Body Cam (2020)

An engaging horror film that is fast paced throughout the entire movie. It's not worthy of an award, but Mary J Blige did a good job in her acting career. An interesting take on an old motive. I wouldn't pay for it at a theater, but it is definitely a good watch at home.

Fmovies: This movie is a Mystery Thriller with a git of gore, it is set as a Horror too, but i would not class it in that category. The movie is about the Louisiana Police Department, as most police officers today, the use and recorded evidence of their "body cam" can be vital in cases. Renee Lomito-Smith (played by Mary J. Blige), has just come back to the force after an incident that got her suspended, where she lost her temper with a civilian. At the time, she was going through the stress and trauma of losing her son, he had tragically died in a drowning incident. The body cam that she was wearing, was the defining factor in the incident. As she is returning to work, a strange incident occurred, a routine traffic stop, becomes something very different and mysterious. Renee has been given rookie cop Danny Holledge (played by Nat Wolff), as her partner and as they are driving around, they come across the car of the colleagues that had been involved in the traffic stop. The car is in a dark area,with dim and broken lighting, and as they approach the vehicle with caution, they soon realise, the their colleagues are nowhere to be seen. When they get to the car, they see that there is damage and blood on the vehicle, as Danny scouts the area, Renee gets into the car to see if she can see what had happened on the dash cam. The computer within the car is glitchy and with a few taps, Renee sees what was on the cam. You see the stop, you see the person get out of the van, and then the unexplainable happens. I have left it there, as i do not want to give any spoilers away at all. I thought the movie was OK, it did have some jumpy moments, but i do think that in this case, if they were trying to go down the horror route, that could have been made much more intense. I did like the twists and turns in the movie, but you get these with all mystery thrillers, but some of the acting in this was not quite there, Mary J. Blige, i thought was fantastic and i would really like to see her in a movie that could extract all of that acting talent that we get a small glimpse of here. The story-line was OK but not the best adaptation that it had the potential to be, as we only got a small piece of backstory for Renee. When/If you watch this movie, you will see exactly what i mean.

If you're time is valuable like mine you will save yourself a HUGE headache & skip this so called horror movie that it ISN'T, here's the breakdown..... Tooth fairy meets the predator = bad f@#kin film !!! End of story 🎤

Body Cam fmovies. You know pretty early on where some films are going, "Body Cam", being a case in question.

On the upside cinamatic atmospherics are done well, its suitably creepy and errie, with lighting effects to match the mood. Actng is solid too, with decent performances from the cast.

Where's its only passable is the story. It taps into outrage over police shootings in the US, specifically black people. Stepping beyond the possible poltical take on this film, its story is very very, predictable. I did not take long to work out what was happening and why.

In short, its an OK supernatural horror watch. Nothing stand out but not dreadful either.

6/10.

Though constantly being on the lookout for any and all movie releases, somehow "Body Cam" came on my radar this morning as a surprise - a welcome one at that. Decent cast, intriguing story, and I went right in not expecting much. "Body Cam" is Malik Vitthal's sophomore directional feature, written by Nicholas McCarthy ("The Pact", "The Prodigy") and Richmond Riedel, starring two Oscar nominee Mary J. Blige ("Mudbound"), Nat Wolff ("Death Note"), David Zayas ("Gotham"), and more.

Renee (Mary J. Blige) is a veteran police officer, coming back to work after a hiatus propelled by a personal tragedy. On her first return shift she gets partnered with a rookie cop Danny (Nat Wolff), and the duo respond to a crime scene that has their fellow officer dead in a horrible way. Renee sees the unexplainable nature of what went down on the dead officers cars dashcam, but she appears to be the only one seeing it. Renee is determined to uncover the mystery and takes Danny along the ride. Naturally, the trip leads to horrible truths and incomprehensible happenings. The story is, frankly, paper thin, and relies mostly on social commentary about the horrors of corruption in police. While the thought is clear and concise, being socially conscious is not enough of a substitute for a plot. Plus another downside is that the narrow plot is also very predictable. There's also the supernatural side of the same story - both lines get cultivated and built slowly, risking to cross the border of tediousness, and eventually culminate in a finale that feels somewhat underwhelming and perhaps lesser than some of the more packed sequences on the road before. As a cop thriller, minus the social commentary, "Body Cam" grinds old wheels and doesn't go deep into anything. As a horror movie, it's mostly slow, dark and (not so effectively) brooding. However, the delicious garnish are the action sequences, where the horror hits in the form of grisly kills. In other words, necessary intermissions, because the pacing is one that suffers a bit in the first hour.

Mary J. Blige gives a well-rounded and vulnerable lead performance, further supported by the squirrelly Danny in which Nat Wolff strives for sympathy, and David Zayas as Sergeant Kesper. Characters, if not excellent, weren't the link that's the weakest of "Body Cam", for it's most definitely the story, or rather the absence of it. Compliments also go out to the cinematographer Pedro Luque ("Don't Breathe"), "Body Cam" is visually well composed, contrastive and simply good looking, albeit sometimes optioning for scenes/sequences too dark and too long.

The verdict is such that "Body Cam" arguably managed to do the things it set out to do, but it wasn't enough to fill the 90 minutes. The results then also include slower pacing, emptier chunks, consequently risking to feel boring. Nevertheless, in the times when so little new movies come out, "Body Cam" is an enjoyable thriller with horror more as the supporting genre, just as long as you don't watch purely for the story. My rating: 5/10.

The only scary thing in this film is it's timing, given the current deep unrest around police brutality, but that's it. The acting is very stale, in particular mary blige. At one point she sees an horrific scene, and whilst her rookie partner is throwing up because of it, Mary stands there looking mildly dissappointed as if she's been told McDonald's don't have the flavour mcflurry she wanted. It's permanently night time where they live as well, and very few people seemed alarmed that lots of people of their workforce are being slaughtered. It could have made a big impact but sadly it's a paint by numbers "horror" that brings little of anything new to the table