Country: USA
Length: 96 mins
Production Company: Blumhouse Productions
Executive Producer: Steven Schneider
Producers: Jason Blum, Oren Peli
Director/Writer/Cinematographer/Editor: Oren Peli
Special Makeup Effects: Crystal Cartwright
Sound Designer: Mark Binder
Budget: $15,000
Cast: Katie Featherston (Katie), Micah Sloat (Micah), Michael Baymouth (The Psychic), Amber Armstrong (Katie's Girlfriend).
Originally made in 2007, and picked up by Dreamworks at Slamdance in 2008 (apparently it scared Spielberg senseless), Oren Peli's $15,000 movie has been hyped by Paramount as the next Blair Witch Project, and marketed through Twitter (@tweetyourscream), Facebook, and at free midnight shows in college towns and film festivals. Initially targeted for a larger budget remake, test screenings aimed at identifying what should be changed, instead persuaded the suits to release the original, albeit with some re-editing.
The challenge - beyond our now in-built resistance to internet hype - is whether another micro-budget, video-perspective shocker has enough creativity, intelligence, and jump-out-your-seat scares to become a genuine phenomenon. Thankfully the answer in this case is a resounding "Hell, yeah".
Director/writer/cinematographer/editor Oren Peli's genius is to take the "throw the camera at the action" genre norm (seen in everything from Blair Witch to [Rec] and Cloverfield), and turn it on its head. For the most part – certainly for the most effective part – the camera becomes a static observer, from the corner of a bedroom at night, leaving the audience to search the frame for the slightest movement, and building a tangible sense of dread normally felt only in the second before you wake from a truly awful nightmare.
The patience required in the first third of the film is amply rewarded, as initial rumblings and strange noises gradually segue over several nights into strange activity and stranger, possibly dangerous, behavior. The film is not perfect, but Peli and his fine cast ratchet the tension to an almost unbearable degree, playing on the primal terror of sound, shadow, and the half-seen exploited by Val Lewton in the 40s, and exemplified in Lewton alumnus, Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963). One of the most chilling moments in horror history is Julie Harris's wide-eyed delivery of the line "God! God! Whose hand was I holding?" in Wise's masterpiece, and there are scenes that easily rival that here.
In a season when the biggest hit is a 3D sequel, studios think low budget horror films require hot chicks to sell tickets, and the grown-up material goes straight to DVD, it's a shot in the arm to experience an audience of 800+ (as I did last night in San Francisco's Castro Theater) experience a bite-your-knuckles, grab-your-partner, roller-coaster ride, and love every thrilling minute of it – it's been years since I heard so much spontaneous screaming and applause in a movie theater. Avoid the hype and see this with a close friend, on a big screen, as soon as possible. See the Website for theater listings, or to demand a showing in your area (US only).
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