A Town Full of Ghosts

Remember when I said I should probably stop watching found footage movies… I present to you exhibit A. No, not THAT Exhibit A, the amazing FF from 2007, I am talking about: A town Full Of Ghosts.

I went into this movie feeling quite intrigued, cause the premise sounded very interesting: a couple buys a ghost town in the middle of nowhere with plans to restore it, but issues arise when they realise it’s an   a c t u a l   ghost town… aka a town inhabited by ghosts (you thought I was gonna do a title drop didn’t you).

I have to say, once you see that premise in action you realise how crazy it actually is, and I am not talking about the paranormal aspect.

So Mark and Jenna, but mainly Mark, decided to buy this old western town, that is part authentic and part the aftermath of a failed wild-west theme park, with the intention of turning it into a tourist destination.

…….  N o w

I do understand that at some point they did have an investor, hence it wasn’t a   COMPLETELY CRAZY   idea (although you should probably make sure said investor is actually IN before buying), but... 

We are looking at ~4 real buildings and a shit tone of fake fronts, all completely dishevelled, 3 hours away from civilization, with no electricity, no running water and no signal….  

And we want to turn this into something that looks like it was pulled straight out of an history book, a “working” town with rides and activities for tourists…

First of all, you would have to hire so many actors to make that work.

Second of all, I feel like in order to have a return of investment within the next 10 years, you would have to charge crazy money for the rides and the hotel.

And third of all, even with acceptable prices… would people actually drive for over 3 hours to come there, in the middle of nowhere to.. do what? Spend a week pretending to be a pioneer in the 1800s? Are you gonna hold workshops where you learn how to spot the early signs of typhus?

Listen, I am the premiere Little House on the Prairie fan and even I’m not too sold on this idea.

 

Either way, all these doubts on the viability of Mark’s plan are inconsequential, cause things start going downhill way before any sort of work on the town begins.                                                    

What’s the reason behind the protagonists’ undoing?

Back when this place was an actual town, the citizens set the local brothel on fire cause they thought the women in there were practicing witchcraft. Subsequently, the owner of the brothel and only survivor of the arson, took an axe and killed   e v e r y b o d y ….

.. really? She managed to kill over 200 people? With an axe? In a single night? …maybe the witchcraft rumors weren't  c o m p l e t e l y   unfounded.    

Either way, that really explains why the town is “full of ghosts”.

I have to say, the level of paranormal activity does not match the population density, I’ve seen single ghosts raise 100x more hell than this whole village. The only entity that does anything, really, is the axe murderer.

And this little trasparent ghost, slowly appearing in the corner of the frame, which was probably the coolest thing in the whole movie.  

probably not

can you even see it?

It’s worth noting that when Mark and Jenna bought the ghost town, they didn’t know anything regarding its murderful history. 

Mark learns about it a few days in, thanks to a Super 8 film and some charred photographs and newspapers he finds in a shed.

Listen... why are the newspapers talking about the arson and the pictures of the burned brothel, ALSO burned?

Cause what I’m hearing, is that they snapped some pictures of the crime scene, took the film to a dark room, developed it and printed it.. and then on their way to the frame shop, they tripped and dropped the photos in the ashes of the brothel…

Also that is the Super 8 with the most editing I have ever seen, it’s honestly spectacular.

Talking about editing, this movie’s cracked me up. Let’s take a step back for a second and evaluate: what are we looking at right now?

This is footage pulled from the video camera of a murdered person, that somehow made it to the public.

This is the set up for a great number of FF movies and, when I spot it, I have some expectations regarding the editing. Personally, I think it should complement the context by being very cut and dried, minimalistic, respectful, … the sort of editing you'd get from someone working with the police, or from a friend/family member who finds themselves needing to release the footage, for whatever reason.

What I would not expect, is for sunsets, sundawns and clouded full moons, to be used as transitions in between the clips… this movie subverted my expectations.    

 

Overall the movie wasn't  c o m p l e t e l y  terrible, I have definitely seen worst… the scares were all quite lame, but at least the acting was fine… would i recommend it? Probably not, but don't let me hold you back from getting 100 FF movies under your belt.

One last thing about the movie I found both hilarious and fascinating: it has a shit ton of parallels to The Shining.

1) Married couple who went through a rough patch, moves to an isolated place

Mainly because 

2) The husband is in need of a new direction, and he believes this job to be the occasion of a life time. On the other hand the wife is just smiling through the pain.

3) The husband used to be an alcoholic, and is provided alchool at/by the location, in magical ways. 

4) Husband develops a victim complex and becomes convinced his wife is working against his glow up.

5) The final showdown happens inside a maze, and includes an axe.

This really is The Shining for summer enjoyers. 

One notable difference is that, in this case, the wife doesn’t make it out alive, sadly… and also, spoilers. You’d think the brothel-workers-avenger would spare a woman who is being abused by her husband, but… I guess not.

