Available now on VOD/Digital Platforms from Dark Sky Films
A man on parole is sent to spend a week in a house that needs to be spirit-cleansed where he soon starts to wonder about his sanity and the supernatural.
Written and directed by DW Medoff, the film is a bit of a slow burn with some creepy elements, but mostly it falls a bit flat. The story starts well enough and has a few story turns that are truly interesting and even a few creepy moments bordering on scary. The film takes its time to develop and make it point, using shock (or attempt at shock) to bring the horror fans into the fray and keep their attention. However, the main two shock moments are something that feel like they belong to entirely different film and while the set up why the man went to prison, it doesn’t full make sense in terms of logic, evidence, and legal process. Which means that the reasons for the character being where he is are strenuous at best leading to the story losing impact. Less would have been more on a few items here while other parts of the story could have used more time and events, such as the supernatural elements. The story here kind of works, kind doesn’t. It’s one of those films where the writing has some good and too much bland to truly work. The scares are minimal here, but a few of them do work.
The cast here is mostly one man and a few visitors who come in and out of the story. Kenneth Trujillo plays the lead of Richard Marwood and do so quite well, the fact that the writing and story let him down becomes frustrating as he does give a good performance and gets the majority of the run time, so he really has time to develop his character and make the most of what he has been given here. The rest of the cast gets a whole lot less screen time, each of them coming and going to either set-up the story or bring in a few elements here and there, doing their best with the material. Another cast member who does the most out of her part is Emma Anne Wedemeyer as The Crone. She is creepy, icky, skin-crawling goodness. She is the bringer of most of the creepy moments and thus the MVP here.
The film’s cinematography (and lighting) makes a few odd choices here and there, but overall make the film look great and even help make the darker-lit scenes and sequences actually visually interesting by actually allowing the viewer to see what is happening on the screen, something too few films have been doing right recently. The cinematography is pretty and well-done, with good framing, and good use of light, even when limited, bringing the film some much needed interest.
The film here is one that seemed to have tried on all fronts but issues with the script and story leaves it in the “meh” category where it has some good moments, but overall, it’s a bit boring to be honest. The film does look good and lead Trujillo does well and so does Wedemeyer, but their performances are sadly not enough to push this film over the hump and the cinematography is good but also is not enough to keep the attention throughout the film. This film does the worst crime of cinema by being neither good nor bad, just being bland and a bit boring instead of a truly creepy slow burn.