Local folklore tells the story of the Lafitte Plantation in Vacherie, Louisiana, once reportedly the inspiration for Tara in “Gone with the Wind” but now a run-down, dilapidated building, overrun by foliage and unoccupied. The idea that a found footage film could play off the era of hit TV shows like “Ghost Hunters” and take us to a real location to mine it for atmosphere is a great one, but director Taylor Ri’chard isn’t really interested in Lafitte. It’s a background that might as well be a Hollywood set or a house down the street from you it’s so poorly utilized. It has no personality when it should really be the star of the film.
Instead, we spend an inordinate amount of time with the six college students who have decided to spend the night at Lafitte for a graduation project (it’s not quite clear what the project would possibly look like in the end even after a scene in a classroom in which they tell their teacher about it). For half of the film’s remarkably short running time, we “hang” with the six students as they plan their project and head out to Lafitte. Such hanging includes a bit of character development in a potential love triangle, another possible hook-up, and, well, that’s about it. The “characters” in “The Final Project” are the kind of paper-thin movie folk who talk during the entire trip to the plantation about manscaping and how many people they’ve slept with. And imagine that inane chatter filmed from the back of a van with a bumpy handicam. It’s arguably the scariest scene in the movie.
Thin characters and a lack of actual scares is one thing, but “The Final Project” really sinks another level when one considers its technical elements. Yes, found footage films are inherently given a lot of leeway in terms of their visuals, but “The Final Project” is sometimes baffling. People are often shot at torso level, or, worse, we’ll be looking at a wall while overhearing a conversation. Remember the end of “The Blair Witch Project” in which the camera is an odd position and we see something only in the background? Imagine a movie that’s 50% that. A camera might be left on a table and we’re staring at someone’s hand on a mouse while we listen to other people talk in a fuzzy conversation behind it. Did their teacher never teach them how to frame a shot? Or at least focus on someone’s face? And when the filmmakers chose to make the film at least mildly visually focused, the sound sometimes doesn’t even sync up and the ADR is inconsistent. Although you won’t notice that given how often you’re looking at feet, torsos and walls.
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