Horror Movie Review: The Fall of the House of Usher (dir by Roger Corman)

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1960 film, The Fall Of The House of Usher, opens with Phillip Winthrop (Mark Damon) riding his horse across a desolate landscape.

There’s a foreboding mansion in the distance but what the viewer immediately notices is that the land around the mansion looks almost post-apocalyptic. Even though the film is set in the 1800s, the misshapen trees and the high winds all bring to mind a film set in a nuclear-scarred world, the type where you expect to find radioactive mutants hiding behind every tree and rock.

Phillip is a young aristocrat who is traveling to the home of the Usher family. He is engaged to marry Madeleine Usher (Myrna Fahey) but, as soon as he arrives at the mansion, her older brother, Roderick (Vincent Price, with no mustache and blonde hair), informs Phillip that he will never be allowed to marry Madeleine. Roderick explains that the Usher family is cursed and he even takes Phillip on a tour of Usher family history, showing him a series of truly hideous paintings of past Ushers. One Usher was a murderer. Another Usher was blackmailer. An Usher wearing a pirate’s cap is identified as being a slave trader. The Ushers are cursed, with each family member destined to become insane. Roderick’s mission is to bring the Usher bloodline to a close and that means that Madeleine cannot marry.

Phillip disagrees, especially when the sickly Madeleine herself says that she wants to escape from her seemingly mad brother. With the house itself continually shaking as if it’s on the verge of collapsing, Phillip becomes determined to take Madeleine away. Roderick tries to warn him not to. Even the friendly butler, Bristol (Harry Ellerbe), encourages Phillip to give up. But Phillip remains stubborn and determined. However, when Madeleine suddenly collapses and dies, it appears that Phillip’s plans to marry her are at an end. But is Madeleine truly dead?

Based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, this was, at the time, the most expensive film that Roger Corman and American International Pictures had ever made. (It was also their first color film.) Of course, the budget was still just $300,000 and the Usher mansion was largely constructed out of props that were borrowed from other films. That said, the film had a name star and, with its vivid colors and its fiery finale, it certainly looked like a big-budget film. This film marked the first collaboration between Vincent Price and Roger Corman and it was a box office success, making a million dollars at a time when a million dollars really meant something.. Corman and Price would go on to do several other Poe adaptations together, all of which were distinguished by Price’s villainous performances and Corman’s pop art visuals.

Seen today, The Fall of the House of Usher can seem to be a bit slow. With only one location and a cast of only four actors, it often feels a bit stagey. Mark Damon is rather stiff as Phillip. (One can see why he abandoned acting to become a producer.) But Vincent Price’s performance as Roderick Usher continue to entertain, with Price delivering every line of dialogue with his trademark aristocratic archness. There’s nothing subtle about Price’s performance but Price’s tendency to overact perfectly matched Corman’s vivid visuals and it’s interesting to watch a hyperactive Price performance paired with the type of dull performance that Mark Damon offers up.

The fiery finale still packs a certain punch and, watching it, one can see why Corman and Price said, “Let’s do this again!” The Fall of the House of Usher (which is also available on some streaming sites as simply House of Usher) remains an enjoyable macabre Halloween treat.

House of Usher (1960, dir by Roger Corman, DP: Floyd Crosby)

Horror on the Lens: Dementia 13 (dir by Francis Ford Coppola)

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(I originally shared this film back in 2011, 2019, 2022, and 2023 — can you believe we’ve been doing this for that long? — but the YouTube upload keeps getting taken down! So, I’m resharing it today!)

For today’s excursion into the world of public domain horror, I offer up the film debut of Francis Ford Coppola. Before Coppola directed the Godfather and Apocalypse Now, he directed a low-budget, black-and-white thriller that was called Dementia 13. In a possible sign of things to come, producer Roger Corman and Coppola ended up disagreeing on the film’s final cut and Corman reportedly brought in director Jack Hill to film and, in some cases, re-film additional scenes.

Regardless of whether the credit should go to Coppola, Corman, or Hill, Dementia 13 is a brutally effective little film that is full of moody photography and which clearly served as an influence on the slasher films that would follow it in the future. Speaking of influence, Dementia 13 itself is obviously influenced by the Italian giallo films that, in 1963, were just now starting to make their way into the drive-ins and grindhouses of America.

