Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019
Images from the Internet
Exorcism of the Dead
Directed by John Migliore
Survival Zombie Films / Wild Eye Releasing / MVD
Entertainment
84 minutes, 2014 / 2019
Possession films, be
it demons or dolls (or both), are the genre du jour, it seems. Of
course, the pure exorcism films started with the granddaddy of them all,
The Exorcist (1973), which led to a plethora of others such as Beyond
the Door (1974).
Over the past decade,
it has kicked in again, and there are a large number of exorcism-focused films
that have been flocking to theaters and straight to video-on-demand: The
Haunting of This, The Possession of That, and not to mention the mainstream Annabelles
and Insidiouses. The recent culmination for me came with Stephen Biro’s
ultra-violent but smart The Song of Solomon (2018).
That does not mean I’m
moving on; I still like the genre, so when I saw this Hamilton, Ontario
release, I knew I wanted in. The $5000 CAD (about $3700 USD) budget enticed me even
more. Indie really is fun.
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| Sarah Swerid |
There are some
standard tropes here like the priest, Father Abuna (Nick Biskupek) with
possibly a secret that we must wait to find out if that’s true or not…okay,
it’s mentioned on the box and in all the press for the film. But here is a
newish twist: the main subject, Candice (Sarah Swerid) might actually already be
dead, but being brought back in snatches by whatever malevolent force possesses
her body. That’s a nice kink in the cliché.
I have learned from
other exorcism films that priests that fail to release the demon / spirit /
devil / entity from the host wind up in hell. Now, I don’t believe in any of
this stuff in real life, so I just go with the ride.
There are some pretty
good choices made in the picture, such as the bad spirit being able to body
jump to cause more damage and, more importantly, create a higher body count
beyond the four main characters. Wait, I’ve only mentioned the main two,
haven’t I? There is also Candice’s caretakers, her mom Eunice (Afrikaner /
Canadian Deborah Jayne Reilly Smith) and her Uncle Philip (Rich Piatkowski).
There’s lots of other
elements thrown into the story that personally I didn’t see coming, including
infanticide, a (hinted at) heavenly ghost, the use of pepper (yes, the spice)…
and the possibility of a zombie apocalypse? While there are plenty of clichés,
there are also some nice new touches, and I appreciate that. Low budget can definitely
equal necessary new directions.
While some of the
acting is kind of either wooden or over the top, Swerid does a decent job. Lots
of shouting and eyebrow arching acting from the rest of the main cast; this is
pretty typical in films that are shot quickly (for example, the 45 minutes Swerid
is on camera was completed in two days… thanks for the info IMDB). The SFX varies
from some very good wounds to a final demon make-up that is a tad over-done.
But for the budget? Impressive.
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| Nick Biskupek |
The “Behind the Scenes” extra is a brief 3:00 slide show of pictures taken onset, including
cast and crew. Even briefer is the “Strange Events” segment at just over 2:00,
where they try and claim things like “light orbs” on pictures (light refractions
off the lens), or that a cat (Mr. Jinx) went wakka-wakka during an
exorcism sequence. It was very amusing, and I smiled all the way through it. Then
there are some trailers in the extras section.
The first but not least extra is the director’s commentary track, which
he shares with actor/producer Smith, Music director Mike Trebilcock, and Mr.
Jinx. They are very respectful and do not talk over each other (not counting the
cat), which is a major positive in my book. Also, there is lots of talk about particular
scenes that I did not catch that were interesting (such as the possible sexual
orientation of characters), little tidbits like the significance of objects in
the scene, and of course there are lots of production notes. There’s a bit of
self-congratulatory on the work among them, but I can get past that with the other
information. It’s a relatively straightforward commentary, but honestly, that’s
what I like.
As exorcism films go, this one may not be overly scary or bloody, but
the storyline is interesting and kept my interest throughout. In a well-worn
sub-genre, that’s a nice touch of the spirit.
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