Curse Of Aurore is available on Amazon Prime Video in the UK now.
Synopsis
A “Dark Web” thumb drive discovered by viral YouTuber, Casey Nolan, reveals disturbing footage following Lena, Aaron, and Kevin, three American filmmakers visiting rural Quebec to research the true child murder case of Aurore Gagnon, a girl who died as a result of brutal child abuse inflicted by her parents in 1920. As the filmmakers search for inspiration in the quiet farm town of Fortierville, the place where Aurore died and is buried, they witness a number of bone chilling paranormal occurrences ultimately leading them to an attempt to communicate with the deceased child. Armed with a stolen book called “Languages of the Dead,” and a rosary from Aurore’s childhood home, the filmmakers take part in a make-shift seance, foolishly releasing a demonic force that can only be contained through a brutal and archaic ritual.
Review
When doing research for this film, I had found that the main plot is loosely based on true events. A young girl, called Aurore Gagnon, died in 1920 thanks to exhaustion and blood poisoning from over 50 wounds inflicted by her Stepmother. Knowing that the film is wrapped around some true and horrific events feels somewhat darker than one created from nothing although they are not the first to do so with this horrific true tale.
The film opens on a pretty legit looking Youtube channel, where the host explains about a mysterious package he received and its disturbing contents. It also came with a USB that once put into his computer shows a single video, upon pressing play we are then taken into the main part of the film.
The video follows three filmmaker friends who hope to get a scoop on a new ‘horror’ event and to raise their status in the film maker world. As they travel to Quebec, the home town where young Aurore died they find they are not welcomed by the locals and the more they look into it the more the dark supernatural world looks back.
Found footage films are a dime a dozen nowadays. It’s quite rare to find one that does something new with the genre. Obviously the biggest question these films present is “why are they still filming!?” and this film luckily answers this simply because, as film makers they are more obsessed with finding their story than protecting themselves.
Sadly the film does very little else to stand out, but you could also argue, does it need to? Sometimes you just want a simple jump scare movie, a simple plot with some good jump moments. Another way to describe it, sometimes you want a nice big fancy meal and other times a simple McDonalds does the trick. You know what you will get and that you will enjoy it and that’s enough.
Its main three characters are standard tropes of these found footage films, one cautious friend, one reckless idiot who provokes the ghost/demon and one who denies anything weird is going on. Again it’s hard to be too critical on this as it’s these generic characters that help push films like this forward but perhaps more out of the box thinking from future writers can give us new character types to record the undread.
The pacing of the film I found was pretty good also, I found myself continuously darting around the screen trying to catch the supernatural things occurring. Whether it be a face appearing briefly on a surface to a light flickering in the background, I found myself constantly alert throughout almost as if this is a Where’s Wally book.
By the time the final act rolls around and all hell breaks loose I was sufficiently creeped out enough to not look away in fear I’d miss something.
Verdict
Curse of Aurore is your standard by the numbers found footage horror. It has some fun moments that we’ve come to expect of these types of films and I did enjoy myself throughout. While it does nothing new with the genre and its source material can be considered unethical to some, there is fun to be had. This is certainly worth a rental for a good horror movie night in with friends.
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