Now Warner Bros. are making a play for a found footage movie outside of the horror genre, backing Steven Quale's latest feature Into the Storm, starring Richard Armitage and Sarah Wayne Callies. Essentially, it's a slight return to disaster movie territory, however this time without all of the sf baggage and tight-lipped marketing that Cloverfield came with. This time, the monster is Mother Nature, and she is really pissed.
Into the Storm follows the inhabitants of the small US town of Silverton over the course of a single day as it is ravaged by an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes. The terrifying ordeal is captured through the eyes and various cameras lenses high-schoolers, amateur photographers and professional storm chasers. Quale is intent on following through on the title of his film.
Honestly, judging by the trailer, Quale hasn't really gone into the project with the full visual commitment required of a film that Warner Bros. are calling found footage. It still looks too composed, too well shot, too much like a filmmaker has adopted only as much of a particular visual language as he wants before pulling back to get the framing right. Certainly the sequences look pretty gripping, but I have to say that I'm already disappointed at the waste of potential in this film.