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Movie Review: Jessabelle

Published

9 years ago

November 9, 2014

If nothing else what you can say about Jessabelle is that it is beautifully shot in a stunning part of the world. The location is a visual treat, this often works well for many horror films, countryside settings often give a natural reason for the silence that is needed in the odd scene of a horror movie.

What I found interesting about the first act of Jessabelle was the use of colour in the house, in scenes where Jessabelle was looking at things from her’ childhood the unimpeded sunlight penetrates into every corner of the house; this is to illustrate that things were easier for her as a child. The house at night is an entirely different story. Due to the woody surroundings of the house; the green from the trees and the murky waters of the lake, the house has a mysterious green filter over everything. This was not only a clever tactic to submerge the viewer in the world Jessabelle is trying to create but a interesting horror technique, it means there are many places for the spirit to hide. Due to the obscured view of the room the ghost could be hidden anywhere. Like many horror techniques this one is trying to play on a inherent fear in many humans, think about it, how many people say they are afraid of jumping into a body of water when they can’t see the bottom? Many will tell you that it isn’t the water, its what could be in it. There is something in that and I think Kevin Greutert knows it. This is why he aimed to make Jess’ room look like the lake outside the house. Given the importance of the lake to the story, especially its importance to the family that once dwelt in the house it is interesting that the colours of the lake itself appear to creep into the home.

Although I thought the first act had an interesting and focussed atmosphere I found one particular element incredibly frustrating. The main character exploring either a new house or an old house they used to live in is a tried and tested, dare I say overused trope of horror movies. It was disappointing to see a film that up to this point was very unique, using a generic and boring tactic. It was particularly irritating given how long these scenes were, filler moments as long as these in a movie as short as Jessabelle is no good thing.

The sequence that stood out to me was when Jess’ mother gives her a tarot card reading on a VHS tape recorded before she died. The scene went from sweet to tense and creepy in an intelligent way. The other stand out moment of the first act was the spirit rolling towards the bed in the wheelchair and reaching through the curtain that surrounds it. The curtain being positioned in the same place as the night before indicating that something had physically moved it was an interesting take on something that has been done many times before. The scariest moment of the movie was the scene in the bath, it is just a shame that this moment wasn’t all that scary; just mildly tense with one well done jump scare.

Though the soundtrack was effective and well and the scenes around the swamp with the gravestone were the definition of weird everything after this point was boring and failed to muster up any tension or fear. It had an interesting story up to a point after which it became needlessly convoluted. The occasional moments of creepiness are the only saving grace of an overall boring movie. Clocking in at only an hour and a half, Jessabelle feels about four hours long.

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Movies

‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

Published

17 mins ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

^{High Desert Hell}

^{The Gemini Project}

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Movies

‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

Published

2 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

^{Happy Sad Confused}

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

Published

5 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.