Speaking of giallo films, keep an eye out for Patrick Magee, who gave a memorable performance in Lucio Fulci’s The Black Cat. Luana Anders, who plays the duplicitous wife in this film, showed up in just about every other exploitation film made in the 60s and yes, the scene where she’s swimming freaks me out to no end. Other films featuring Luana Anders include Night Tide and Easy Rider, in which she played one of the hippies who unsuccessfully enticed Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper to stay at the commune.

As for Francis Ford Coppola, well, he’s gone on to have quite a career, hasn’t he? It’s been quite a journey from Dementia 13 to Megalopolis!

October Positivity: Mindreader (dir by Rich Christiano)

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

2022’s Mindreader start out telling the story of the Great Dexter (Hamish Briggs).

In 1974, Dexter amazed audiences with his mid-reading tricks. He also amazed his fellow magicians, none of whom could figure out how Dexter performed his tricks. Dexter insisted that they only needed to consider his catch phrase — “I don’t really do magic, I just read minds,” — to understand how he was able to know what people were thinking. Dexter said that his fellow magicians just needed to have faith that he could do what he could do.

But the other magicians, because they were so used to the idea of tricking their audiences, would not accept what Dexter said. They launched an investigation into how Dexter was able to read minds. A particularly jealous magician tried to fool Dexter by lying about what he was thinking. Dexter, of course, saw right through him and humiliated the magician in front of his peers. Those who worked at the same theater as Dexter were offered money to spy on and betray Dexter. Dexter’s story eventually ended with tragedy.

Years later, Dexter is a revered figure. The same organization of magicians that persecuted him now wants to honor him. They interview those who knew Dexter. They hear about Dexter’s powers. They hear about how Dexter’s ability to read minds helped countless people. And they still demand to know how Dexter could have read minds. Dexter’s now aged assistant tells them that they can either believe it was a trick or they can accept that Dexter could do what he said he could.

Now, it’s pretty obvious what this film is getting at. Dexter is obviously meant to be a Christ figure and his persecution is meant to parallel the betrayal and crucifixion of Jesus. It’s not at all subtle but it’s still fairly well-done. For a Rich Christiano film, the first hour of Mindreader is well-directed, well-acted, and nicely paced.

However, the film takes an abrupt turn when the end credits suddenly roll at the 60 minute mark and a whole new film begin. Suddenly, the viewer finds themselves watching as a bunch of college students as they stand up and leave a movie theater. They agree the movie was interesting but they don’t say much else about it. The student who invited them to the movie goes to his dorm room and feels like a failure for not talking to them about the film’s message. But, the next day, he discovers that at least one of them is interesting in what the film was really about and they proceed to discuss it.

Two things about this ending:

Number one, it feels more than a little self-congratulatory. One gets the feeling that this ending was Christiano’s way of clapping back at every critic (like me!) who has ever suggested that a lot of faith-based films don’t really do much to reach people who don’t already agree with their point of view.

Number two, as the magicians in this film could have told you, you should never reveal how it’s done. There’s a difference between getting people to think about something and telling people to think about it. After an effective hour, Mindreader gets too heavy-handed for its own good.

Sometimes, you have to have faith in your audience.

October Hacks: Murder Rock (dir by Lucio Fulci)

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Are the streets to blame? Paranoia’s coming your way….

Ah, Murder Rock.

This 1984 film is often dismissed as being one of director Lucio Fulci’s lesser efforts, an attempt to combine the trappings of the giallo genre with the sexy, choreographed dance routines of Flashdance. And certainly, the film does lack the visceral, dream-like horror of The Beyond trilogy and Zombi 2. The film’s killer isn’t even as interesting as The New York Ripper‘s killer who talked like a duck. That said, I think some critics have been a bit too hard on Murder Rock over the years. Taken on its own terms, it’s a well-made slasher with a healthy does of 80s style. Of course, I should admit that, as someone who grew up attending dance classes and dancing through the pain, I could relate to the film’s milieu. I’ve never had to deal with a zombie in real life but I did meet my share of dancers who would do anything to move up.

The film takes place at the Arts For The Living Center in New York City, where young dancers are hoping to land a spot on a televisions show and also hoping to avoid getting killed by the murderer who is haunting the locker rooms and using a long hairpin needle to stop the hearts of his victims. (The sound of a previously healthy victim’s heart beating on the soundtrack and then abruptly stopping is far more powerful than one might expect.)

