Despite not caring for found footage films at all usually, the advertising and poster were eye-catchy and creepy and the setting looked nice and more attractive and atmospheric-looking than settings for most found footage films. Plus the idea was not a bad one, it sounded strange and is hardly original but with the right execution, or at least competent execution, there was potential for it to be halfway unsettling and intriguing. So there was no bias against it.

'The Devil Complex' just didn't deliver. Have seen a lot worse, it's not even among the worst found footage films out of all my viewings of them (and more than enough have been watched to form that subjective opinion). It is nowhere near as creepy as the advertising and poster/cover looked. It does nothing new or interesting with its idea, one of my biggest bugbears watching films etc. is potential wastes and it is really quite frustrating.

One thing that 'The Devil Complex' did have in its favour was the setting. That actually did look pleasing to look at and did evoke atmosphere that was severely lacking everywhere else. The one thing with potential that the film didn't completely waste.

It though could have been complemented better because the photography lacked focus and did make me feel queasy. The audio is not particularly well balanced and the way it's used is obvious and not really gelling with what's going on onscreen. The direction is pedestrian at best and the writing never has any urgency and quite stop start in its flow.

While the idea was unoriginal but it intrigued, the execution of it is anything but intriguing. The dull, drawn out pacing badly betrayed the flimsiness, to a too often uneventful and padded degree, of the story. The atmosphere is bland throughout, nothing is scary and it doesn't feel like there is anything at stake. Everything is so indifferent. The characters have absolutely nothing to them and are basically just there but nothing else. The acting is equally lacking in much effort, seeming miserable and bored throughout. The interaction is stiff at best and that is only when there is signs of any, which is only marginally fleeting.

Concluding, very poor waste of potential but there are worse found footage films and films in general around. 2/10 for the setting only

This is a found footage film from the Hoia Baciu forest, Romania dating to November 2012. Three students enter the forest and never leave as we are informed by the professor who found the film. The forest we are told judges people and decides if they can leave or not. It seems littering is on the top of the list of sins. The film is interview filler for about the first 30 minutes. They walk through SNOW into the forest and get lost because they don't have a map. Seriously? Someone smarter than a fifth grader (or not) could have stepped up and said, "Hey! We made those tracks. Let's follow them back." Nope. The film offers no closure, or much of anything.

PLOT SPOILER? There are some trees at the end almost shaped in a V (except for that one tree off to the side) and supposedly it concerns something that we don't see inside the V either. Keep alert for clues, because I expected aliens or a meth lab with cannibals.

"The Devil's Forest", "The Devil Complex" and "The Devil Within" are the same film, I would hate to see anyone watch it twice.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

In November 2012 Rachel Kusza and her team of film makers travelled to Transylvania to document the Baciu forest.

The film crew were never heard from again. After searching for the film crew for two years, Rachels teacher finds the crews camera buried in the snow.

Before taking own life, Redman uploads the footage to the internet.

It shows the crews journey into the woods, but it also shows why locals refuse to enter the supposedly haunted forest.......

Some found footage movies can be original, if they have writers and film makers who can be bothered with their 'project'.

But then you get lazy film makers whom like to retread successful ground and put their own spin on that success. Here the magical spin is literally snow and a man with a beard.

Other than that, it's just The Blair Witch Project, right down to the white text on black stating that the crew were never seen again.

And it's a right chore to get through, even though it's just shy of ninety minutes.

So we get the predictable meet up, the warnings from the locals, the vox pop interviews with the locals, and the meet up with the weird person who knows a little too much about the legend.

And then the obligatory rest of the film walking through the forest, finding strange things, and the crew slowly coming apart and arguing before they go off into the dark and scream in the distance.

You've seen this film a thousand times before, and much better.

Thhis is the epitome of lazy film making, and like the makers, you just cannot be bothered with the finished 'project'.

I'd rather watch the best of Lionel Blair on loop for two weeks, rather than sit through this again.