Psychomanteum

Bad acting, horrendous scriptwriting, stories that go nowhere, characters that behave very unbelievably and irrationally, pathetic special effects. It really is one of the worse films I've ever seen.

Not scary, not funny at all. I sat through the whole of the movie and wished I hadn't.

So why do I give it three stars instead of just one? There's a few bits of decent cinematography and a couple of the actors put on a good performance despite the terrible scripts.

Caught this at a film festival in Madrid and was thankfully really glad I made up my mind the night before to get my head down early so as to ensure I made the ten am screening. None of the directors showed up which was disappointing considering what a surprise this film was, questions questions questions? Consisting of eight or nine (?) short psychological horror films that varied radically from one another connected by a creepy narration which was highly disconcerting "Psychomanteum" is one of those very rare beasts, a horror film that challenges its audience to think. Pay close attention if you don't want to miss a sudden plot change which veer from the mundane to the incredible within minutes, rolling like waves that are comfortable to become deeply unsettling. I recommend this highly, unique and unusual anthology film, see it before you read about it, for it will always be with you! Oh...loved the score/soundtrack too.

I would guess this could have been the inspiration for Garth's Marenghi's Darkplace, except the latter was made 14 years prior to this. Psychomanteum isn't in that kind of league, however. One of the first problems I had to deal with was the sound. The audio quality on all components is so poor that I found it unwatchable without closed-caption subtitles. Then the between-story narration is a disaster: I suspect the narrator didn't bother to do read-through before being recorded. And for most of the pieces within, the scripts, acting, and visuals are all so appalling that one assumes they were made by students. But not film students, however. I'm guessing they were made by high schoolers or adult education students that were given some camera equipment for a few weeks. The most successful thing about them is that they were handed in completed.

I have to admit, however, that there are a few exceptions: The Language of Birds was highly stylized and strange, but actually good. I also enjoyed the sex-change story, although I don't think it was made all that well. And, the priest-in-the-water story was a clever idea, if not marvelously executed. If I hadn't dozed off part way through it I might have enjoyed this one more.

Overall, bad, but not quite the deliberate or good kind of bad. Do check out Garth Marenghi, though: That's the way it should be done.

The 10's are clearly from friends and family or the filmmakers themselves. The acting and plots are all terrible and some of the most appalling VFX I have ever seen.

Way worse than the worst student project I've ever witnessed.

Save yourself while you still can :)

I suppose the good thing about having a compilation of several mini films is that you have a lot of cast, crew and family/friends to leave fake ten star reviews! Looks like it was made by 16 year old art students and not particularly talented ones either.