There’s something hugely intriguing about horrors set in real life places of mystery. Like the so-so Chernobyl Diaries and The Dyatlov Pass Incident of the past few years, Oren Peli’s long-gestating Area 51 tackles fictional horror in a real life setting.
Sticking with the handheld angle, Area 51 sees a group of reporters sneak into the titular military zone and find a variety of alien artefacts. Of course, being a genre flick, they aren’t the only ones prowling about Area 51.
Stylistically there doesn’t appear to be anything new in Peli’s latest film, we’re hoping this premise of this one and a couple of good scares will help it stand-out from the usual handheld dirge. This has been cooking since 2009 so hopefully it’ll prove worth the wait.
Area 51 is on limited release from May 15th in the US. International dates to follow.