Ghost of the Needle

"Dead still" is another movie i got tricked into by the obviously fake reviews on IMDb. Let me assure you... to call this movie "high quality" is insane. Its clearly a low budget movie with very DV like cinematography and average acting. The plot has some nice ideas but the photographer who is obsessed with dead girls (Peeping Tom anyone?) is not that new and the psychological background story is pretty week. So you can mainly give credit for the idea of getting rid of the body and the closing scene. Most of the film is damn slow and obviously "Dead still "tries to be a psychological thriller with some ghost elements thrown in. But the story barely seems consistent and what seems to be threads cleverly interweaved is a mess on second view. What makes he movie especially suffer is that its shot mainly in the studio of the photographer which is an old abandoned factory and its a pretty ridiculous setting which tries to give some ghost scares but is really boring for this slow movie. So don't fall for it... this movie is barely creepy except for one sequence you can already see on the DVD Cover ... for an indie thriller you can give it a shot if you don't mind cheap production but really... High quality?? You must be high or from this movies staff to write that.

If you have ever seen a movie by Brian Avenet-Bradley and compares it to the feedbacks it gets on IMDb, you know that most of the comments and votes are faked. TRUST ME: you will be bored! People of the production team write their feedback themselves (sometimes they even admit it). But that's not enough: They also click constantly "no" whenever there is a negative comment on the movie. That's why negative critics are always placed behind the hyped ones.

The movie itself is bad, bad, bad: bad acting, bad lighting, bad script, bad ending. Believe me now! If not, you will believe me later!

Brian Avenet-Bradley might be quite a good business man. Otherwise it cannot be explained that he finds people who still finance his movies. (Okay, they are cheap, but nevertheless.) But as a creative person, he is a complete failure.

The Avenet-Bradleys are two for two as they follow up their excellent first film, Freez'er, with an equally impressive sophomore effort. A photo-artist kills women and photographs their death faces to adorn his private studio, yet when his agent gives him a commissioned job (which he accepts hesitantly), he finds himself mixed up in the scheme of a husband looking to catch his wife cheating on him. Director/star/writer/producer Brian Avenet-Bradley does a bang up job in the lead role and wrings an incredible amount of suspense in this, his and co-producer/wife Laurence Avenet-Bradley's second feature film. For fans of quality independent genre fare, you can't do much better than this taut, well-acted suspense/thriller whose ending will genuinely give you the chills.

"Ghost of the Needle" is the compelling and taunt story of Jacob (Brian Avenet-Bradley), a talented photographer who enjoys injecting young women with drugs and then photographing their dead bodies. His agent, Richard (Greg Thompson), is frustrated that Jacob won't sell any of his work, even after a nice commission to photograph a bridge at a particular time of day.

Jacob manages to find a new girl, Aimee (Cheri Christian), while photographing the bridge. But after this murder, funny things start to occur in Jacob's studio.

I'd say more, but that would just ruin the experience of viewing this incredible piece of cinema.

The film is directed and edited with confidence by Avenet-Bradley, and shot with skill by his wife, Laurence Avenet-Bradley. No shot is superfluous or poorly staged. The script, done by Avenet-Bradley is a refreshing one, choosing to center on the killer as the primary character.

It's interesting that Jacob almost becomes the sympathetic "hero" of the film as Avenet-Bradley surrounds Jacob with unlikable people, including his slimy agent, a nasty detective/bounty hunter (Kevin Bartolomucci), and Steve, the wealthy man (Jack Harkleroad) who is commissioning Jacob to photograph the bridge. The only truly likable person Jacob meets is Laura (Leigh Hill), Steve's wife.

None of these people have done anything wrong or even given you a reason not to like them, and yet I found myself viewing Jacob the most likable fellow, despite the fact that he's serial killer. It's a refreshing shift from having the strong hero battling the interesting psycho to focusing only on how the killer is viewing this world around him.

Avenet-Bradley's Jacob is a sullen and nearly emotionless man. It works. "It's technical," Jacob says early on. And it is. The film makes a point of showing the audience just how methodical Jacob is in his photography, with a wonderfully done sequence of photo development by hand (Reminded me of "One Hour Photo"'s explanation of how of one-hour places do your snapshots). The victims are picked purely by chance. Jacob then goes through the process of propping them up, photographing them, and the developing and framing the pictures. The method has meaning for him, not so much the result.

Thompson's Richard is a very Hollywoodish agent, all smiles with customers, slave driver with Jacob. His line delivery is dead-on and wonderful, injecting deadpan humor into a very serious, unfunny film.

The real gem is Leigh Hill as Laura. I was a bit iffy concerning the performance when Laura first appears, but by the end, I was sold on Hill. She plays Laura with serious inner-strength and a quiet, loving power that nicely balances Jacob's technical methodicalness.

I'm not a person that gets scared at films that have tons of blood, lots of gore, etc. I'm more about atmosphere and creating an air of suspense and danger. "Ghost of the Needle" does a fine job of doing these things. Laurence Avenet-Bradley's camera work goes a long way to achieving this by weaving in and out of the truly spooky warehouse with wonderful dolly shots throughout the film. Additionally, Mark Lee Fletcher's score is eerie and haunting, only increasing the strength of the film's thriller capabilities.

"Ghost of the Needle" is a fine, compelling suspense story with fine acting and technical work. This is a little film that deserves a big theatrical break.

In my living room I don't give independent films any extra love because they are the struggling underdogs who have to work twice as hard for half as much. In short this movie just simply wasn't good. Bad Acting. No special effects to mention. The entire movie was shot in three locations I believe and none of those where very interesting.

I have no idea what others saw to give this movie anything above four stars. I sat down expecting to find a that sleeper gem we all hope to find but instead just got another low budget-put me to sleeper. Where was the scary stuff? A few animated corpses that did? or didn't? exist really don't qualify as scary to me. The story had some potential but was stifled bad acting, boring and limited use of shooting locations, and when it was all done it really was just a "by the book" rubber stamped horror-which I have no problem with what-so-ever if all the other variables are right. In "Ghost of the Needle" those variable weren't right though and it oozed low budget which generally makes for a poor horror.

Unless you're an independent film nut or just have an adventurous taste in films, avoid this one. Even if you feel like gambling some time on it don't waste a weekend night for it. Watch it while folding laundry on Tuesday night or listen to it while doing dishes Thursday night, etc… I watched "Ghost of the Needle" on DVD. The quality was fine and although you can pick one of many reasons not to watch this movie one reason can't be because of how it will look on your screen