Previously seen losing an eye in Fulci’s Zombi 2, Olga Karalatos plays Candice Norman, the owner of the dance studio. When one of her dancers is murdered while taking a shower, Candice is just one of many suspects. Candice, however, is haunted by a dream in which she sees herself being stalked by a handsome man (Ray Lovelock) carrying a hairpin. Later, Candice realizes that she’s seen the handsome man before. He’s George Webb, a male model whose face adorns a billboard. Candice starts to investigate George on her own, discovering that he’s apparently an alcoholic who lives in a run-down apartment. When evidence starts to show up suggesting that George could be the murderer, he claims that he’s being framed.

Of course, George isn’t the only suspect. There’s also Willy Stark (played by Christian Borromeo), a dancer whose girlfriend ends up as a victim of the murder spree. With his blonde hair and aristocratic bearing, Christian Borromeo was one of the most handsome actors to appear in Italian films in the early 80s. He didn’t do many films before retiring but he still managed to appear in films directed by Dario Argento, Federico Fellini, Ruggero Deodato, and Lucio Fulci. He played very different characters in all of his films and gave a good performance each time. One reason why I specifically want to single out Christian Borromeo here is because there’s still a lot of people online who are under the impression that Borromeo died a heroin overdose in the 80s. This is largely due to a comment that was made during an interview with David Hess, who co-starred with Borromeo in The House At The Edge of the Park. Hess was confusing Borromeo with their co-star, Garbiele Di Giulio. Di Giulio did indeed die of a heroin overdose. Christian Borromeo is still alive, though retired from acting.

As for Murder Rock, the killings are nowhere near as gory as in Fulci’s other films but that actually adds to the film’s creepy atmosphere. The killer is frightening because the killer is coolly efficient and can kill without resorting to the out-of-control, manic violence of quacking sociopath at the center of The New York Ripper. As is usual with Fulci, the film’s visuals are Murder Rock‘s greatest strength. The first murder occurs while the locker room’s light blink on and off, creating a truly frightening sequence as the camera seamlessly assumes the killer’s point of view. When the police investigate the crime, the flashes of the police cameras are almost blinding as they record the stark crime scene. Candice’s nightmares play out like a particularly macabre perfume commercial (and yes, that it meant as a compliment). Fulci’s camera roams from location to location, keeping the audience off-balance throughout the film. As he did in so many of his other films, Fulci makes New York look like the grimiest, most claustrophobic city in the world.

As for the dance sequences, they’re so over-the-top that you can’t help but love them. The film was obviously envisioned as a way to cash in on the popularity of Flashdance but Fulci’s dispenses of the romanticism that made Flashdance a hit and instead just focuses on bodies moving in a explosion of choreographed carnality. There’s nothing subtle about the way the film lingers on the spandex-clad dancers but then again, that’s why we love Fulci. He was not one to make apologies.

Fulci once said that Murder Rock was meant to be the first part of a projected trilogy of musical gialli. Who knows whether or not that’s true. (As an interview subject, Fulci was always quick to boat of the grand projects he had planned for the future. As the diabetic Fulci was in precarious health at the same time that he made his most popular horror films, there was always something rather poignant to Fulci’s constant boasting about all of the great films he planned to make.) As I said at the start of this review, Murder Rock is one of Fulci’s less-appreciated films but, as someone who loves both dancing and watching horror movies, I’ve always liked it. Even the fact that the killer is exposed in a way that doesn’t really stand up to close scrutiny just adds to the film’s charm. (Seriously, a good giallo rarely makes that much sense.)

In closing — SING IT!

Are the streets to blame?

Paranoia’s coming your way!

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: Spookies (dir by Brendan Faulkner, Thomas Doran, and Eugenie Joseph)

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1986 film Spookies is not exactly the easiest film to describe.

A 13 year-old boy named Billy (Alec Nemser) runs away from home after his parents forget his birthday. After a conversation with a random drifter, Billy ends up entering a spooky and apparently abandoned mansion. The inside of the house is decorated for a birthday party. “They didn’t forget!” Billy says, assuming the party is for him even though neither he nor his parents live at the house. Needless to say, the party is not for Billy, who soon ends up getting buried alive by a werecat (Dan Scott).

