January 27th, 2014 
Grace Duffy 
Film: The Banshee Chapter
Directed by: Blair Erickson
Starring: Katia Winter, Michael McMillian, Ted Levine
Like most of HP Lovecraft’s short stories, “From Beyond” tells the tale of a tortured, narcissistic type who foolishly creates something he can’t possibly control and ends up being torn to ribbons by it. This particular one revolves around a scientist who creates some kind of radio device that stimulates a certain part of the human brain, allowing him to receive waves from “beyond” and perceive shapes and beings that live on planes other than our own. It’s fairly standard Lovecraftian fare, and not a half bad basis for setting up a film – as The Banshee Chapter ably proves. A surprisingly convincing effort, it’s one that manages not just to transcend its humble, grainy set-up but actively manipulates it, creating a world so stark and inhibiting that it is often very creepy.
Anne (Katia Winter) is a reporter looking to investigate her old college friend’s mysterious disappearance. James (Michael McMillian) had been investigating Project MKUltra, a government experiment in behavioural engineering, and vanished shortly after taking a drug used in the experiments. Looking around his apartment in the wake of the disappearance, Anne recovers disturbing video footage and notebooks and picks up where he left off.
Be it deliberate or due to budgetary constraints, almost all of The Banshee Chapter is filmed in darkness. Even when it’s daylight out, the characters seem to withdraw into shadowy corners of rooms, preferring to sit in darkness even when there’s plenty of perfectly functional electricity. This may be a fairly obvious tactic in horror movies but it does work extremely well, not least if (like me) you’ve spent far too much time reading those terrible Reddit threads where people talk about random unexplained banging on the door in the middle of the night and can thus imagine various twisted evils lurking in the shadows beyond. Horror, even thrillers, work much better when they let the viewer picture his or her own particular brand of evil rather than dousing them in gore. Banshee Chapter‘s storyline allows it to show rather than tell, plying a slow, methodical trail through nocturnal desert locales and abandoned research facilities to create a heightened sense of atmosphere and suspense. The amateurish shooting style actually makes this all the more convincing – rather than going for a traditional found-footage effect, video diaries give it the air of a patchy documentary, capturing jump scares and looming presences that immerse the viewer in the same terrors besieging the characters.
Carrying much of the film by herself, Winter is a capable and eye-catching presence as Anne. Her character may be cut from the standard final girl cloth, but she’s more intelligent than most in these kinds of films and provides a determined and meticulous focal point. She’s well supported by Ted Levine as Thomas Blackburn, a Hunter S. Thompson-alike to whom Anne turns for more info, and the only other cast member with any significant screen time. The two of them face off against largely-unseen otherworldly figures, manipulations of unknown environments taking form in the shadows to prey on growing fear and paranoia. Many of the scares are familiar, ticks such as distorted faces and radio broadcasts figuring highly, but the filmmakers use them sparingly enough to keep viewers on their toes.
The Banshee Chapter is a finely made and highly commendable piece, defying many of the constraints of its makers to fashion an absorbingly nightmarish tale. It draws on its simplistic origins to create something austere and intense, enhancing a well-known ghost story with something a little eerier and bleaker and marking more than one of its participants as names to watch out for in future.
SCORE: B+
Review written by Grace Duffy
- David Fincher’s ‘Gone Girl’ Gets An Icy New Trailer - July 7, 2014
- SCENE & HEARD: ‘Jersey Boys’ - June 27, 2014
- MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Snowpiercer’ - June 21, 2014
Posted in 
Tags: 