- Directed by Stephen Cognetti
- Written by Stephen Cognetti
- Stars Elizabeth Vermilyea, Kathryn Miller, Joe Falcone
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soo-x4D2FjQ
- Get it now: https://amzn.to/4cUuL3v
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was an excellent film. Creatively done with the same section of time replayed from three different points of view, and then a wrap-up that brings it all together. We loved everything about it.
Spoilery Synopsis
Two girls have theories about a haunted house, and they’ve been doing research forbidden by their parents. Ashley hears a knock on her bedroom door, but she’s the only one home right now. She looks around, and there’s no one there, but then the knocking continues.
Maria, Isabelle, and Chuck walk around the house they’re considering buying. Isabelle isn’t their kid, but Chuck is her brother. They move in and find the roof leaks badly. Maria does some kind of sewing podcast, and she’s got a terrifying mannequin in her studio.
Chapter One: Chuck
Larry, a neighbor, introduces himself. Chuck complains about the leaky roof, but the roof is supposed to be new. Larry mentions that the old owner killed themselves. Chuck takes a photo of the buckets of water, and when he looks later, he sees a shotgun in the photo– but he doesn’t own a shotgun.
The next morning, Martha the mannequin is outside. Larry comes over to ask about the very real-looking mannequin. Larry asks about Isabelle’s mother who died in the car accident. This house seems to prey on the most vulnerable, so he warns Chuck to keep an eye on Isabelle. Larry also suggests that he read up on the town history at the library and join a gardening group.
At the library, Chuck runs into Ashley, one of the girls from the opening sequence, and she’s been crying. “Just put the books back and leave. It’s real. It’s all real. Don’t look for it. Just get out of this town.” The librarian jokes that he’ll never find Forest Road in those books.
Chuck teaches piano, and Olivia, his first student, arrives at the house. Someone is playing music and Olivia is in the other room with Chuck. “There’s an old woman at the piano,” she says, but no one is there when go back in that room. Olivia can’t wait to run out the door.
Larry invites Chuck to a secret meeting in the basement of a building, and the people there talk about things they’ve seen. “We haven’t had a suicide in years, until Ashley. Everyone here has been affected by her in some way. She feeds on suicides.” Helen Foster has been inflicting pain on the people for decades. Everyone knows about her, but no one knows how to stop her. They have to find 825 Forest Road, that’s where Helen killed herself in the 1940s.
Chapter Two: Isabelle
We go back to when they moved in, and Isabelle isn’t thrilled about being there. She keeps having dreams about her mother. Chuck asks if therapy is helping. She’s an art student, and she drew a perfect picture of the new house, but she drew it years ago.
When the mannequin ended up outside, Chuck blames her, but she swears it wasn’t her. After the secret “gardening meeting” Chuck comes home to be questioned by Isabelle, who says Ashley, a girl at school, killed herself last night. Isabelle doesn’t think it was suicide; she’s been seeing things.
Luke, a friend from school, comes over to talk to Isabelle about what she’s seen. Everyone knows about the “gardening group” and he knows what’s been going on. He tells her about Helen Foster, who’s daughter faced continual bullying. When the daughter killed herself, Helen wiped out the bully and their whole family. She lived at 825 Forest Road, but that’s not on any map. Back in 1980, the town council was going to do something about it, but they were all killed in a massacre.
Isabelle and Maria go to a local art museum. Maria mentions that she’s got bipolar disorder and Chuck just doesn’t get it. One of the paintings changes, scaring a patron, and the gallery closes as they put a cover over the painting.
Chuck wants Isabelle to move to campus and get out of the house. Chuck and Maria may move in a few days as well. Luke mentions that he met Isabelle’s mother downstairs a few minutes ago. Isabelle points out that her mother is dead. Luke leaves, and Isabelle and Maria see the dead woman and run upstairs.
Chapter Three: Maria
We rewind again to Maria’s point of view of the first time they see the house. Later, she waits outside the library as Chuck gets his book. Chuck tells her that therapy is a scam, which Maria doesn’t agree with. Isabelle was the one driving when her mother was killed, so Maria knows that Isabelle’s gonna need lots of it. Maria didn’t want to move to this little town, but she didn’t have much choice.
Chuck explains that the town renamed and renumbered all the houses back in 1953 for some reason. She does her video blog and notices that right in the middle of it, her mannequin moved.
Later, Maria is afraid of the mannequin and wonders if there’s something wrong with her bipolar medication. She skips a dose.
After the art gallery incident, Maria tells Chuck what happened. He thinks she’s complaining about moving to the small town. On her next live video broadcast, we can see the mannequin’s hands moving in the background. That thing is clearly alive. She gets a text from her audience, “get out of the house.” It starts chasing her around the house, and later, she has Chuck burn it in the backyard.
Chuck says they may have trouble selling the house, and he has doubts about her experience. A thousand people saw it on the livestream, so it’s definitely not in her head. We cut to the incident with Isabelle’s mother in the kitchen, and we see what happened from Maria’s point of view.
The crazy old ghost-monster-woman scares the crap out of Maria. Maria goes into Isabelle’s room, and she’s bleeding.
Chapter Four: Forest Road
Luke comes to the door and tells Isabelle that he’s found the house at 825 Forest Road. He’s found plans and followed the power grid rather than street maps. He’s found power lines that seem to go nowhere, so that’s where Forest Road is.
Bonnie, the realtor, comes to the door, wanting to film a testimonial. Maria volunteers to do it. Chuck and Isabelle go searching for the house, leaving Luke to watch over Maria. Bonnie has a film crew to record an interview with Maria, and we soon see that Maria is being possessed by Helen, telling Helen’s story.
Chuck and Isabelle drive to the end of the road. They soon find a house and break in. Under a floorboard, they find a box with letters inside. Letters that Helen wrote to the bully’s family– the bully family’s address is their house.
Maria turns into a monster right on camera and kills Bonnie and the cameraman. Luke runs, but it gets him too.
At the house, an arm grabs Isabelle. When Chuck tries to stop it, it pulls them both into the bedroom and slams the door.
Everybody dies!
Brian’s Commentary
It’s kind of a mystery, as everyone tries to learn what’s really going on. Everyone knows something is happening, but they have no idea how to stop it. The three different points of view is a neat way to tell the story. It’s a ghost story, but it’s not about a haunted house, it’s about a haunted town.
I liked this one a lot. It’ll probably be in my top ten for the year.
Kevin’s Commentary
Like Brian, this one really clicked with me, too. It was unique enough to be interesting, and everything about it came together – cast, script, effects, and direction. It was great.
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