The werecat is the pet of Kreon (Felix Ward), an elderly warlock who lives in the abandoned house and spends his time playing chess and trying to convince his wife, Isabelle (Maria Pechukas), to fall in love with him. He’s been trying to convince Isabelle for 70 years. Kreon is very old but Isabelle is still very young because Kreon has been sacrificing people to keep her young. Isabelle is not particularly happy about that.

Meanwhile, a group of four couples and one friend come across the house on the same night of Billy. Having gotten kicked out of a previous party, they decide to have a new party in the house. The main thing that most viewers will notice about the nine friends is that none of them seem to have much in common. Duke (Pat Wesley Bryan) and Linda (Joan Ellen Delaney) are apparently supposed to be rebellious teenagers, despite appearing to be in their 30s. Adrienne (Charlotte Alexandra) appears to be wealthy and spoiled and is married to wimpy Dave (Anthony Valbrio). Peter (Peter Dain) and Meegan (Kim Merril) both appear to be in their 40s and seem to be way too straight-laced and intelligent to be hanging out with Duke. Rich (Peter Iasillo, Jr.) is the practical joker of the group and carries a puppet around with him. Finally, Carol (Lisa Friede) and Lewis (Al Magliochetti) don’t get much character development as it only takes a few minutes for Carol to get possessed by a demon and for Lewis to die while trying to flee the mansion.

It turns out that the entire mansion is crawling with demons. There’s zombies in both the wine cellar and the nearby cemetery. There’s a spiderwoman who has spun quite an impressive web. There are little green lizard things that chew off people’s faces. There’s a hooded figure who can shoot out electrified tendrils. While the monsters track down and kill the party-goers one-by-one, the Werecat watches from a distance and purrs. Occasionally, he goes and visits with Kreon, who says that everything is going as he planned it. Personally, I think Kreon is just saying that because it’s obvious that next to no planning went into any of this.

To say that Spookies is a bit disjointed would be an understatement. The fact that there are three credited directors provides a clue as to how that came to be. The footage with the partygoers and all the house monsters was filmed first and directed by Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Doran. Creative differences between the film’s producers and financial backers led to the film being temporarily abandoned during the editing process. A year later, Eugene Joseph was hired to shoot the scenes of Billy, Kreon, the Werecat, and Isabelle and those scenes were rather clumsily inserted into the original footage. The end result was Spookies.

But, oddly enough, as confusing and disjointed and nonsensical as it all is, it kind of works. The old mansion is creepy. (Interestingly enough, the mansion is actually the Jay Estate, the home of founding father John Jay.) Some of the monster makeup is effectively grotesque. The story’s incoherence and even the all-around bad acting on the part of the actors playing the victims all come together to create a nightmarish atmosphere. (And, in defense of the scenes that were shot by Eugenie Joseph, the performances of Felix Ward, Dan Scott, and Maria Pechukas are all actually quite good.) The film’s frenzied ending actually works surprisingly well.

At its worst, Spookies is an Evil Dead rip-off that lacks the enthusiasm that Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell brought to that film. At its best, Spookies feels like a filmed nightmare.

Horror Scenes That I Love: The Return of Joe from Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s horror scene that I love comes from Lucio Fulci’s 1981 masterpiece, The Beyond.

In this memorably gruesome scene, Joe the Plumber (Tonino Pulci) comes back to life. Having previously lost an eye in the basement of the film’s haunted hotel, he proceeds to claim an eye for himself. I’ll tell you right now that if I ever stepped into a house or a hotel or anywhere that had a sink that looked like that, I would quickly leave and never come back.

October True Crime: Ripper’s Revenge (dir by Steve Lawson)

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Taking place in Victorian-era London, 2023’s Ripper’s Revenge tells the story of Sebastian Stubb (Chris Bell.)

Sebastian Stubb is a journalist, writing stories for one of the many sleazy tabloids that keep the people of London in a state of constant agitation. Just a few months ago, things were going well for Stubb and his fellow reporters. Jack the Ripper was terrorizing the city and sending bloody letters to both the police and the newspaper. Every day, there was a new detail to be reported and a new panic to stoke. Stubb and his colleagues left London obsessing over the crimes and the motivation of the mysterious Jack the Rippe, to such an extent that Stubb now feels that his reporting probably inspired more murders than it stopped.

