The Tree Behind the Church

I came across this on the Palm On Demand channel and started watching what was described as a horror movie. A bunch of 20-something actors are trapped in an old church that's been turned into a theater, from which emanates loud booms, strange flickerings of light, and angry voices. I immediatey think this is setting me up for a low-budget Evil Dead type special effects extravaganza of murder and dismemberment.

The movie veers off in a totally different direction, far more interesting. The actors fall into unconsciousness, and upon awakening (or have they?) are possessed by ghosts in 19th-century dress who play out, on the stage of the converted church, a drama of forbidden passion, injured pride, violence and racial hatred.

Yes, the acting is primitive. Yes, the primary special effect -- a jittery, yellowish-lit "flashback" camera technique -- is annoying. But the play within a play acted out by ghosts is intriguing, and the plot-line has echoes of Candyman but with a more complex moral and philosophical struggle with themes of love, passion, vengeance and forgiveness.

All in all, I liked this little student film. Originality and a sense of purpose outweighed the primitiveness of the film-making.

Some of the reviews tell you to not even bother watching this movie. I wonder if they have seen the entire thing. I watched this film onDEMAND one day out of boredom. At the beginning, I thought it would be one of those "laugh 'cause it's so bad" films. Well, for the first 20 minutes it is. If you can get past the 30 minute mark, it's actually a fairly good story and from here on, the acting is at its best. The bulk of the story takes place on stage and is reminiscent of college theater. In fact, it made me wonder if the screenplay was just adapted from someone's Theater 401 assignment. It's a simple story, uncomplicated. You gotta give this film some credit.

I've seen 100s of independent/student films, but even measuring this one against that standard, 'Tree Behind the Church' cannot be recommended. The story involves a group of actors using an old church to practice in, who then discover that ghosts haunt the church.

The story is flimsy and uninvolving, the acting is poor, and the director doesn't even make the most minimal attempt at composing interesting shots. I wish it were more good-bad than just bad, then it might be worthy of an MST3K type of appreciation. Instead it is just boring. If just about any of you sitting at home gathered up a few friends, a video camera, and one location to shoot at, and then proceeded to write AND shoot a movie in one day's time, it would probably turn out better than this.

I really enjoyed the movie. I thought at first that it would be a horror film, then it turned into a really great story. I like the whole idea of being locked in the church and hearing the ghosts. I wish we could have seen more of the ghosts in the early parts of the film. I'm a huge horror movie fan,but i was not disappointed when it flipped into a love story. it had a lot of promise, i was not bored. I actually like the movie the 2nd time when I watched it with a few of my friends. I liked the ending. I liked how they left it opened for a sequel. Good job palm for adding this film. Is this film making it on to DVD anytime soon?

All the elements for a good independent film were there, but were under-used or poorly executed. The filming location and over-all premise of the film had true story-telling merit, but the cinematography and individual character development fell, sadly, short. Several of the young actors did, indeed, have bright moments and true promise, specifically the Reverand/Grandson character. Unfortunately, this particular (and interesting) actor was not given the opportunity to enrich the plot and solidify one of the more crucial characters because of either poor direction or a poor script. However, with closer attention to script detail and character development, and more experienced cinematography, the potential for this film to stand on the skills and merit of the actors would have been guaranteed.