Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A group of college students venture into an abandoned area to make a documentary about the area being haunted. Things go okay at first, but then weird stuff happens. The situation gets progressively weirder until members of the group start disappearing. Sounds like The Blair Witch Project, doesn’t it? Well, as you’ve probably guessed, this review isn’t about The Blair Witch Project. Rather, it’s about a lame derivative indie flick attempting to cash in on the now-threadbare found footage genre called The Final Project. Want to see how this one turns out?

Six film students from a Louisiana college, Misty (Amber Erwin), Anna (Teal Haddock), Genevieve (Arin Jones), Ky (Evan McLean), Jonah (Leonardo Santaiti), and Gavin (Sergio Suave), are working together on a video project that takes them to the abandoned Lafitte Plantation in Vacherie, Louisiana. The group hopes to document the supposed hauntings going on in the area. Despite the warnings, the group is more focused on getting the project completed in order that they pass the course. They set up camp in Vacherie for the night, and agrees not to leave until their documentary is finished. Needless to say, things start happening, and members of the group start disappearing as the night goes on.

Let me be on the level with you folks. Some of you might think that being a film reviewer for a website is a pretty easy job. You get to do stuff that not a lot of people are able to do. Granted, it’s not all fun. Writing about films can be hard. Communicating your thoughts and opinions to your audience can be hard. Sitting through bad films can be an exercise in torture. Now, some of you may be saying, “Well, so what? Talking about crappy movies is easy!” Sometimes yes, sometimes no so much. It’s easy to rag on a poor film, but to do that and only that isn’t much different from only heaping praise onto a great film. The hard part is to taper you opinions and be objective. Find the good in a bad film, just as you would find the bad in a good film.

With that said, I tried to find the good in The Final Project. I really did. Apart from the fact that writer/director Taylor Ri’chard and co-writer Zachary Davis were able to complete this film and push it into theatres for a limited release, I had a hell of a time trying to find something positive to take away from this film. In the end, I couldn’t. I failed at my job. Sure, one could say that the largely improvised dialogue used by the cast comes across as natural, but so is a bowel movement.

Let’s start with the plot to The Final Project. Not only is it a shameless rip-off of The Blair Witch Project (complete with “interviews” of the locals talking about the plantation), what plot devices were attempted to differentiate it from the original film (such as the hinted love triangle) were lame and as thin as the characters themselves. Honestly, who wants to spend the majority of the film listening to the film’s protagonists talk about garbage like “manscaping”, who they’ve slept with or other asinine banter? Worse, who wants to listen to that for a half hour before they reach the house? That’s not character development. It’s pure boring drivel. We’re not even given much of an explanation as to why the plantation is haunted. Is it due to rebellious slaves committing murder? A Civil War battle? Who knows, as the locals who dared to visit just ended up running away from getting spooked by loud noises. How’s that for drumming up tension?

Speaking of tension, there are no scares in this film. There’s no action of any kind. Unless you count the last 20 minutes of the film where stupid college kids run around an empty house screaming while loud noises are heard as “action”. Or the characters’ GoPro cameras going black, insinuating that they’re dead. There is talk about getting a passing grade as an explanation to keep going (much like Heather’s insistence to make a documentary in The Blair Witch Project that ultimately proves to be that group’s undoing), but that just serves to make you hate the characters even more with their moronic decisions. People going missing as things start getting hairy? Let’s go look for them! Be sure to split up, too! Idiots. I say that in the sincerest possible manner, since in an attempt to prove how “amateur” these “film students” are, we’re treated to them doing improperly-framed shots for a good 50% of the film. Doing an interview? Let’s cut off the top of the subject’s head! Putting the camera on a table for a conversation? Let’s put it so close to one person that you can only hear them talking/smacking their pen on the binder so hard that the camera jitters, all the while we barely hear the other person. Let’s throw in some crappy ADR as well for someone with a mouthful of food. Don’t forget that bad job of focusing the camera! If I was their teacher, I would fail these students and hope that whatever haunts the plantation kills them.

I really don’t know why I wrote so much to convey how bad this film turned out. If you really want to see how to NOT make a found footage film, then The Final Project is a perfect example of the pitfalls you should avoid. It’s devoid of any character or tension, the camerawork is nauseating, and the story is egregiously frustrating in lacking any originality. There are far superior films that do a much better job in the genre. Seek them out and give them the attention. Not this one. Don’t watch this film unless you hate yourself.