El horror detrás de las paredes

Jennifer Cassi (Gina Philips from "Dead and Breakfast") returns back to the house she grew up in which she recently inherited from her deceased sister, unbeknownst to her grandmother (Fay Dunaway) who's still living in it. Jennifer decides to sell it as she's in dire need of the money much to Granny's chagrin. She also begins to have troublesome recurring nightmares of a mysterious raven. There was really no one to relate to in this film. Jennifer seemed cold, distant, unsentimental, and narcissistic, whereas the grandmother seemed spiteful, sad, and also narcissistic. The film is good and well-made, but with no one to empathize with I found it hard to care about what happened to them.

My Grade: C-

"Chronicle of the Raven" is one of those films that went unfairly unnoticed during the time of its release (was it even released?), leaving it buried in almost absolute oblivion, even though it could be appealing to many horror lovers. Though this film will not be making it into my list of all time favorites, I feel that it doesn't deserve the harsh reviews and the low rating that it got on IMDb.

In "Chronicle of the Raven" the story centers around a young American girl named Jennifer Cassi (Gina Phillips), who travels to Argentina, where part of her family lives, after being informed that her twin sister, named Johanna, has recently passed away under strange circumstances. After Johanna's death, Jennifer becomes the inheritor of the family mansion. Upon arriving, Jennifer is greeted by a housekeeper who does not speak a word of English and her "sweet" grandmother, the eccentric and devious Mary Ellen (Faye Dunaway, looking regal, as usual). The old mansion is also inhabited by Jennifer's aunt, Emma (Hilda Bernard), who is sick, bedridden and shows a great difficulty to speak. It should be mentioned that Mary Ellen seems to be a little bit too young to be Jennifer's grandmother... is this the result of a poor casting choice or Mary Ellen goes to the best plastic surgeon in the world? Neither, actually. The age gap of 29 years between grandma and Jenny serves a purpose to the story (yes, I know it is biologically possible, but still...).

The relationship between Jenny and her grandmother is not exactly a very loving one (no wire hangers are at fault in this story, thankfully!) and though it is heavily implied that these two never really got along, the bad blood increases when Jennifer informs that she is determined to sell the mansion, since she is in desperate need of the money (and doesn't seem to like Argentina very much, either). On the other hand, granny is very adamant about staying there and she won't let it go without a fight .

Jennifer begins to have strange nightmares featuring ravens, which are very similar to some really macabre paintings that her sister had made. Jennifer dreams that these ravens pierce her insides and devours her internal organs (yikes!). She also begins to feel sick and her doctor informs her that she has a strange type of cancer that affected all the members of her family, in which the internal organs begin to consume themselves, which eventually resulted in their deaths.

"Chronicle of the Raven" is a film that doesn't rely on annoying and repetitive jump scares, extreme gore or strident music to develop a horror-like atmosphere. Though I can appreciate those things too, I believe that recent horror flicks occasionally rely too much on those things, taking those resources to an extreme and making them less effective. It is more challenging to provide a horror tone without all those "in your face" elements, because then, the duty of developing a horror atmosphere belongs to the story, the narrative style and the cinematography.

"Chronicle of the Raven" provides a lugubrious tone, sometimes a little bit too tame for its own good, with a photography that offers a subdued color palette and a lot of shadows to provide the mansion where most of the story takes place, a very gloomy nature. The modest budget of one million dollars forces the directors to handle the cinematography with extreme care, in order avoid something grotesque and campy and they succeed in doing so. De la Vega and Parés (the directors), who previously collaborated together on very low budget zombie films that weren't to be taken as seriously as this flick, managed to reinvent themselves with this delicate (even elegant) style. One of my main criticisms with it is that the climax isn't really that powerful. I mean, we do get a final revelation and the main character finds herself fighting against a main antagonist. However, just like I pointed out before, "Chronicle of the Raven" tries so hard to avoid unintentional hilarity, that the climax ends up lacking emotion as well. Another thing that I found a little bit baffling is the fact that some of the characters and their actions didn't make too much sense. One of the characters, for instance, a retired doctor named Darío Baredevil (played by Duilio Marzio) who quit his profession to become a gravedigger (um, okay) first appears in Jennifer's life as a potential buyer of the house, but he turns out to be out to help her because... reasons. I mean, I do understand that people are able to perform good deeds for the others, without any ulterior motives, but in a film, we need some explaining. Who is this man in Jennifer's life and how come he seems to have all the answers to what's happening with her?

