Paranormal Goon-Outs

Not uncommon for horror movie authors to encounter the supernatural. Wouldn’t be a horror movie if they didn’t. The polter-premise then causes them to put down the typewriter and to Scooby-Doo the presented mystery. A few examples off the top of my roof include Dark Remains (2005), Re-Cycle (2006), The Marsh (2006), Deadline (2009), Paranormal (2009). Such is the framework for House of Affliction (releasing February 2016), a supernatural thriller featuring an author gal experiencing paranormal goon-outs.

Here’s mo’ juice: “Kate Beckley was once a best-selling crime author, but it’s been years since her last novel following the disappearance of her daughter, Julia. While attempting to write again in a new home, Kate finds herself haunted by strange visions and paranormal occurrences, which become worse each night. Has Julia returned, or is something more evil preying on this grieving mother?”

I’m gonna have to say yep to both. But if this premise sounds familiar, that’s because it’s lifted directly from Sinister, which came out in 2012. Behold…

“True-crime writer Ellison Oswald is in a slump; he hasn’t had a best seller in more than 10 years and is becoming increasingly desperate for a hit. So, when he discovers the existence of a snuff film showing the deaths of a family, he vows to solve the mystery. He moves his own family into the victims’ home and gets to work. However, when old film footage and other clues hint at the presence of a supernatural force, Ellison learns that living in the house may be fatal.”

For more supernatural mystery hauntings, please consult your local haunted house. Or Scooby-Doo.

Bogged Down With Ghosts

As a successful author of fantasy children’s books, the fetching Claire Holloway keeps having hot flashes about a spooky old house. Searching on the Internet, she finds the domicile of her nightmares in a small town and rents it. Once inside, Claire is visited by a little dead girl that looks like she spent too much time in the bathtub. Then there’s that teenager ghost boy with demon eyes and black gunk dripping out of his mouth. Typical teen.

These visitations are increasing, so she finds a paranormal investigator (most small gossip towns have one) and all steaming heck starts to break loose. The paranormal guy actually sees the ghosts, so any of Claire’s drinking-wine-and-seeing-things is ruled out. As she does her CSI bit, she discovers that years ago two bodies – that of a little girl and a teenage boy – were found in the local marsh, no doubt covered in dirty swamp leaves and bugs.

Back at the haunted house, the killing room re-shapes itself and suddenly becomes a replay of what the heckaroo happened that caused the ghosts to get all ghost-y ’n stuff. Seems some teens were having a party, smoking hard drugs and drinking bottles of the Devil’s Mouthwash (beer, to you outta towners). Two little girls were playing upstairs as the skank chick doing the partying downstairs was SUPPOSED to be baby-sitting. One of the sexually repressed teen boys tries to make out with the skank, but she won’t put out. (Now she decides to get morals?) Dejected and wearing his frustration pants, he goes upstairs to where the little girls are playing and… Take a guess.

A showdown between the ghost and Claire’s repressed memories boils over into a rather generic paranormal confrontation, with lots of blowing wind, yelling and sparks. Ghosts like sparks. The spooks look sufficiently creepy and the scene in the barn with the little dead girl had me believing a big pay-off was coming. Not so much. But hey, now with The Marsh (2005) you have a horror movie you can watch with your mom and not have to explain why girls who take their tops off are so important to the plot.