- Directed by: John Berardo
- Written by: John Berardo
- Stars: Isabella Gomez, Jack Sochet, Lindsay LaVanchy
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joQjDroJ8iY
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A year after her sister’s death, a woman returns to an old building to set up the artist space that her sister wanted. But it’s complicated by ghosts and stuff. Neither of us thought this was very entertaining. There’s a lot of talk and it’s kind of dull, even in the scary parts.
Spoilery Synopsis
Ruth, an old-timey model, stands for a photo shoot as Jack, the photographer, talks to her about big stars that he’s worked with. He then stops to take her measurements. He talks her into changing into another outfit. When she’s done, he kills her with an ax. He then poses her with her decapitated head on the body of a mannequin. Credits roll.
In the present day, two sisters, Sophia and Liana, look at the same building, now empty and ready to move in. Liana goes home and finds her boyfriend Peter, a ghost finder streamer, is finishing his show. They all end up going to Nadine’s big party tonight. Liana breaks up with her boyfriend after the party.
The next day, Sophia brings her friends Nadine and Hazel over to see the new workspace, and they all admire the creepy looking mannequin that came with the furniture. The two sisters then argue about their lives.
That night, working alone, Sophia gets a shock. So does Liana– her boss fires her. In the morning, Liana goes to the old building to look for Sophia and finds her in a puddle of blood. The police declare it a suicide.
One year later, the property manager calls Liana; he’s been storing all Sophia’s stuff. She’s taking over the lease. That night, Liana hallucinates seeing Sophia in the workspace. Nadine and Hazel stop in for a visit, and they aren’t happy that Liana just abandoned them last year. Eventually, they all make up.
Hazel spends the night in the workspace with Liana and has a nightmare. When she wakes up, things get worse for her. Liana wakes up and finds Hazel cutting herself.
Some time later, Nadine and Liana confront Hazel about her attempted suicide, which Hazel insists didn’t happen. This all ends up in an argument, and they all go to Nadine’s place. That night, Nadine cuts herself and then chases after Hazel with a knife. She then puts her hand in the garbage disposal. She loses fingers.
All three girls now realize something is going on. Who they gonna call? The ghost-buster, aka, Peter. He already knows stories about that old factory. It was built as a mannequin factory, but then Jack Bernard started using it as a photographic studio. Over the next few decades, other models died there. Each of the women were missing various body parts. He was eventually caught and killed himself, also in this building.
They all go back to the building, and Peter uses his ghost hunting devices to locate an ax. He then gets some loud jump scares and then puts blood on the mannequin, who hasn’t done a darned thing to him. He does a whole exorcism ritual over the mannequin. After, he says they need to chop it up and burn it; he uses the ax he found downstairs. Sure enough, the missing body parts are inside the mannequin.
Liana then attacks Peter with the ax, and he loses a hand. Hazel and Nadine pull her out, screaming. We then see that the building manager is Jack’s own grandson, and he knew about everything all along.
Liana, Nadine, Hazel, and Peter go to Sophia’s grave. At the building, the manager brings in a new tenant for a photo studio. We see the mannequin, all glued back together, in the corner…
Brian’s Commentary
Jump scares that involve nothing beyond sudden loud noises are cheap cheats. Loud music is not scary.
So they found a mannequin full of old body parts and no one bothered to call the police? Right.
It’s really dull. Most of it made no real sense, but the primary sin is not to be boring, and this one didn’t quite pass that mark.
Kevin’s Commentary
It’s a good thing they used loud music to let us know when to be startled and scared.
The whole situation was unsettling and disturbing, but I thought it was a story on the thin side that was too stretched out with a lot of time spent on people yakking about stuff. Luckily the main character had an ex who was a ghost-hunter podcaster who could research the building history and show up with his ghost detecting electronics.
It’s a bit less than an hour and a half long, but it seemed much longer.
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