Cassadaga

This is a movie where I wasn't sure I'd like it; the name sounded like it might be a foreign film and the poster seems somewhat disconnected from the feel of the movie (at least, I think so).

I gave it a try anyways, and I'm glad I did. It had its flaws, definitely, for me mostly in that it could have been longer; more build- up and getting some of the smaller plot lines tied up neater would have easily pushed this movie to a higher vote. I can see why not to do it, though, as it's already longer than the standard 90 minutes.

To its credit though, I was scared enough to jump a couple of times and I was touched when I was supposed to be - which is more than many horror flicks can do these days.

All in all, I came away with the feeling that it was well worth my time so I definitely recommend checking it out at least once.

I thought this movie had a plot that had some potential. A deaf girl tries to figure out the identity of a serial killer who turns girls into marionette dolls.

This is low budget. Everything has some level of issue. Not all the acting is great. Not everything about the story flowed smoothly. The effects aren't top notch. Even with the issues, I kinda liked parts of it.

I think that if you are going to watch low budget you have to lower your expectations. I think that for being low budget this is a fairly decent film. It needs work but it isn't awful. This is really going to have to be judged on your personal tolerance for low budget. I've seen worse so I'm giving it 5 stars.

This movie may have been planned as a horror movie but it didn't came out as one. The supernatural theme was obviously meant as the ingredient holding the flick together, but it felt like someone got embarrassed of this and started experimenting by patching different plots and actions together - none of them is carried through to the end. I felt like listening to someone embroidering a vaguely interesting story with unnecessary detail: the movie is frequently wandering off by showing actions and telling story lines with no importance or meaning for the main plot. It is using the stylistic inconsistency as a device, but in my opinion this is not well enough executed. It left me slightly annoyed.. especially when I felt forced to witness some interactions between the main character and a young divorcée dragging along, which then break off whimsily like they couldn't find the space to end properly what they started. I found the frequent depiction of the main actress in revealing clothing ridiculous and therefore looked for a hint of self-irony but couldn't find one. I think it was really meant as: "we also could show some bum".. The movie delivers shock moments too scarcely to play the horror card even though the set-up would have left more than ample room for them! Why? It's a trial, I think. It's not bad, it's uncommon and mostly entertaining. But sadly it's not good either.. it feels unbalanced. So there is the ghost-story, some relationship drama.. at some point you may even think it's a serial killer story - but with every strand of action there is the phenomenon of negligence after introduction! the problem is that even after having finished watching the movie, I wasn't clear about its intention - it lacks a theme! The production value is good though and the result is surprisingly coherent - at least enough to keep me vaguely entertained.. Honoring the eagerness to do things differently and the technical workmanship, I give it 5 stars.

There appears to be an attempt to make a coherent film by the filmmakers, but they misses it by a long shot. The production values for this independent film are the best part of it. Some of the acting is good. It's the story and then the subsequent direction that leads this film astray.

The attempt is to concoct some kind of horror/mystery/ghost story. The attempt would have been best to focus on one and not go scatter shot at them all. For in the end, it all just doesn't make sense. The writer could've plucked the horror part out and still had a good , if not standard, story. Or maybe just focus on the horror. I think the producers were looking to be clever in some way by combining it all. It just doesn't work. There are way too many "Why is this happening?" throughout.

There is also the now gratuitous drug smoking scene. No one else smokes cigarettes throughout the film. But drugs are OK. Sheesh! I get it, film makers - You want legalization. Maybe if you weren't so concerned about the politics and more about the story, the whole thing would have worked better.

The worse part of the film is the main actress who is supposed to be deaf. Then what's with the Valley Girl lingo? There are several goofs throughout the film where suddenly she hears. I get the feeling, the film makers didn't take the time to learn about how people who are actually deaf make their way in the world. Frankly, that could've been left out of the film and also helped with the story telling.

This is more observation: I also wish they had made more use of Cassadaga as a backdrop. There is limited use of the area throughout the film while it has so much charm and historically interesting structures. Spelling more out about the history would've also helped in storytelling. Then fleshing out more of the area's people and what they do. Otherwise, this could have just as well been shot in Micanopy or Arcadia which have their own ghost stories and spiritualists.

Judging by some of the online comments about Cassadaga, I was expecting something a bit special out of this indie horror. Sadly, there just didn't seem to be much new here to really stand out.

It's okay - that's about it. It's one of those films where a young woman gets mixed up with something spooky. Obviously, no one believes her and she does that thing they do in all horror films where they research it on the internet and then seek out 'professional' help.

It's definitely not bad. There are a few pretty sick scenes (nicely executed - no pun intended) for the gore hounds and everyone plays their part pretty well. However, it descends into territory where, if you're an avid horror watcher, you'll have seen it all before - how many times does the heroine knock over the killer and then just run away instead of continuing to batter him to death? Well, you get that sort of thing here.

If you can be bothered with another horror film, you could do worse. Sadly there's nothing here that is that memorable or that will lift it out of that vast middle ground of straight-to-DVD horror flicks.