All in all, while not being a memorable masterpiece, "Chronicle of the Raven" (also known as "Jennifer's Shadow") is a very respectable film, that manages to stay on the serious side for the most part, while offering some low-key moments of true horror.

Imagine if you will that it's your birthday and you wake up and feeling exuberant thinking of all the wonders that today will offer. Then just as your leaving your house you get a phone call saying that your entire family was just killed by a freak accident. You ask what they were all doing together and the police say that all evidence reveals that they all secretly hated you and were planning a glorious murder to rid you from their life; and in fact that documents had been found in your mother's possession saying and they quote "my offspring is a horrible cancer upon this earth who I regret not drowning at birth." You break down in tears and stumble over to your car and just start to drive to the scene of the accident. While in route your sideswiped by a drunk driver. Waking up in the hospital three years later you discover that your paralyzed from the waist down, and while the doctor had you in the emergency room they happened to discover that you have a brand new type of illness, unique only to you. They don't know how to treat it and your death will be slow and painful, also your insurance has dropped you and their throwing you out. That night as you meekly wallow in terror and your own feces under your new underpass home you try to think of what went wrong, desperately trying to find something to give you hope. Then it comes to you lighting up your brain. At least you've never seen Chronicle of the Raven, realizing this you suddenly have nothing to complain about and drift off to sleep.

That said I watch of lot movies especially horror movies and this is probably the second worst i've ever seen. Don't let the premise trick you like it did me. I'm hear to warn you. Stay away! eating glass would be a better use of your time.

The movie does fill the bill of a true horror movie in the old Gothic school of a haunted house slash conspiracy witchcraft theme.

The location and sets are spot on. The house itself lends it'self perfectly for what you would call a haunted house. It positively drips with a doom and gloom atmosphere which is what makes the movie worth seeing for this reason alone. I would love to own a house like this.

I did feel that the acting is a bit contrived leaving you with a feeling as if the actors are still rehearsing their parts instead of a leaving you with a polished performance.

I did enjoy the movie though. Maybe I'm just a sucker for this genre and that makes me bias.

First, let me say that this movie is not a total waste of time. It has good visuals, strong atmosphere, and an effective musical score.

That said, it pains me to report that it falls apart because of really bad performances by the two leads. Faye Dunaway's bad performance was expected. When I saw MOMMIE DEAREST I knew she was sacrificing her career, and here she strictly shows up for the paycheck. But what happened to Gina Phillips? Her performance as Trish in JEEPERS CREEPERS was so strong, especially the reversal in her character as she boldly stood up to the Creeper in an attempt to protect her brother.

Here she seems even less interested in what's going on than Ms. Dunaway. Seeing that she's playing the title role, it would have been nice if she had tried to do something- anything- to develop a character we cared about. But she just sleepwalks through this.

My take on it is that acting is a job. If you're being directed by Sidney Lumet in an award winning screenplay or if you're being someone obscure in a script that seems more a series of scribbled notes isn't relevant.

What both Ms. Dunaway and Ms. Phillips need to remember is that Martin Scorsese might be channel surfing at two in the morning and watch JENNIFER'S SHADOW. Nothing either one of these usually dependable actresses does here is anything that would make any director want to cast them.

If you're cast in it and they're paying you, give it your best. If you feel that the project is beneath you, let someone who wants to play the part have a shot at it.