Cassadaga

Judging by some of the online comments about Cassadaga, I was expecting something a bit special out of this indie horror. Sadly, there just didn't seem to be much new here to really stand out.

It's okay - that's about it. It's one of those films where a young woman gets mixed up with something spooky. Obviously, no one believes her and she does that thing they do in all horror films where they research it on the internet and then seek out 'professional' help.

It's definitely not bad. There are a few pretty sick scenes (nicely executed - no pun intended) for the gore hounds and everyone plays their part pretty well. However, it descends into territory where, if you're an avid horror watcher, you'll have seen it all before - how many times does the heroine knock over the killer and then just run away instead of continuing to batter him to death? Well, you get that sort of thing here.

If you can be bothered with another horror film, you could do worse. Sadly there's nothing here that is that memorable or that will lift it out of that vast middle ground of straight-to-DVD horror flicks.

I thought this movie had a plot that had some potential. A deaf girl tries to figure out the identity of a serial killer who turns girls into marionette dolls.

This is low budget. Everything has some level of issue. Not all the acting is great. Not everything about the story flowed smoothly. The effects aren't top notch. Even with the issues, I kinda liked parts of it.

I think that if you are going to watch low budget you have to lower your expectations. I think that for being low budget this is a fairly decent film. It needs work but it isn't awful. This is really going to have to be judged on your personal tolerance for low budget. I've seen worse so I'm giving it 5 stars.

Every once in a while, a low key movie comes along and makes you realise that there are writers and directors out there who enjoy making films, and more importantly, make them right.

Cassadaga is one of those.

Anthony DiBlasi works his magic over Bruce Wood's excellent story,. much in the same vein as Dread, but here, he manages to keep the suspense going right until the end. It's easy in this genre, to fall into the trap of letting the horror and gore overtake a great story, and in Cassadaga, the temptation to branch off to this must have be huge, however DiBlasi sticks to his guns, and directs us through the prickly path of the story mixing romance, horror, tension and chills in equal amounts to leave the viewer completely satisfied.

The casting of Kelen Coleman is a perfect - it's not often you watch a movie and instantly click with the lead actors, but Kelen's personality shines through from the start and the empathy immediately connects viewer and actor.

I don't like reviewing movies and putting spoilers in, and I'm not about to start now, suffice to say, that the suspense is carried through the entire film, and done brilliantly, and whilst the ending may not be as big a surprise as you may expect, it's delivered perfectly, closing off a superb chiller.

If you come across this little gem, don't pass it by, as you'll be missing out on an excellent film - grab it with both hands, sit back and let yourself go - you won't be disappointed.

7/10

CASSADAGA is a movie that tries to have it all but ends up coming away with nothing. It starts out as a traditional ghost story with a deaf girl losing her little sister in a car accident and afterwards finding herself haunted by the spirit of a disturbed spirit. About halfway through it veers off into needless torture porn territory and becomes much, much worse.

CASSADAGA has a good sense of creeping dread going for it but that's about all it does have. It lets the lead character be defined by her disability because without that she'd be a totally forgettable and uninteresting person. It doesn't help that the supporting cast are entirely bland in themselves and will quickly disappear from memory once off the screen.

The ghostly elements of the film, although predictable, are better handled than the shoddy torture scenes of the most routine serial killer imaginable going about his business trying to make life-life puppets from dead people. It's needlessly unpleasant, and helps sink the whole project. The expected chase scenes between killer and 'final girl' are as routinely staged as possible and the whole film has a familiar Hollywood vibe to it despite it being an independent production.

This is a movie where I wasn't sure I'd like it; the name sounded like it might be a foreign film and the poster seems somewhat disconnected from the feel of the movie (at least, I think so).

I gave it a try anyways, and I'm glad I did. It had its flaws, definitely, for me mostly in that it could have been longer; more build- up and getting some of the smaller plot lines tied up neater would have easily pushed this movie to a higher vote. I can see why not to do it, though, as it's already longer than the standard 90 minutes.

To its credit though, I was scared enough to jump a couple of times and I was touched when I was supposed to be - which is more than many horror flicks can do these days.

All in all, I came away with the feeling that it was well worth my time so I definitely recommend checking it out at least once.