Jack the Ripper’s killing spree has come to an apparent end and the Ripper himself has disappeared, though Londoners still continue to speculate about who he could have been. (In real life, the police rather infamously claimed that an obscure lawyer named Montague Druitt was the murderer but there really wasn’t much evidence for that, beyond the fact that the murders appear to have ended at the same time that Druitt committed suicide. Personally, I suspect that the assassin was an American con artist named Francis Tumblety, who fled back to America shortly after the final murder was committed.) Stubb is now struggling financially. While his girlfriend, Iris (Rachel Warren), walks the streets just as the victims of Jack the Ripper once did, Stubb searches for the next big story.

Then, one day, Stubb gets a letter. The letter is from someone claiming to be Jack the Ripper. The writer apologizes for having not written sooner and then tells Stubb that his latest victim can be found in a warehouse. Though believing the letter to be a hoax, Stubb goes to the warehouse and discovers a dead prostitute. At the same time, Stubb is himself discovered by the London police and is hauled off to jail.

Now, at this point, I should mention that Ripper’s Revenge is a sequel to a film called Ripper Untold. That film also featured Chris Bell as Stubb and apparently, it featured him investigating the original Ripper murders. I point this out because I haven’t seen Ripper Untold, so I don’t know how directly Ripper’s Revenge follows the story from the first film. It doesn’t really matter, though, This is a case where you can follow the sequel’s plot without having seen the original.

We know Stubb is not the Ripper but who is? Because this is a low-budget film, there really aren’t that many suspects. Inspector Wingate (Carl Wharton) seems to have a nasty puritanical streak. Junior reporter Lenny (Rafe Bird) seems to be almost too eager to help out Stubb. And even Iris seems to be really excited about the idea of the murders starting again, if just so Stubb can make more money. Who is the murderer? I won’t spoil it, beyond to say that the ending has so many twists that it almost starts to feel like a parody of a surprise ending.

That said, this low-budget and rather talky film is actually surprisingly effective. Bell, Warren, Wharton, and especially Rafe Bird all give excellent performances and the film really does capture the claustrophobic desperation of living on the fringes of acceptability, (This is a case where both the low budget and the limited amount of locations really work to the film’s benefit.) The discussion about whether or not the Ripper would have existed without the press shows that this film has more on its mind than just exploiting the crimes of history’s first celebrity killer. As I said, the ending is a twisty one and it doesn’t quite make sense but things rarely do when it comes to Jack the Ripper.

Horror Film Review: Terror of Mechagodzilla (dir by Ishiro Honda)

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Megchagodzilla has returned!

The robot version of Godzilla, Mechagodzilla made his debut in 1974’s Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. In that film, it was revealed that Mechagodzilla was built and controlled by a bunch of aliens who wanted to use him to subjugate humanity so that the aliens could take over the Earth. The real Godzilla put an end to those plans, not only saving the world from an alien invasion but also tossing Mechagodzilla into the ocean.

Unfortunately, it would appear that Godzilla didn’t do a good enough job taking care of his robotic counterpart because, in 1975’s Terror of Mechagodzilla, the aliens are able to resurrect Mechagodzilla and they once again sent it out to destroy humanity, starting with Japan. Working with the aliens is a mad scientist named Dr. Mafune (Akihko Hirata). Mafune’s daugther, Katsura (Tomoka Ai0), is a cyborg who has a mechanical and mental connection to Mechagodzilla. Whenever her eyes glow, Mechagodizlla does something destructive. The aliens team Mechagodzilla up with a new monster, the fearsome Titanosaurus.

Mechagodzilla and Titanosaurus work together to once again destroy Japan and it must be said that they appear to be quite capable of doing just that. Say what you will about the special effects in these films, the scene where Mechagodzilla blows up an entire city block does pack a punch. If Mechagodzilla is laser-focused on blowing stuff up, Titanosaurus just seems to be looking for a fight with someone. Titanosaurus is a very enthusiastic monster, like a previously bullied kid who has just hit a growth spurt and now can’t wait to beat up everyone on the playground. Eventually, Godzilla shows up to give Titanosaurus the fight that he’s looking for.

This film is one of the ones where Godzilla is firmly established as being humanity’s champion. The atomic beast who once represented the trauma of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is now a friend to all humans. That said, it’s hard not to notice that it takes Godzilla a while to actually show up. He allows Mechagodzilla and Titanosaurus to blow up a lot of buildings and probably kill a lot of people before he finally puts in an appearance and orders them to stop. It’s nice that Godzilla showed up in time to save a group of children from Mechagodzilla but you have to wonder how many of those children are now orphans because Godzilla wasn’t willing to do anything while Mechagodzilla was blowing up apartment buildings.

