. Honestly had me on the edge of my seat. Some absolutely stunning effects are used and I can't grasp why this film doesn't have more attention in a positive way. It's certainly better than As Above, So below, The Pyramid, and god forbid The Gallows. Remember that hot trash? Yeah, don't forget Ridley Scott worked on this one. MR. Alien.(spoilers?) Of course this film isn't perfect, none are. But I'm no film student, and I like movies like the first Transformers. I know when things aren't up to par, but as far as specifics, it's gotta be BAD for me to pick up the first time. There's some questionable effects (planes flying VERY low to a house) and cheesy acting from side characters not important to the plot - but it's all very quick. Scenes featuring abduction have that classic sped up 'jump' motion you catch in a lot of new age horror, but it's not a terrible effect altogether.Just minor complaints from me here. Being from AZ and a regular of Phoenix, it was fascinating to see a scary movie centered around home, and done shockingly well compared to other FF trash. I PROMISE this one is worth a watch, everyone I've personally showed it to thinks it's great. The documentary style and INSANE amounts of effort making the 90's footage look authentic, literally just blows my mind. Lots more work went into this than usual FF and it's very obvious and well done, in my opinion, I appreciate it so much. Also, I freakin' love aliens, lmao.

Phoenix Forgotten is a found footage horror movie that has two time-lines. One is set in 1997 and it follows 3 teenagers who try to find the proof of the UFOs that might have shown up above Phoenix. The other one is set in 2017 and it follows a younger sister of one of the leads in the 90s part who tries to investigate her brother's disappearance by finding more footage that disappeared along with her brother and his friends.The 90s part is VERY similar to The Blair Witch Project and I couldn't really tell if it was a homage or a rip- off. But still, it kinda worked and actually had some creepy and unsettling moments. Even though it was really predictable. The 2017 part is very unnecessary. We could have simply been treated with a lot longer version of the 90s part, or simply have something actually happen in the today segment. Imagine if The Blair Witch Project and Blair Witch were one movie with 90s and today's segment being played little by little. And The Blair Witch Project part is a lot shorter, while Blair Witch part is a movie with no pay-off at all. That's why the whole experience was a bit unfulfilled.But aside from a poorly constructed and clichéd plot, the movie does have a few redeeming creepy moments. First there's the premise itself (there is just something about the aliens and the unfamiliar in general that gets under your skin), and some genuinely creepy moments with tiny, but spooky nods to the UFOs. And also, the ambiguity was well-handled. Sometimes movies try way too hard to be ambiguous that it just comes across as unsatisfying and poorly written, but this was ambiguity done right. Ambiguity that made it scarier.Still, it's not what it could have been. It does offer a few shivers, but aside from that misses the mark.

Not all that bad of movie but really slow. The last half of the movie started to pick up and last thirty minutes are pretty fun. So this Phoenix Lights event did really happen and it's been quite a mystery for a long time. So the part about the whole movie that's really fkkd up, is the night of Phoenix Lights; four men actually went missing, Mitch Adams, Ryan Stone, Glenn Lauder and Jacob Reynolds and never a trace was found of their bodies. They never even honored these dudes at the end. They stole their story and turned it into teenagers to sell it to a younger market. Ridiculous, you literally had a true story and just Frankensteind it....??? It's this unsolved case that gives fuel to the possibility that they may have been abducted that night by the occupants of the UFOs. Whatever, so use to bad ideas and sceen writing these days.

The film starts out with the famous 1997 lights over Arizona, UFO sighting. The initial sighting was a 'Vee" shape and the second sighting was lights dropping. Three teens investigate the lights and go missing (we know they go missing as we hear it in the newscast). The sister of one of the missing teens goes on a hunt for them a decade later only to discover their camera. The rest of the feature is their film.First off kudos to Chelsea Lopez who made it convincing, very uncommon acting in the found footage genre. Like most found footage films nothing happens until the end then we get the jerk cam and an explanation if you're lucky. The end scene was a bit confused. It was night then in a few moments after a shake it is daylight. I don't know why people "get down" to hide in the dark when they are wearing lights on their head.I was hoping for Chupacabra.The incident really happened and was subsequently explained. High flying planes were the initial "Vee" shape. They were so far away that their two lights look like a single light. The second lights were indeed flares dropped by the Maryland Air National Guard over the North Tac military range and was unrelated to the first sighting.