Found footage is either the bane of my horror experience or a delight, and Final Prayer is no exception to that idea. I really like the idea at work here, and I love the climax, though I wish it had been executed better, we don’t see enough, we don’t quite learn enough, though the fear is genuine.

A group of Vatican investigators are sent to a remote church to investigate, and perhaps debunk, some mysterious happenings. Deacon (Gordon Kennedy) is the de facto leader of the group, though he’s a bit of a wild card and rogue, following an incident he’s reticent to talk about. Gray (Robin Hill) is the tech member of the group, more interested in the cameras and sound equipment than questions of god, God, or the supernatural.

They are eventually joined by the bookish, and rule-following Mark (Aidan McArdle),

Gray is determined to document everything, outfitting each member of the team with a cam and mic, as well as set up observational cameras around their residence and the old church they are investigating.

They’ve been summoned by the local Priest (Lee Arnold) who is insistent something strange is happening. Deacon is less than sure, but as the group investigates, he summons a fellow investigator, Father Calvino (Patrick Godfrey) to verify some of his troubling discoveries.

The church, the grounds on which it stands, and the surrounding area all have a history, something the locals are reticent to talk about.

There seems to be something supernatural going on, something really troubling. As things escalate, the group finds a series of steps leading down into a collection of subterranean caverns, littered with glyphs, pictograms, and countless remains.

When things really start to go sideways, and the cameras become increasingly glitchy and shakey, we get glimpses of something horrible deep in the caverns, and the final sequence is pretty great. It could have been orchestrated a little better, but the idea works really well.

Found footage can be a little iffy, and you have to buy into the scenario, and the performances, and most of them are quite good, though towards the end Gray gets a little annoying all while Deacon becomes increasingly obsessed with discovering the truth.

There’s a lot of fun moments in the film, some disturbing ones, and that ending definitely is troubling because we don’t get as many answers as we would like.

I came across this one on a list of found footage films that were worth checking out, and I have to agree with it, it’s a fairly solid tale, with fairly decent production values, executed to the best of its ability, and hints at something truly monstrous going on.

Is it great? No. But it’s fun folk horror meets found footage that had an interesting idea behind it, and doesn’t over extend itself.