Jessabelle

Returning to her childhood home in Louisiana to recuperate from a horrific car accident (which left her unborn child and fiancé dead) Jessabelle(Sarah Snook)comes face to face with a long-tormented spirit that has been seeking her return—and has no intention of letting her escape.The action of "Jessabelle" takes place in backwoods bayou of Louisiana.The film was directed by Kevin Greutert of "Saw VI" and "Saw 3D" fame.The storyline is quite interesting and captivating and the voodoo imagery is quite spooky.Unfortunately long black haired female spirits in the vein of "Ringu" are too routine to be seriously scary.I must say that I quite enjoyed final twist,though.6 bayou ghosts out of 10.

Jessabelle "Jessie" Laurent (Sarah Snook) is pregnant and accepts to move to the house of her boyfriend to raise a family of their own. However they have a car accident where her boyfriend and her baby die. Jessie is seriously wounded and trapped to a wheelchair, and the direction of the hospital asks her to contact her estranged father to help her. Leon Laurent (David Andrews) brings his daughter to his house in Louisiana and lodges her in her mother's room. Jessie snoops around the room and finds a videotape where her mother Kate Laurent (Joelle Carter) is pregnant and reads tarot cards to her. She tells that Jessie would never left Louisiana; she is attracted by water; and another woman wants her out of the house. However Leon arrives and destroys the tape. On the next morning, Jessie watches another videotape when her father is out of the house, and her mother talks about the man that had taught her to read cards, Moses (Vaughn Wilson}. Jessie is haunted by the ghost of a woman and her father discovers the two other videotapes she has hidden. When he tries to destroy them, something happens to him and he is burnt to death trapped in a shed. During the funeral, Jessie meets her high-school friend Preston Sanders (Mark Webber), who is unhappily married. Preston decides to help Jessie after watching the videotapes. Who might be haunting Jessie?

"Jessabelle" is a creepy and melancholic ghost story, with an original story of haunted house and a well-written screenplay. The plot is developed in a slow pace and the conclusion is totally unexpected. The gorgeous Sarah Snook has a great performance and the supporting cast is also excellent. The IMDb User Rating is totally underrated. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Jessabelle: O Passado Nunca Morre" ("Jessabelle: The Past Never Dies")

Note: On 05 august 2016, I saw this film again.

It's tough to judge or rate this. Because the essence was much better than what I was expecting. Even if you can see things coming (no pun intended), especially if you read reviews who give away certain things or you just have seen enough horror movies to know some things, you'll still be entertained by this.

And I did like where it went at the end (literally and metaphorically speaking). You could call it a nice twist, though many things could have been prevented if someone would have spoken out. The alternate or rather extended ending does not do anything more than the original did. Ending on the note the movie does right now is the best way to go out.

I first saw the trailer for this flick in April of last year, at a showing for The Quiet Ones (bad movie, by the way; do not recommend). Being quite the fan of the southern Gothic genre, I wasn't exactly impressed by the trailer but wanted to see it regardless. For some reason or other, Jessabelle never made it to my local theaters - thus, I had to wait for the inevitable RedBox release to follow in January.

And what do you know, I finally got to watch it.

Jessabelle is not a perfect movie. It does have its flaws. It does have its clichés. But it is an honest attempt at making a horror flick and it does work. The atmosphere lends a hand, with spooky southern mansions and dark bayous. And as it so often does in stories like these, voodoo eventually takes center stage.

After recent horror releases like the dismal Oujia (a movie I personally despise), Jessabelle is a welcome change of pace. It is a slow-burner that brings to mind films such as The Skeleton Key (albeit 'Key being a superior effort).

The cinematography is quite good and the acting is effective. Sarah Snook is certainly leading lady material, and you can see her potential here front-and-center. Providing a sympathetic lead can make or break a film like this and Snook does not disappoint. A side note is that she is totally gorgeous and looks just the part for a sweet southern belle.

Final verdict: Jessabelle is nothing groundbreaking but one of the better horror flicks in recent years. Sarah Snook is one to keep an eye on. Worth a rental, but if you want to buy I'd say wait for it to hit the bargain bins.

"It says you're not alone. There's a presence in the house with you. She wants you out of the house." Jessie (Snook) has everything going for her. She is the happiest she has ever been and moving in with her boyfriend whom she loves. In an instant her life is changed. Now alone and paralyzed from the waist down she has no choice but to move in with her father whom she hasn't seen in years. When she finds and plays tapes that her dead mother left for her strange and horrifying things start to happen. I have to open by saying that I am not a big horror movie fan. Mainly due to the fact that recently the horror genre has been Saw-like or found footage type. The ones that scare me are the more psychological movies that mess with your head rather than show you how many ways people can be chopped up. This falls into that category. The movie doesn't need to rely on jump scares to get you. The fact that this one in grounded in reality with the random scare thrown in really makes this work. Overall, if you like movies like The Conjuring or Insidious then you will like this as well. This is one of the few movies that creeped me out in the last year. I liked it. I give it a B+.