Rorschach, a low-budget haunted house flick in the vein of Paranormal Activity is at least currently available on YouTube for free. We've gone through the trouble of filtering out Watchmen search results on YouTube so you can watch it here, or hop over to YouTube to watch it:
Rorschach Review
There's no denying it. Rorschach is virtually a Paranormal Activity clone. However, it is a clone I would deem more effective than its predecessor in many ways.
Rorschach follows a mother and daughter who are joined by two paranormal investigators in their home as they attempt to determine the reasoning behind odd and eerie disturbances that seem to be worsening gradually over time. No, that plot doesn't sound very original, but the subtlety in the approach of this film was far more effective at establishing a sense of realism and thereby connection that so many genre films fail to attain.
It's an unfortunate fact that this film, with its modest budget, established some of its realism by having nothing of consequence occur regularly. While unsettling for a good majority of the film, a sense of impending doom isn't deeply felt until the final act. However, the unsettling nature of the film is unparalleled by films of a similar caliber, particularly with its use of sound.
To speak in history-defying hyperbole, Rorschach was arguably the most effective film in using sound to instill an atmosphere of dread since The Babadook or Pontypool. The Pontypool sounds haunt my thoughts whenever I think of the film, and in the same way, I will likely never forget a couple of moments from Rorschach. It is a truly impressive feat to be memorable based on audio alone and this low-budget film managed to pull it off.
The film in its entirety is nothing new plot-wise or in its found footage cinematography. While it definitely gave the sense of a haunting that could actually happen, it was that thick subtlety of reality that made you think it wasn't real and it was real at the same time. It's perhaps hard to convey exactly what I mean...but if you watch it for yourself, maybe you can come across the same paradoxical feeling I experienced. And I'd say it's worth a watch...at least just as much as Paranormal Activity was.
Horror Qualifier: 7/10
Horror Quality: 5/10
Film Quality: 6/10