The majority of this film centers not on Godzilla but instead on some Interpol agents who are trying to figure out what the professor and the aliens are planning on doing. (To me, it seemed pretty obvious that the aliens were planning on using a bunch of giant monsters to destroy humanity but maybe Interpol had some information that I didn’t.) The agents do eventually manage to track down the aliens and the professor. There’s some sub-James Bond style action as the agents attack the evil lair. Despite everything that Interpol does in this film, it’s obvious that Godzilla is man’s only hope.

This was the last of the original Godzilla films. After this film came out, it would be nearly ten years before the monster was revived and returned to once again being a threat to humanity as opposed to being a friend. Sadly, Terror of Mechagodzilla doesn’t feature enough giant monster action. When the monsters are onscreen and fighting, this movie is a lot of fun. Godzilla’s visible frustration with having to deal with Mechagodzilla again is very endearing. Unfortunately, the majority of the film gets bogged down with the humans searching for the bad guys and trying to figure out their extremely simple plot. In the end, the movie leaves the viewer thankful for Godzilla but also frustrated that he didn’t get more to do.

Previous Godzilla Reviews:

6 Shots From 6 Horror Films: The Special Lucio Fulci Edition!

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

6 Shots From 6 Films is just what it says it is, 6 shots from 6 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 6 Shots From 6 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.

Today, the 2nd of October, the TSL honors of the greatest of all Italian horror directors, the one and only Lucio Fulci!

6 Shots From 6 Lucio Fulci Films

A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin (1971, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Luigi Kuveiller)

Zombi 2 (1979, dir. Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)

The Beyond (1981, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)

The House By The Cemetery (1981, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)

The New York Ripper (1982, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Luigi Kuveiller )

Murder Rock (1984, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Guiseppe Pinori)

Horror Film Review: You’re Not Alone (dir by Eduardo Rodriguez)

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Oh, screw this.

About fifty minutes into this movie, an adorable calico kitty cat is killed for no good reason. We’re not supposed to care because the cat belonged to an annoying neighbor, the cat had a silly name (Mr. Nibbles, though considering that the cat’s a calico, it really should have been named Ms. Nibbles), and the cat was trespassing in the main character’s house. But, to tell you the truth, I’ve had it with movies that feature animals being killed for nothing more than shock value. Don’t get me wrong. I know that cat wasn’t really killed and the cat’s owner probably got paid for her services but I’ve seen so many movies with so many dead pets that it just feels lazy at this point.

As for the rest of the film, it tells the story of Emma (Katia Winter) and her daughter, Isla (Leya Catlett). Emma, a recovering alcoholic and a recent widow, has recently gotten custody of Isla. They live in a gigantic house, one that I’m not sure how Emma affords on her salary as a waitress. While Emma tries to bond with the uncommunicative Isla, strange things start to happen around the house. Doors seem to open and close on their own. The home security system keeps going off. Things keep disappearing. People keep disappearing. Isla starts to talk about “the lost ghost” who apparently lives in her closet. Isla explains that the lost ghost is “always here” and he’s always watching Emma. Along with the ghost, Emma is haunted by memories of her past and an obsessive stalker who keeps showing up at inopportune moments.

You’re Not Alone actually gets off to a good start. Haunted house films are almost always effective because everyone can relate to them. We’ve all had the experience of lying in bed and wondering if someone is wandering around outside or if the sounds are just in our imagination. You don’t even have to live in a house to have that fear. Even when you’re living in an apartment, things get creepy once you turn out the lights, Katia Winter gives a good and sympathetic performance as Emma and you’re on her side from the minute you see her having to deal with a snooty woman at the custody hearing. The early scenes of Emma trying to keep calm and do her best even while her life seems to be falling apart are the best in the film.

But You’re Not Alone loses its way as it continues. The cat dies. A visit to a church feels like it was lifted from a hundred other horror films. Emma’s best friend disappears in the closet but Emma never seems to notice her absence and Isla, who witnessed the disappearance, never mentions it to her. A bunch of flies invade the house because someone’s seen The Amityville Horror. The film commits the unpardonable sin of getting boring and a sudden twist ending can’t change that fact.

Call it the Curse of Mr. Nibbles. Kill the cat and your film falls apart.