Stormhouse is a little talked about ghost movie from the UK. I personally hadn't heard a word about it until a friend of mine recommended it - and it was very cheap at play.com also. Always a reason to buy a movie. Sometimes (no, more than sometimes!) I go to the horror section, choose "all" and then sort the prices from low to high - and voila, I can make big order without going bankrupt. Lots of hidden treasures down there among the cheap stuff.
It's sold with the quote "Like a supernatural version of The Thing", which sounds cool. I can agree on parts of that likness, but it never comes even close to the paranoia that Carpenter's movie delivers. But the story itself is very cool. Somewhere in the UK there's a military base where they have - through a machine - trapped a ghost! Now they're using it to torture war prisoners and make other sadistic experiments with. A female paranormal expert (Katie Flynn) is hired to communicated with the ghost, but she soon realize the immoral experiments and tries to stop them... but then something goes wrong, and the angry, childish, spirit is out... out for revenge!
First of all, stop and understand that Stormhouse is a very cheap production. It looks kinda cheap and feels a bit rushed from time to time. Now when I've warned you I can also say that this is a great little horror flick, which manages to do something I'm always looking for: being fucking serious. It's not tongue-in-cheek... there's hardly any special effects and the actors acts as it was their life depended on it. Isn't that awesome? A low budget horror movie that takes itself seriously. It's rare nowadays.
It would have been so easy to have a comic relief or a few ironic references to other horror films here and there, but no. I thank you for that, filmmakers. It's a nice location and even if it's used almost in complete darkness (probably to hide the cheap look, a thing Donnie Yen did with his excellent 1998 action film Ballistic Kiss - it's one of the darknest movies I've seen) it creates a lot of atmosphere. The darkness here just triggers the imagination. I found myself sitting and thinking, making up how the place looks under that compact blackness. That's a good thing.
The actors are great, the ghost and his behaviour (he wants to play and sing...brrr!) is fucking freaky and the script is pretty tight and ends satisfying. What I miss is just what the quote suggested, it's not enough paranoia. They could have used this great idea to make something far more complex. Maybe the time wasn't enough, I don't know - but it feels like it misses the human drama.
But shouldn't whine. This is a fine little cheapie and it deserves more attention from us horror fans. But I've done my duty now. It's up to you to now...
"Always a reason to buy a movie. Sometimes (no, more than sometimes!) I go to the horror section, choose "all" and then sort the prices from low to high - and voila, I can make big order without going bankrupt. Lots of hidden treasures down there among the cheap stuff."
I thought I was the only one who did that....
"Now they're using it to torture war prisoners and make other sadistic experiments with. A female paranormal expert (Katie Flynn) is hired to communicated with the ghost, but she soon realize the immoral experiments and tries to stop them... but then something goes wrong, and the angry, childish, spirit is out... out for revenge!"
Interesting premise......good metaphor though.
"Isn't that awesome? A low budget horror movie that takes itself seriously. It's rare nowadays."
Rare indeed.
"The actors are great, the ghost and his behaviour (he wants to play and sing...brrr!) is fucking freaky and the script is pretty tight and ends satisfying. What I miss is just what the quote suggested, it's not enough paranoia."
A musical ghost...?
Yeah, that won´t create paranoia...hahhahahhah
"But shouldn't whine. This is a fine little cheapie and it deserves more attention from us horror fans. But I've done my duty now. It's up to you to now..."
Sounds good to me, UK have suprised me a couple of times when it comes to genrestuff, horror etc.
Good review and thanks.
Posted by: Megatron | May 11, 2013 at 18:38