I hate found footage films as a rule of thumb, and if I review them it's either because they really suck or because I actually didn't mind them. This film falls into the latter category.

I went into this film not knowing it was a solo film and a first venture, it was available on Prime and I was bored. I only found out the rest after, which made me extra impressed!

This film is simple, the effects are (generally, there is one that stands out rather negatively, you'll know it when you see it) are subtle and pretty well done. The reason for all of the cameras is pretty solid, and it's not one of those over the top "And then I was PINNED IN THE CEILING BY AN UNSEEN FORCE!" type of things. It's refreshing in it's simplicity.

While I wouldn't call it believable, the vast majority of this film feels more realistic than others of the genre and that's a nice touch. Although a bit more knowledge on the occult might have helped.

Not perfect, not very scary, but still much better than a lot of found footage films of late.

OK, this guy is the only person in the movie, so you have to get used to him first. I found him kind of hard to sympathize with.

He comes off as a bit of a schlub (almost a dead ringer for actor/comedian Brian Posehn) who wants to document everything about this house he bought at auction as he's prepping it for sale. Right away, odd things start happening - furniture moving, things in the attic, things in the basement, etc.). At first, he attributes it to people breaking in, but he soon realizes there's something more going on as he looks into the family that lived there before and mysteriously left everything behind.

I thought the tension ratcheted up nicely and I was surprised that I got caught up as much as I did.

Fair warning: I'm a bit overly enamored of this "movie". Not so much because of the movie itself but because of the interesting probable circumstances of its creation. I find THAT part utterly fascinating. And I'll get to that part in a few moments.

This review contains spoilers and there's no "may" about it.

To begin with, I should make it clear that I don't consider found footage flicks to be "movies" in any common, traditional sense. They simply lack too many of the features of an actual movie. They share some of the physical characteristics of a movie such as sound and moving pictures, but they have more in common with factory job training videos than they do with actual movies. In fact, I would hold that factory job training videos are closer to real movies than are found footage flicks.

Which is not to say that found footage flicks can't be fun and entertaining in their own right. Just don't think of them as movies but as some other form of entertainment all on their own. Go for a sort of "found footage flicks are to movies what Velveeta is to cheese" outlook; just keep in mind that neither one is the real deal and try to enjoy them for what they actually are.

BAD BEN, as long as you don't make the mistake of approaching it as a "movie", actually isn't all that bad. It has most if not all of the agreed-upon elements of a found footage flick (a bit amateurish, made- for-a-dollar, few actors (only one, as a matter of fact, in this one), and so on). And to its credit it does bring a few of its own original quirks to the milieu. Whether or not that's a good thing is something you'll have to decide for yourself.

For the balance of this "review", in terms of the traditional elements of movie reviews as they appear on IMDb, I'm going to leave that to the other reviewers. And now I take the path less traveled…

BAD BEN I suspect is very different from most found footage flicks in a LOT of ways.

My journey of discovery with BAD BEN began when I noticed that Tom Riley, played by Nigel Bach, the one and only character in the entire production, was NOT ONLY the only character in the entire production but ALSO the executive producer, director, film editor and I'm guessing the writer and After Effects technician and craft table supervisor et al. (although I didn't see those credits go by).

Interesting…

When you look at BAD BEN is a whole, there's absolutely nothing about it that suggests that a single person could not or did not make the entire film. I'm guessing here, but I'm thinking that Nigel Bach made the entire thing single-handedly.

Hmmmm.... Let's see… In the movie, on the way home from dinner, Tom videos the name of his home street, "Steelmanville Rd". I poke around a bit and discover that there is a road known locally as Steelmanville Rd. in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, although for mapping purposes it seems to be more known as "Atlantic 651". Well, I think I'll just virtually cruise around good ol' Atlantic 651 for a while and see what I find.

Well, I'll be.

Turns out the house in the movie actually does exist, and it exists at 358 Steelmanville Rd., Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. I would include a link for you to look at it directly but IMDb is always such a buzz killer about that sort of thing.

At this point, I have a theory of my very own and completely unsubstantiated. I think Nigel Bach made this entire movie by himself and used his own home for the production. I would not be surprised to find out that he's done the whole thing as some sort of a tax write off for the entire house and the surveillance system and cameras and all that other stuff. If this is the case, I am extremely impressed. The guy looks sort of like a real-life Elmer Fudd but he must have a completely unstoppable can do, do-it-yourself attitude. Personally, I give top props to Nigel Bach.

And for the punchline, I come to discover that ol' Nigel apparently liked the experience well enough that he's actually completed a prequel in a more involved and complex production called, wait for it…

"Steelmanville Road".

I kid you not. And it's available to watch for free if you're a Prime member on Amazon. Again, I would give you a direct link but IMDb got heavy starch in their underpants when I tried.

I think Nigel Bach, Elmer Fudd appearances notwithstanding, would be a very interesting person to know.

And the ultimate mystery? If you look for the movie "Steelmanville Road" on IMDb... IT DOESN'T EXIST! OOOOOOooooooo!