Last Shift (2014)

Dir: Anthony DiBlasi

Rookie police officer Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy THE WALKING DEAD) sits in her car parked outside a police station on the phone with her fretting and worried mother. Loren's first day on the job is about to start and she is to watch over the police station that is all but closed; emergency calls are being routed to another station. Entering the station she is greeted by the oddly acting Sgt. Cohen (Hank Stone LEGION OF THE DEAD). The Sarge takes her on a tour of the station, there are no prisoners, no staff, no other officers, gives her his phone number in case of an emergency, tells her not to leave her post and heads home.

The set up is familiar to anyone who has seen John Carpenter's ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (and you have seen it, right?). but LAST SHIFT doesn't deal with a gang attack on the station, it goes in a very different direction. This is the station where Loren's police officer father was killed when the members of a Manson like cult were arrested and brought in to be interrogated. Those past tragic events haunt Loren and all sorts of spooky  and bewildering incidents drive her to panic. Furniture re-arranges itself, a silent homeless man somehow finds access into the locked building, an emergency call comes in from a young woman who needs help to escape from her kidnappers, and Loren has visions of the long dead King of Hell cult members.

Is the station haunted? Or is this an elaborate hoax being played on the rookie? Or is she loosing her mind?

Co-writers Anthony DiBlasi and Scott Poiley, with DiBlasi directing, manage to take a simple scenario and one location and ratchet up the tension. It's not all that often the proverbial hairs on the back of my neck stand up while watching a film. Lead Juliana Harkavy creates a character that is tough yet vulnerable and believable. It certainly adds to the fear factor of a film when we sympathize with and care about the main character.

The ending is a bit of a let down. The script and direction are smart and deft at treading the conventions of a horror film, so much so that I was expecting something other than the predictable 'twist' we have. But up until that point it is a spooky ride.

*** out of ****


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The Hagstone Demon (2011)

Dir: Jon Springer

Is this supposed to be a comedy? Or a straight film noirish supernatural tale? I couldn't tell if I was laughing because I was in on the joke or if I was laughing at the writers, actors and director.

The Hagstone of the title is a soon to be condemned building where alcoholic caretaker Douglas (Mark AMERICAN MOVIE Borchardt) has been brought in to keep the place running just long enough for the tenants to relocate. A former journalist, the polite and competent Douglas still pounds away at the keys of an old typewriter when not drinking himself into oblivion due to the death of his wife Julie (Gizelle Erickson who co-stars in LIVING ARRANGEMENTS with Borchardt) by her own hand. Following up on a complaint about a squatter living in one of the apartments he finds himself intrigued by the mysterious woman Karna (Nadine Gross) and her hairless cat who enjoys eating raw fish heads and perching on its owner's shoulders. Douglas' nose for news starts him down a path of getting to the bottom of the intriguing Karna by tailing her leaving a bar and breaking into her claimed apartment. Her appearance at the Hagstone coincides with a number of deaths of tenants and men that go missing after she picks up and entertains them in her room.

Fish heads, fish heads...

Presented in arty black and white with switches to colour that I'm sure meant something to the creators, THE HAGSTONE DEMON is a muddled mishmash of genres. The B&W and the narration by the Douglas character as he uncovers family secrets all made me think of the hard boiled detective genre. Start throwing in ghostly apparitions, satanic cults and demons and I think of the tongue in cheek CAST A DEADLY SPELL, which unlike this film, was fun and entertaining. The film does focus a bit more during the final reel and manages a couple of creepy shots but by then it's too late.

If this is a comedy then the joke's on me.

* 1/2 out of ****

The Uninvited (1944)

Dir: Lewis Allen

London based music critic Rick (Ray Milland) and his sister Pamela (Ruth Hussey) are on holiday in the English coastal town of Biddlecombe (a made up town that reminded me of Cornwall) on a hike along the sea facing cliffs. When their dog runs off into an abandoned house chasing after a squirrel the pair follow to retrieve the pooch. Once inside Pamela is enthralled by the beautiful house, in surprisingly good shape for being uninhabited. As the pair continue to explore the house Pamela falls in love with it and persuades her brother that pooling their money together to buy the house and leave their London flat will make for a bright future. Never mind about that one upstairs room with the locked door.

Back in town they track down the owner, Commander Beech (Donald Crisp) and call on him. Invited in by Beech's lovely grand daughter Stella Meredith (Gail Russell) to await Beech's return home, the three chat. Stella insists the house is not for sale but is contradicted by her grand father when he arrives. Not only is the house for sale, it is offered up at a bargain price. Beech does mention that the locals say it is haunted but he'll have none of that nonsense.

After purchasing the house Pamela stays on to fix it up and make it presentable while Rick returns to London to deal with the flat, send on the furniture and pick up their Irish house keeper Lizzie (O! that Oirish brogue of hers). Returning to Biddlecombe a few weeks later, Rick finds that Pamela has done a marvelous job of getting the house ready. That night Rick is awoken by the cries of a woman. Entering the hallway from his bedroom to check on his sister and Lizzie to see what is wrong, he's joined by Pamela who relates that she has heard the crying woman since staying at the house and investigated it but was never able to pin down the source of the ghostly noise. Rick and Pamela delve into the mystery which leads them to meet with the local doctor (Alan 'Alfred' Napier) who shares Rick's skepticism of ghosts, Miss Holloway who has unorthodox methods of curing the mentally ill and a fascination with Stella's deceased mother and finally the unsavory truth.

Exalted by many, The Uninvited has received the Criterion treatment, it has all the familiar haunted house tropes; the locked door that leads to a gloomy room, cold chills manifesting out of nowhere, spectral apparitions (nicely done optical effects), pets who refuse to enter certain parts of the house and a mystery to be solved. I was never scared by the film, perhaps due to its age and old dark house conventions that are now worn thin, but it does build tension in a few scenes as the plot comes to a boil. Ignoring that the two leads have more of a Mid Atlantic accent and the film was shot on sound stages in California (which is understandable seeing how dangerous a trip to the U.K. at the time would have been) I do have an issue with the film's usage of comedy. Ray Milland cracks wise throughout the entire film, including during the climax. Tension would have been far more enveloping without the jokes. But perhaps the film makers thought it necessary for the cinema audience of the day.

Overall it's a good looking B&W film with solid direction, engaging performances and a nicely done ghost tale.

*** out of ****