They don’t make brothel-workers-avengers like they used to.

The Blackwell Ghost & The Blackwell Ghost 2

Hello there. Well, it would seem that i am writing a blog post in the end.                                                  

I've been thinking about it for quite a while, and i have offically decided that it's a good way to practice my english, while doing something i enjoy, aka watching horror movies and talking about them. Will i ever write another post? Possibly, because...  w e l l , i actually already have one ready, it's been ready for months.                                                                                                                           

Why have you been sitting on it then? you may ask... because it was only once i had finished it, that it occurred to me:

"... i can't really have my first blog post be about the EIGHT instalment of a movie series.. i should probably start from the beginning innit".

So that's what i'm doing 💀 i am starting from the top

THE BLACKWELL GHOST (part one)

If you know me, you know I am a whore for found footage movies (and mockumentaries alike).                                                                                                                                                             

I’m not sure how many I’ve watched, but it’s many... it's so many i should probably stop cause i'm scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point, but alass, i persevere. I don’t know what it is about them, maybe it’s the first person POV, the limited field of view, the strong feeling of authenticity... either way, against all common sense i keep coming back to the subgenre.

When it comes to FF series, I think the Blackwell saga is one of the solidEST out there. The atmosphere is present, the scares are pretty effective, and it’s… kinda charming? (is it the actor? I think it may be the actor…), which caused me to literally binge the whole thing in a week. It may not sound like much, but for someone who’s sequel adverse, and can’t bring themselves to watch 8 episodes of hardly anything, it’s a notable achievement.

The first instalment of the Blackwell series is a pretty simple but effective mockumentary movie. It's also quite short with its 60 minutes runtime, which is perfect considering the tricks on show are quite tame, compared to what we’re gonna see in the future.

So, what's the movie about?

The protagonist, Turner Clay, is a film maker that specialises in making cheap zombie movies. At this point in his career tho, he wants to branch out and try something new: specifically, he is very intrigued by the supernatural, and he wants to investigate the existence of ghosts/spirits with a documentary.   Who knows, maybe he could prove that they are real?

 After some looking around and some contacts falling through, Clay finally receives an email from “Greg“.                                                                                                                                                          

It contains a short, anticlimactic clip of a lamp turning on on its own... BUT if you adjust the contrast and do other things to the video, you can clearly see that there is some sort of entity approaching the lamp...      intriguing.

The man claims that similar events happen quite often at his domicile, so if he’s interested in proving the existence of ghosts, homeboy should really pay him a visit.

And so: we are off to Pennsylvania (Terry the wife is also tagging along).

 

During Greg’s interview we are made aware that both of his parents died in the house, one by falling the down the stairs and the other due to an unexpected heart attack... 

also, Miss Blackwell who owned the building in the early 1900s murdered a number of children and stuffed them in the well in the basement….. maybe that has something to do with the house being haunted.

Another thing mentioned by the owner is that all ghostly activity seems to spare the master bedroom: he would often hear footsteps coming up the stairs and approaching the room, but they’d never cross that door (extremely spooky by the way).                                                                                    

Now   t h i s  was a nice touch, cause during the first sequel, we will discover that the part of the house containing the master bedroom wasn’t in the original house plan: it was an addition made after the death of Miss Blackwell… that’s why she can’t haunt it, cause it’s a foreign space to her.

C’mon, that’s a cool idea, and well thought out in advance.

 

Conveniently, Greg is just about to go on a 2 months long trip, during which the house is gonna be completely empty………….  m a y b e   Clay and Terry could move in and shoot their documentary?

Terry isn’t particularly excited, but since homeboy is stoked she obliges.

SOOOOO time to set up some cameras and a ball on a table, cause:

ghosts are kinda like boys: they see a ball, they just kinda wanna move it. 

That’s good to know.

By the way, why does that ball look fake?

I swear it looks like CGI.

The activity is very slow in the beginning, causing the couple to wonder if the building is even haunted at all. There are a few sounds, a light turning one by itself and the basement door being found open, but also, are we sure we closed it? Maybe we didn’t, so….

Right as they are about to call it a day cause the whole thing seems to be a waste of time, the ghostly apparition takes it to 100 and almost sets the house on fire while they are sleeping.                                 

I really liked the shot of them waking up to a bang and the smoke alarm, they really looked like two, confused, regular people who have no idea what on earth is going on downstairs.

While homeboy is walking around the kitchen trying to disperse some of the smoke, Miss Blackwell makes sure to open the basement door to his face, making it obvious that that's where they should divert their attention.

Now that he is properly hooked, homeboy decides to read some vintage newspapers, particularly from 1941, the year Miss Blackwell committed her crimes. Thanks to this research, we are finally greeted with a picture of the matron

                                                                                       she was not very impressed with photography technology

He also decides to investigate the well, which is kept half closed by an extremely heavy metal grate.

