Apparently director Eduardo Sanchez only knows one way to shoot a movie. It worked out fine for him with The Blair Witch Project. Of course the found footage for that is going to be shaky and rough and hard to make out details. It's just a couple kids going into the woods getting freaked the fuck out. However, with a third person camera, there is no need for the entire film to be handheld. The constantly moving image makes it hard to focus on what's happening and it makes for really jarring editing since there is no flow between images. Any time I see a film shot entirely handheld, my reaction is that the filmmaker has no idea how to make a movie since there appears to be no grasp of the basics. Shaky cam is a tool and should be used appropriately, like filters, lenses, slow-motion, zooms, pans, and everything else that goes into making a movie. I often wonder if actors watch the completed movie and think about how terrible it all looks and are disappointed about how the final product doesn't meet what they read in the script.
Seventh Moon starts with a quote about the fifteenth day of the seventh moon the dead walk the earth. The quote is attributed to ancient Chinese wisdom and I have no reason to doubt it, but with stuff like that, filmmakers could totally be fucking with me and I wouldn't know the difference (by the way... it checks out). The handheld photography actually works during the opening credits because it gives the film a documentary feel like we're following this newlywed couple (Amy Smart and Dennis Chan) around a Chinese city. There's also the suspicion that the shots were done without permits and that they were sneaking around with a camera (something I can't verify).
Then the aesthetic continues and I got the feeling that I wasn't going to be a fan of Seventh Moon. I wasn't wrong. The handheld camera isn't the only problem though I repeatedly noted that the cuts are jarring and how hard it is to see anything (also due to the near absence of light throughout the movie). Seventh Moon is simply rife with cliches and feels like it was culled from a million other movies. The honeymoon couple turn on each other the moment things start turning south (Amy Smart's anger about going to China for her honeymoon is one of the more absurd things I've heard), the car gets stuck in the mud, the tour guide goes missing after driving them out to the middle of nowhere, dreams that play as reality for no reason, and a deus ex machina ending.
Truthfully, I wouldn't care so much about those if the movie was actually scary, but it's impossible to create tension with that damn camerawork! How am I supposed to sense these creatures creeping if the camera doesn't hold still long enough for me to focus on them? At least use a wider lens or a steadicam to help things out. Hell, I might have even started to get invested in the story of the doomed relationship and what it would be like to lose someone who you've just dedicated your life to. As it stands, Seventh Moon is a waste of time.
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