Into The Storm ** (out of five)
When I first saw the posters for Into The Storm, I couldn’t fathom why anyone would want to see it. Now I know. You see Into The Storm for the scenes when you go into the storm. These happen about every ten minutes or so, when one or another of the (generic) groups of (young, mostly) characters drives straight into, or is set upon by, the eye of one of the film’s many well (computer) generated tornados. These sequences are great fun, with the sound system at the cinema I attended getting the most out of the sound design’s deep stormy bass effects: my seat shook, and I felt like I was in a ride. None of this was at all scary, by the way, and I can’t imagine it’s intended to be. I wouldn’t call this a horror film, nor even a thriller; it’s an adventure.
What happens between the storm set-pieces is not worth mentioning. Those same generic characters drive between storms, get ready for storms, or partake of mundane activities so that they can be surprised by storms.
The whole thing is constructed as found footage and goes to ludicrous lengths to make this plausible by showing everyone carrying some sort of camera most of the time, having “storm chasers” as characters, and making Pete (a very oddly cast Matt Walsh) the most dedicated (obsessed?) storm chaser of them all, thus encouraging everyone else to keep filming even as they’re… well, getting sucked… into the storm.
The ending, not that it matters, is ludicrous.