Crowd-funding isn’t new. But the way it’s been collected over the years has changed. Take The Tunnel (2011) for example.
This Australian film is another in the long line of low budget first person horror movies that has become popular lately (The Blair Witch Project, [Rec], Paranormal Activity). The movie was financed using the crowd-funding 135K Project where the filmmakers sold individual digital frames of the film for $1 Australian in order to raise the $135,000 needed to make the film. They only managed to raise $36,000.
Because the filmmakers raised the money this way, they have made the film available for free download. Right now, if you go to their official website – you can download the film for free.
The plot is little weak – it’s told by the survivors so you know already who survived and who didn’t. It’s about a news crew going into some abandoned tunnels to film a story about a government cover-up. Whenever I hear about a movie like this – I feel compelled to try and support it but I wish it was better. It’s a decently made film but it’s doesn’t really bring anything new to the genre. In the shadow of those other horror movies that I mentioned – The Tunnel is a pale shade of them. For those who like the first person shaky cam horror movie it’s a free horror movie that one can watch on a long rainy weekend.