Review: Guilt

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2022
Images from the Internet

Guilt
Directed by William Chaffin
Few Man Crew Films; Brave Runner Films; Indie Rights Movies
75 minutes, 2022
www.facebook.com/Guiltmovieproject

Two quick comments that I will follow up with later. First, this is a relatively short film at 75 minutes (i.e., perfect length) so the action begins pretty right off the bat. Second, this incorporates a mixture of horror and psychological uncertainties, which is right up my alley. Love it when reality and in the mind combine for a bit of confusion on the viewer’s part.

We are introduced to our protagonist Elizabeth Stanton (Anna Hoots) as she comes home to her parents, Ann (Sarah Turner Holland) and Josh’s (Christopher Rowley) house, with luggage that matches her car. Love that bit. But things are not – of course – as simple as that, as she has images/dreams of a demon, smoke filled rooms (I remember the days when music clubs were like that, but I digress…), and murder.

Anna Hoots

Y’see, Elizabeth has a history of schizophrenia but is now off her meds and obviously has a touch of OCD. She is just home from undergrad college with an ironic psychology degree, and wants to live a normal life. However, her college roomie and best friend Victoria (Darby Flynn) is dead and she is accusing Victoria’s boy friend, Kyle (HaRoon Khan), though the police, led by Detective Olivia Mattingly (Liz Fletcher), believe it to be suicide. Also on the case is an ex-priest-turned-Private Investigator, the appropriately named Matt Gravesman (Jared Noble); his business card reads “Paranormal PI.” In an odd conversation together, Mattingly tells Gravesman that she is “not very religious,” even though she has a prominent cross necklace. Anyway, I found that amusing. They are adversaries of sorts at first, which means, I am guessing, they will team up before long.

Through all this, Elizabeth keeps having violent dreams where that robed demon is killing people she knows, and awakes to find out they are actually dead. Is it the demon or a manifestation of her own personality that is knocking people off? And why hasn’t she been arrested, when she admits she was the only one in the room when someone died, other than her demon self that is supposedly trying to possess her? The bodies pile up, an she’s still running around off her meds and claiming she’s not schizophrenic.

The only one who believes her is Gravesman, who used to perform exorcisms when he was still a priest. In certain parts of the film, though not prevalent, there is an undercurrent of religiosity that sometimes feels a bit overdone, but luckily its only in a few scenes, or I would have exorcized this film right out. As with most exorcism films, there are a number of Catholic tropes, such as saying the “Hail Mary” (aka “Ave Maria”) prayer from Luke, along with the general “Our Father” from Matthew (I may be an atheist, but that does not mean I am ignorant).

The demon is leaning on Elizabeth because it is feeding on her guilt of events earlier in her life, hence the name of the film.

The biggest issue I have with this is that it goes against its own philosophy about being possessed when dying, but I will not say who or under what circumstances because that would give away one of the better surprises in the film. However, perhaps they were going for the possibility of a sequel? If that is the reason, then I can relax about it.

Hoots, Liz Fletcher, Jared Noble, David Moak

Despite a few holes such as the couple I mentioned above (the rest are pretty minor), there are some good surprises throughout, which I did not see coming (always a good thing), and I liked the make-up. I also like the bread-and-butter filmmaking of Elizabeth’s dreams being indicated by either smoke or a smoke filter. Sometimes the smoke is a bit on the dark side, giving some nice shadow effects. Speaking of which, the cinematography by Benjamin Paul Rigney, who has worked mostly on shorts, is to the point without drowning in arty flair (including the drone shots which seem to be all of the same street/same height/same angle, arguably shot at the same time; you can tell the difference of time though, by the varied cars traveling the road).

Even so, the film is a stripped-down, meat-and-potatoes (there goes a food analogy again) fare that is what it is, with no real pretentions or artifice. While there is some profanity, there is no nudity, no gore, and I cannot remember any blood, but there is at least a decent sized body count, including some that are not expected.

Overall, this can be an enjoyable afternoon sojourn into the world of priests (and ex-priests), a cool demon, and exorcisms.

IMDB listing HERE 

Available free on TubiTV HERE