Curse of Aurore (2020) Review – An Exploitative And Painfully Dull Found Footage Mess

Welcome to Knockout Horror and to another entry into our new series of Found Footage movies suggested by Reddit. Today we are taking a look at Curse of Aurore from 2020.

A controversial back story

This film follows a group of filmmakers heading to Quebec to find inspiration for their latest horror script. A young girl named Aurore, who was brutally abused and murdered by her family and is now said to haunt the local area, provides the writers with the perfect back story for their next film but there may be more to the mystery than meets the eye.

Flicking through for some cast and crew reference points, I noticed that Curse of Aurore‘s Wiki page is bigger than most movies I have reviewed. The filmmakers are working overtime here to make it look like people give a shit about this film. Anyways, the backstory of this movie is, very much, grounded in reality.

The “spirit” at the heart of this movie’s plot, Aurore Gagnon, was actually a real person and a real victim of horrendous child abuse. Aurore died in 1920 from blood poisoning and exhaustion, having suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of her father and step-mother.

I am not sure about a film based on such a sad real life case

 Poor Aurore’s body had sustained over 54 wounds, many the result of heavy blows inflicted over a long period of time. The skin on her wrists and hands had been removed right down to the bone. Her stepmother was found guilty and sentenced to death, with the sentence eventually being commuted to life in prison, only for her to develop breast cancer and spend a year of her life as a free woman based on ill health, eventually dying in 1936 at 46 years of age.

“The sheer fact that these guys based a fictional found footage horror movie on the folklore behind something that was truly horrifying, really doesn’t sit right with me.”

Her father escaped the death penalty and, indeed, even managed to avoid a murder conviction, with the jury believing he had committed the vile acts at the behest of his wife. He was eventually paroled for “good behaviour” and on health grounds only 5 years later, with the authorities believing he would soon die due to cancer. Naturally, they were completely wrong and he went on to live until the ripe age of 78, passing away in 1961.

To be honest, this one kicks off leaving a bit of a bad taste in your mouth. Aside from the association with the notoriously hokey YouTubers MindSeed TV, along with the mentions of buzz words like “The Dark Web” and “Mystery Boxes”, the sheer fact that these guys based a fictional found footage horror movie on the folklore behind something that was truly horrifying, really doesn’t sit right with me.

A rough start

You could have created a unique backstory for the film, one that didn’t focus on the real-life abuse and murder of a ten-year-old child. It would have worked just as well but, nope. These guys needed to have something real to cling on to. Something that people from a certain area would recognise and something that would feel just that little bit more authentic.

It’s pretty damn cheap and, for the lack of a better word, exploitative. What makes it even worse is that Curse of Aurore is simply bad. A dull plot combines with poor pacing, extended moments of boring rhetoric, an annoying cast and some of the most obvious and least effective scares I have ever seen in the sub-genre. It’s all pretty dire stuff. I really have so little to praise about this movie.

Least likeable cast ever?

Found footage movies always struggle when it comes to their casts. A bunch of, let’s be honest, incredibly inexperienced actors tasked with improvising and reacting naturally to the events they see, or don’t as the case may be. It’s a tall order. But Curse of Aurore manages to surpass even the worst casts in found footage history. They are just so unlikable.

“Curse of Aurore manages to surpass even the worst casts in found footage history. They are just so unlikable.”

Kevin (Jordan Kaplan) is the main offender, managing to do a tremendous job of acting like a 37-year-old teenager. He is a complete twat, to put it bluntly, and every time he attempts to garner laughs it feels like nails on chalkboard. Aaron (Lex Wilson) is a miserable, quick to anger, pointless addition that brings nothing to the plot. And the initially tolerable Lena (Llana Barron) quickly becomes as annoying and obnoxious as the other two.

The rest of the cast consists of French-Canadians shouting in French so your appreciation for that will be entirely subjective. Acting is okay, I suppose, if the motivations for the performances were “you are a bunch of annoying twats”. But there is nothing to write home about here. If laughing and repeatedly saying “I am too high for this” counts as acting then there is plenty to like.

Ineffective scares and soooo boring

Curse of Aurore starts with the scares straight away and they are so blatantly obvious as to render them entirely ineffective. Apparently director Mehran C. Torgoley never heard the phrase “less is more”. It’s one of those movies that tries to provoke background watching but the scares are so obvious that there is no need to even look for them. “Eyerolling” is the best word I can use to describe them.

“Horror vets should just not bother. Unless you have a massive tolerance for generic found footage tripe, give it a miss.”

The plot is dishwater dull, dragging its feet continuously, never adding anything interesting and repeating the same tropes over and over again. It all leads up to something of a Hereditary style ending that feels equally as derivative as it does lame. There is just so little to recommend.

On the plus side, people with a high tolerance for bland paranormal found footage will probably find something to like. Lord knows plenty of people on the found footage subreddit are easy to please because plenty of them liked this movie. IMDb users are not so effusive. I am starting to think that some of those guys on that subreddit just enjoy literally anything that is found footage.

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Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.

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