Director: Ted Geoghagen
Cast: Barbara Crampton, Larry Fessenden, Andrew Sensenig, Lisa Marie
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 88 minutes
Special Features: Audio commentary with director Ted Geoghagen and producer Travis Stevens, Behind-the-Scenes featurette.
Anne (Crampton) and Paul (Sensenig) Sacchetti are a middle aged couple grieving the death of their college-age son. In hopes of elevating some of his wife’s turmoil Paul has relocated the couple to the arse-end of nowhere in New England. As they try to settle in, something doesn’t seem quite right about the accommodation, the basement for one is always burning hot and there is the occasional misplaced item. Then they find that the house has a terrible history and has been vacant for the last thirty years. Determined to get to the bottom of events Anne calls in her ‘psychic’ friend May (Marie) and her husband Jacob (Fessenden) at which point events escalate rapidly.
We are Still Here was heavily inspired by Lucio Fulci‘s classic House by the Cemetery; the plots are almost identical, and the characters have all been named after the cast and crew of Fulci’s film. The result is a modern day horror that captures the essence of those movies made in the seventies and eighties. It’s a trend that has started appearing over the last few years with films such as Ti West‘s The House of the Devil and Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch‘s Starry Eyes being prime examples of the resurgence of the more classical horror film.
We are Still Here manages to feel almost timeless. If you look hard enough you can see that we’re meant to be in the seventies, however given that history repeats itself and fashion trends are forever cycling round it could easily be read as something much more modern. The timeless nature means that the film can skirt the necessity for characters to have mobile phones which makes some of the plot points much more believable. Yes mobiles are a great aid to modern life but they don’t half spoil a horror film sometimes.
The isolated location adds a sinister element to the atmosphere whilst the icy, wintery, snow-covered setting for We are Still Here reflects the internal emotions and feelings of the bereaved couple. This is juxtaposed beautifully by what dwells in the basement, for once the malevolent force doesn’t bring about cold spots and chills but rather a blazing inferno of hateful heat that sears it victims.
We are Still Here moves at a progressive pace, slowly building up the atmosphere and tension. We get glimpses, and I do mean glimpses, of what’s hiding in the house within the first few minutes, but our first death is a fair way into the run time. This film doesn’t play to the current trend of offing someone in the opening moments and the cast being aware from the start, instead it prefers to ratchet up the fear level. A special mention should go out to Fessenden whose character Jacob performs a rather ghastly seance.
Where We are Still Here fails to fully execute is in its end sequence. It was designed to be rather open ended, encouraging the audience member to create their own scenario for what happens but this won’t sit right with everyone. There are also a few plot elements scattered throughout that are never explained fully and seem to be the remnants of a deleted scene; sadly without the cut footage they kind of just float there, affecting the status quo.
We are Still Here is the directorial debut of Ted Geoghagen, originally his time on We are Still Here was supposed to end after the script was completed, but he had fallen so in love with it that he decided to give directing a whirl. With We are Still Here he has crafted a solid haunted house movie that pays great homage to The House by the Cemetery and harks back to a time when all horror films needed was a tense atmosphere.
The bonus commentary offers some amusing insights into filming, both Geoghagen and Stevens lamenting their overuse of scenes in moving cars which are apparently a real pain in the proverbial to shoot. It also helps explain some of the more muddled narrative elements.
We are Still Here is released on DVD 19th October.
