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!

Bad Ben (2016) is a movie I recently rewatched on Amazon Prime. The storyline follows an awkward and outspoken man who buys a foreclosure and hopes to renovate and resell it. He sets up camera around the property for security reasons and starts seeing strange things on the security cameras. When he investigates the observations his life quickly becomes at risk. This movie is directed by and stars Nigel Bach (The Santa Zombie). The camera work and the constant shots of the same few scenes made some aspects of this film redundant. The acting in this is very uneven making some sequences more believable than others. If I have to hear that weird security chirp one more time I'm gonna jump off a bridge and the main character is very annoying also. Overall the horror elements are below par...but I will say I actually liked the last scene. This was a rough movie to get through and is a below average addition to the genre. I'd score this a 3/10 and only recommend watching it if you're a diehard horror movie fan.

Nigel Bach has done the impossible, to produce and star solo in the done to death found footage/haunted house genre and make itit rath enjoyable. As a genre, it won't do what it really should have done a few years ago and vanish, but, Bad Ben perhaps shows that there is still a little steam left in it. Bad Ben looks like it was made on a shoe string, and that is perhaps it's charm, Bach is incredibly likeable in the solo role, and has enough charisma to make the film rather enjoyable. Not bad at all. 6/10