Hangar 10 (2014) Review!!

Synopsis – 33 years after the infamous Rendlesham Forest UFO incident, three metal detector enthusiasts hunting for Saxon gold in the same region, capture incredible footage of UFO’s whilst filming their expedition. As night falls and with their navigation equipment failing, they find themselves facing a terrifying encounter with an unforgiving alien presence.

My Take – OK, first off, this is a found-footage film. Don’t like them? Then don’t watch the film. A lot of criticism here simply because people just don’t like/don’t seem to understand the genre. It’s been edited to look like it’s unedited, “found footage”. That’s the genre. Yes, the camera-work is shaky. Yes, it’s meant to look amateurish. That’s the point. You’re meant to think it wasn’t made by a professional film crew but is just unedited footage shot by the characters in the film (who aren’t meant to be a professional film crew) as the events occurred. It would be a bit weird if they’d just happened to shoot a perfectly orchestrated, steadily-filmed, scene-by-scene mainstream Hollywood movie completely by accident while they are under threat, when that wasn’t even their intention in the first place.

Secondly, the comparisons to Blair Witch. Well, it’s a found-footage film set in a forest, so of course it’s going to have similarities. It’s set in a forest because the original Rendlesham UFO Incident took place in Rendlesham Forest where the film is actually shot. Yes! the film has a fairly slow build at the start, which is typical of a found footage film, but despite that, still has you gripped very quickly. It’s incredibly tense, & builds on the suspense from the first frame to the last. It switches effortlessly between the fear of the situation these people find themselves in to conveying the sense of wonder and awe (even joy) at the spectacle before them and all the unsolved mysteries that are out there in the world. It does this while staying true to the concept its based on, which does mean you’ll be in for a bumpy ride (though the camera- work does settle down further into the film). What I loved most about the film and what set it aside from any other film I have seen before, is the way it had my imagination running absolutely wild. Throughout the film I was left wondering whats going to happen next. As for the effects, for the low budget they are fantastic!

A lot of the reviews have mainly criticized a lack of story line or major action sequence, but strangely that’s actually one of the things that I really liked about it and made it different. There doesn’t need to be a side story or a big event because what more is needed then just the intense atmosphere and the fact there is an alien presence. That’s not to say there is no action, just that the action in the film is paced differently then your regular horror/sci-fi film. On the whole Hangar 10, is for people with wild imaginations & lovers of found footage!