The Haunted Studio

Serial horror fan, writer, director now actor Chris Shane Sanders (Nest of Vampires, Werewolf Cabal) brings us his latest independent comedy-horror, in this throwback to the classic age of British horror (1950s-70s). In this, when things go wrong, occult caper. It's time to ham it up. This time he uses the talents of Jon-Paul Gates (London Bridge is Falling Down: Build it up!, Red Army Hooligans), Hans Hernke (Hidden Agenda, Todd), the effervescent Bai Ling (The Crow, Crank 2: High Voltage) and playing the straight Crystal J. Huang (Tommyknockers, American Comedy).

Peter Haversham (Hans Hernke) has made the trip to London from LA USA, he is looking to visit his former classmate Catherine Tobin (Amber Doig-Thorne, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, The Seven) who is living with her uncle Gerald Tobin (Jon-Paul Gates), who along with his fiancé Mila Dragonovitch (Amanda Himsworth, Ripper Revealed, Bring Me a Skin for Dancing In) run Black Park Studio's. Gerald as usual is trying to raise funds for his new horror film.

Home life for the Tobin's is going so good, and when Peter turns up, OCD sufferer Gerald isn't too pleased to see him. They seem pre-occupied with strange noises coming from upstairs. Peter was planning a stay with Catherine, but Gerald says that he should leave by ten pm that night, even Catherine warns him to leave. We keep hearing strange, unearthly noises from above.

We don't have a clue what is going on until we see the read-through of Mila's script, when Cornelia (Bai Ling) really gets into her role.

Peter is determined to prove to Catherine that there is nothing strange going on upstairs. What will he find?

The haunted studio is a fine romp into the style of the Great British horror films of yesteryear. A great way to spend ninety minutes on a stormy night.

Haunted Studio is an horror comedy similar in style to the Hammer horror franchise.

Gerald Tobin runs a UK film studio and is struggling to make ends meet, which is excaerbated after his Eastern European wife writes a horror script, which inadvertently summons a 'demon' killing all his cast and crew! Rather than contacting the police, they prefer to 'let sleeping dogs lie', supplying the odd studio visitor to satiate the Demon's hunger!! When a Yankee friend of Tobin's niece visits, he threatens to expose the Tobin's little secret but will he do it in time and save the day!

The narrative is fair but the dialogue is better, performed well by the actors. All 4 principal actors gel and complement one another but my pick has to be Jon-Paul Gates intense portrayal of the low budget studio producer Tobin. The banter and rivalry between him and Peter (Hans Hernke) is expertly delivered and Gates's dress up of Zorro is comedy gold!

If the narrative was better, my score would have been better.

Trying to prepare for his next film, a sketchy producer who's taken over a film studio but can't find the necessary ingredients necessary for them to perform a special spell that will allow them to control a ravenous demon that was summoned by accident and are in the process of trying to control.

This was a fun if somewhat problematic genre effort. One of the better elements here is the lighthearted tone and atmosphere that makes the goofy setup feel intriguing. The initial back-and-forth conversations that take place come together quite nicely to make this intriguing enough to stay on board with where the vagueness of their antics starts to signal the direction of the film heading. With a lot of the questions being answered by the flashback to the disastrous film shoot that reveals the predicament they're in and how they're handling it with the current conversations that lead into the fun finale where they finally confront the creature, this is all quite likable. That said, there are some issues with this one being really obvious. That's the overall dreadfully dull and lifeless pace that takes place during all these conversations as the back-and-forth sniping that occurs isn't all that interesting. While the film makes for a great showcase of the chemistry they all have with each other since the snappy dialog and one-liners do bring up some comedic value at points, this is all done at the expense of action with the low-budget roots being exposed rather obviously. Seeing the couple arguing over anything from food preparations to their lack of success with the film shoot and the general downward spiral of their life makes for a dull time that makes this hard to get into. As well, there's also the convoluted and twisting story that never really makes sense. With the whole point of the demonic summoning getting revealed nearly an hour into and far too much time spent trying to play up this light-hearted atmosphere with the put-upon director, his headstrong wife, and the sane niece trying to be secretive about the creature's presence in their midst and how to stop it, it never generates a strong ability to care about it with these issues all preventing that connection. The low-budget charm that runs through this does manage to overcome a few of these factors but not enough to make this one somewhat of a disappointment.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.