The first ever feature-length horror film to be shot entirely on an iPhone when HOOKED UP arrives on DVD from today (April 27^th, 2015), courtesy of Signature Entertainment.

Following in the dark and twisted footsteps of found-footage classics like Paranormal Activity, the horrors of HOOKED UP are delivered through the iPhones ofTonio (Jonah Ehrenreich) and Peter (Stephen Ohl), two young Americans who travel to Barcelona to party and meet women. When Tonio and Peter befriend the flirtatious Noemi and Katia on their first night out partying, they escort them back to the house where things take an unexpected turn. The boys become trapped in the house and soon realise that the girls have a very different kind of party in mind – one the guests don’t get to leave…

“iPhone-shot horror movie HOOKED UP takes off”
– Dread Central

“Rec meets The Blair Witch Project”
– FromPage2Screen

So what did I think of Hooked Up?

Whilst the sales pitch for this film is ‘the first film to be shot solely on an Iphone’ there is far more to Hooked Up than that.  Telling the story of two friends who take a trip to Barcelona, and spend much time getting drunk and trying to seduce the local women, the film quickly (although not too quickly) descends into  chaos with our two main characters getting in far deeper than they planned and becoming involved in  events they may not live through.

The fact the film was shot on an Iphone is highly commendable but of course the film has gone through post production in the regular channels, the filmmakers have done a wonderful job of including the iphone in the film, even if it doesn’t make sense later on why on earth they would still be filming as certain events begin. I quickly put that plot point to one side and enjoyed the film that reminded me of part-Rec meets The Blair Witch Project. Of course the film is a ‘shaky cam’ effort, and does sit in the ‘found footage’ genre, a genre that is finding itself a little worn thin over the years, but Hooked Up does a fine job of keeping us entertained for its near eighty minute running time.  It might not be the most original storyline of recent years (is there an original horror film of recent years?) but Hooked Up does a fine job of keeping us distracted whilst we watch two people make silly decisions that we know aren’t going to end well. Bad decisions are the staple of most decent horror plots.

Well worth watching as one of the better examples of the ‘found footage’ style film.

Released on DVD from April 27^th, 2015