100 Ghost Street: The Return of Richard Speck

Let me start off by saying that found footage genre flicks CAN be scary as it plays on the innate fear of the unknown. Having gotten that off my chest, let me proceed. Admittedly, there are found footage creations that are effective at playing on peoples' fears inducing anxiety, claustrophobia, and/or abject terror. What I find completely annoying about the paranormal investigation found footage genre, which this flick demonstrates blatantly, is as follows:

1. Why include stereotypical "weak" women who have absolutely zero fortitude on a night time ghost hunt when you HAVE to know they are going to become nothing but hysterical liabilities (and I can say this as I'm a woman)?! Women's can be mentally just as strong as a man in their own right. All women are depicted in this genre, as equal rights advocates are eager to point out, as the panicky, emotionally frail, screaming, I-just-might-faint types that need to be protected and saved. Why would you even bring women you view as such on a overnight paranormal investigation when you know that at the first hinky incident they're going to run away hysterically screaming into the dark without so much as a flashlight?!

2. Flashlights, headlamps extra batteries, portable chargers, portable comms, maybe even a small generator... Does no one who has permission to enter said property ever consider or plan for redundancy of vital basics?

3. Would it be too much to ask property owner and/or manager for extra key(s) for the exit(s) so more than one person has the ability to unlock said points of egress in case of an emergency?

4. Does no one come prepared with a first aid kit and the knowledge to render assistance in case of an emergency?

5. How about portable food and hydration in the preparation of a longer than planned stay?

6. If you have permission to be on the property to be investigated and explored, why don't you tell a friend or three where your going and when you're due back so if you don't reappear or contact said friend(s) after you're due back someone knows you need rescue?

7. Is there not a single person on the investigative team to stand up to the one in charge that if s/he wants to leave the endeavour it's their god-given right to think for his/herself and act on such? And why is the one in charge always a conceited a-hole who feels everyone else is there simply to stroke HIS narcissistic ego? Why is a woman never in charge, btw?

I could keep going but this review is getting far longer than I anticipatedbur, you, dear reader, assumedly get my point. Four stars for decent visual quality, average acting, and for effectively sucking me in hoping for some originality. Unless you're a fan of this genre, I cannot recommend this pick.

In 2010, paranormal investigators tried to film Richard Speck's ghost at the site of his heinous killing spree. The victims' families have finally released the footage that documents their last days.

This is yet another found footage and pseudo-documentary film, which nobody demanded. The only person of note in it is Jackie Moore, who has appeared in the Maxim Top 100 and in another Asylum film, "Atlantic Rim". Most people probably have no idea who she is.

This is apparently the fourth installment in the "Paranormal Activity" copycat series, "Paranormal Entity". The title does not make this evident, and near as can be found, there is no need to watch any of the previous entries.

Scott Foy of Dread Central rated it 3/5 stars and called it the best found footage film made by The Asylum. Now, that may be so, but even if it is, "the best" of anything from The Asylum is still not great. Foy was being much too generous. But at least it was not made by Ulli Lommel, who would have made it terrible.

Whether you're a fan of paranormal stories, whether it's a cheesy SyFy show, the trilogy's of PA's, PE's or the half dozen other films that have copied off this exact sort of theme, you have to be getting a bit bored with it. If this was released five years ago it would have stood it's ground, but instead it's just another average "found footage" compilation. The fact that they didn't roll any credits to give it more of a real feel only succeeded in hiding the real names of most of the untalented cast members.

It started as usual with an overnight TV ghost hunt in the abandoned building where Richard Speck murdered 7 young nurses. It contained no CGI effects & contained only two scenes that would be considered gory(both of which are not necessary,plenty of good scary films without either). Some of the actors where annoying, untalented & stupid but that seems to be OK in a film where you already know of their imminent demise. The "apparition" isn't seen at any time & does things that would make a demon jealous, the use of strong physical force is somewhat out of place in a haunted house, but without it the film would be more of a sleep aid than a Thriller/Horror and action/violence is always a welcome site for me in the "haunted" genre. At times it was creepy & if you are a big fan of the sub'genre you may like it quite a bit. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. It's good for a 3.8/10. Is it worth $3.49 on PPV? If you are really into the things in my first sentence than maybe, otherwise no way. Oh & you have to love the other 10/10 star review here, must be the first "found footage" film they have seen over in Bollywood. IF YOU want great found footage watch V/H/S(2012) nuff said!

What happened to the last 84 minutes of my life?

What happened to filmmaking standards?

What happened to hope?

One thing that The Asylum films pretty much has going for it is consistency. 100 Ghost Street: The Return of Richard Speck is an Asylum film in every way - but sadly, that's not a compliment. As far as found footage films go, this is one of the worst that I've had the misfortune of seeing.

And I'm easy.

The setup is similar to what we're accustomed to in films of this ilk, so I can't actually take any points away for that. The technical aspects of the film follows time-worn convention; it's pretty much what you'd expect to see for a micro-budget film of this particular sub- genre. Low light, jerky camera movements, and poor sound. Again, no surprises there.

Where this film really excels at ineptitude is in the low level of acting involved and in its extremely poor storytelling. For 3/4 of the film's running time, viewers are treated to excessive yelling, frantic posturing and hysterical emotional bursts from an earnestly amateurish cast. Bad acting has been a staple of this type of film since Blair Witch, so I for one, EXPECT it. However, it's the LAST 1/4 of the film that really bites; the actors collectively go into this whole other realm of over-emoting that I've rarely ever seen outside of a badly- directed grade school stage play.

Please people, for God's sake, take more acting classes. Improvisation is an art; please take it seriously. And if you know what's good for your "career", I'd suggest steering clear of films produced under the Asylum banner. Clearly, no good can come of it.

The atrocious acting in this film is outdone only by the extremely lazy storytelling which has characters making the stupidest choices possible and taking the most inexplicable courses of action. Repeatedly.

Finally (just because a lack of accuracy happens to be a pet peeve of mine), I'd give this film a huge "fail" in the research department. For the record, the building where the actual murders of the nurses took place was in a townhouse. Also, in actuality, Richard Speck killed 8 nurses in that townhouse, not 7 which this film repeatedly and erroneously mentions. The manner in which Speck's original victims were killed is also misrepresented in this film. There are more factual errors that I could mention, but chances are, you already get the picture. For future, it'd be nice if writers who work on dreck like this would actually take the time to at least get facts right, so here's a little shout-out to all those inspiring, creatively-deficient screenwriters out there that intend on tackling real-life events: it's not that difficult - Wikipedia is only a few mouse clicks away and it's freely available to anyone.

Paranormal Entity 4: The Awakening AKA 100 Ghost Street Aka 100 Ghost Street: The Return of Richard Speck (2012)

This is kind of a re-watch, I only saw half of it the last times, I wasn't really in the mood to watch a found footage at the time.

However I did watch this movie in full today, In 2010, paranormal investigators tried to film Richard Speck's ghost at the site of his heinous killing spree. The victims' families have finally released the footage that documents their last days.

The movie wasn't that bad, I thought it was better then PE 2 Gacy House (2010) and I didn't find any of it funny, which is a good thing about this movie.

I found two decent creepy scenes, with i thought were really well done, this is kind of mix of slasher and Ghost movie at the same time.

People are being killed off, one by one by this invisible force.

In the second part of the movie, the kills were decent and so-what gory, One of the reason I liked this movie more then I should.

I didn't find this movie boring at all, they were some slow parts in this but they Stll kept me watching, until the end.

I thought it was decent, for a found footage movie and the acting was decent from some of the cast, there were a few really wooden actors.

4/10 Worth watching.