First things first he tries to gauge its depth by.. using a string? Like, literally a string, with no weight attached to it… 

wouldn’t that just… float round?

Well, apparently it went down 60 feet (about 20 meters), that string didn’t look longer than 2 meters but okay, I believe you.                                                                                                                                                               

Before leaving he fully closes the grate, which is something Greg asked him not to do, cause it’s so heavy he would need to rent some machinery to lift it again. 

You best believe gym bossette Miss Blackwell is gonna blow that thing open before the end (actually she just moves it a bit, but it’s still impressive).

It's now the final night and, as it turns out, homeboy was very much correct about ghosts being attracted to balls: Miss Blackwell has, in fact, taken the ball to the basement, leaving it right over the well where the children were stuffed. How nice of her, she’s bringing them a toy.

She also pulls a sixth sense and opens all the cabinets in the kitchen, which was quite scary.

Well 👏 with the final night wrapped up, it’s finally time to go.

The movie closes off with homeboy reflecting on this experience, and on whether he should even release the footage, since no one is ever gonna believe it to be real. In the end, he goes for “fuck it”, and decides to publish the documentary anyway.

We also get the first taste of his pre-credits-over-the-music monologues, which are staple a feature of the saga.

As he talks, some stills containing human sillhouettes we missed during the movie are shown in the background, which was a nice touch.

I wonder if we’ll ever go back to the Blackwell house.

Introducing: 

THE BLACKWELL GHOST 2

This is where the Blackwell lore really starts to take shape, heading into very interesting places that will never be revisited in the future.. but anyways

So, apparently, after releasing the first movie Homeboy decided to go back to making narrative features, and ended up shooting some parts of a zombie movie at the Blackwell house. Cause where else was I gonna find an old house?                                                                                                                              

I mean, I don’t know, probably in plenty of other places way closer to your home? Idk

During their stay, him and Terry didn’t really experience any activity, but while rewatching the footage he shot, he saw some interesting things, which planted the idea of potentially going back for more investigating.      

In the mean time he also received some memorabilia from a relative of Miss Blackwell, including an enhanced version of the newspaper photograph.                                                                                        

By the way, and this cracked me up, remember how Miss Blackwell was alive during the first half of the XX century? And she dressed like this:

Well, that is not how people used to dress in the 1930s , or so I am told, I know nothing about fashion.  

Well, APPARENTLY, Miss Blackwell was a reenactor of the Victorian era (probably a big fan of the baby farms): she liked to dress Victorian, and forced her entire family to do so.. histerical.

So, thanks to this relative, homeboy gets ahold of a map drawn by Miss Blackwell while she was hospitalised, and also of an old vinyl record she loved. This is where things get a little bit weird, cause he’s like: 

omg this is something she actually ✨touched✨.. this is cool                                                               

… I mean, we are still talking about a serial killer of children, maybe let’s tone it down a bit with the fanboying (he won’t)

It turns out the map is suggesting that the old lady buried something right next to Blackwell house, so we need to find out what it is (without asking Greg).

----> It’s a heavy metal safe, containing a collection of teeth.                                                                     

Now.. this is crazy, like, are those the teeth of the children she killed? Do they belong to victims that were never traced back to her? Are they definitely human? I wonder where this is going…. spoiler alert, absolutely nowhere, those teeth are never brought up again minus a diva-cameo appearance in movie 7 or smth.

(this scene also contains a shit tone of, what I would consider, continuity errors, with the piles of teeth appearing and disappearing between cuts, but whatever)

So… homeboy gets a call from Greg, who informs him that he has decided to sell the house. It’s time to go back for one final weekend at the Blackwell residence and this time Terry can’t be asked to join, so he is alone.

O b v i o u s l y  the vinyl she used to play every night before bed constitutes a new set piece.

Miss Blackwell is very happy he brought it along, as using the record player is one of the first thing she does.                                                         She subsequently goes full musician and plays the doorbell a bunch of times, clearly the old lady has been put in an artsy mood.                          Since she can’t be the only one having fun, she also brings the ball to the kids in the well, very empathetic.

During the last night at the domicile the poltergeist activity goes all out, with furniture moving, record playing, doors banging, and homeboy running to safety in the bedroom. It definitely one ups the first movie.

*cue final monologue over music*                                                                                                         

and honestly, this one had all the potential to get me a bit emotional: it’s the final farewell to the house, the place where it all started and one I will remember fondly, especially as the series progresses…

but then……… but   t h e n  this monologue got a side-eye out of me cause, and I quote:

There sure is something special about this house and the woman who haunts it. Even tho she was an evil person who did horrible things, I can’t help but think of her.. as a friend.

 👁👄👁

I will later show Greg all the activity I captured on camera. He told me she had never communicated with anyone quite like she did with me… and I can’t help but think that was because she thought of me the same way… as a friend ✨

…. OK…. Okay homeboy

I love that he leaves her the ball so she can play with it, they really are friends.. 

I’ll just leave them to it.