As you all may very well know by now, I’ve always been a big supporter of the found footage sub-genre. While I certainly don’t seek them out as much as I used to, I still give the ones I come across a fair chance. Giorgio Amato’s Closed Circuit Extreme is one that slipped right by me, but with its lack of very much excitement, it may have been for good reason.
Synopsis:
A young couple break into the house of a suspected serial killer and plant hidden cameras, but when they attempt to retrieve the evidence they are trapped and are forced to fight for their lives.
That official written synopsis actually sounds much better than what we actually get with Closed Circuit Extreme. Presented as a collection of footage taken by ‘spy cameras’ scattered throughout the house of a suspected murderer, used as evidence in court, there really isn’t much substance to this film. There are too many drawn-out scenes that give us nothing but boring banter and watching a portly man go about his daily business. It isn’t until about an hour in that we finally get to see any type of serial killer tendencies. After a little fighting and a semi-off-screen rape, there is a pretty neat off-screen beheading. It would have been way better if we actually got to see it happen, so unfortunately this was too little too late, in my eyes.
This film really had potential to be very good. Imagine the crazy things you could capture, if you planted cameras in a killer’s house! This fat bastard lured girls over by pretending to need a babysitter, but we never really got to see too much action. There wasn’t even a climax to the entire thing. Daniele (Guglielmo Favilla) shows up to the killer’s house with a few police officers and then shuts off the camera. The out-of-shape killer escapes and that’s it… nothing else. No crazy kill scenes, no true gore stuff, just a bland old finish.
Closed Circuit Extreme is out now on DVD by MVD Visual. Pick up a copy and let me know your thoughts on the film in the comments below!
I give it 1.5 hidden heads in a fridge out of 5.
