15 September 2016

SANATORIUM. (2013) A 'FOUND FOOTAGE' HORROR FILM REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.




SANATORIUM. (2013) WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY BRANT SERSEN. CINEMATOGRAPHY BY DANIEL SHARNOFF. STARRING BEN RODGERS, KATE RILEY AND DJ HAZARD. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

I've been watching a lot of this kind of found footage/night vision horror film lately, and I'd have to say that this seems like a better than average one.

You know those films where a bunch of attractive young people all pile into a van together to go and investigate hauntings in a designated location, like a creepy old mansion or abandoned mental asylum, and they think everything's all fine and dandy at first but then all this weird scary shit starts to go down and they find out that the place is really haunted? Yeah, baby, that's what I'm talking about...!

Substitute an abandoned sanatorium, i.e., convalescent home, for the aforementioned old abandoned mental asylum and you've got SANATORIUM. The tagline for the film is as follows: 'YOU BELONG TO THEM NOW' and the picture on the DVD box is of a levitating girl. Sweet...

It was obvious from the start that the old Hillcrest sanatorium (that spelling drives me crazy, why can't people say 'sanatarium?') is plenty haunted, but the cast and crew of the television show GhostTrackers aren't really expecting it to be when they go there to film the extra-special 100th edition of their show one cold snowy New Years' Eve.

It's clear from something that one of the cameramen says that any ghostly sightings or apparitions that have previously appeared on GhostTrackers haven't exactly been genuine. That's why husband-and-wife hosts of the show, cute Tyler and newly pregnant Sam, and all the rest of the cast and crew are gobsmacked when Hillcrest really does turn out to have all the disembodied voices, ghostlights and freaky apparitions it's notorious for locally.

It's quite a place, this spooky, empty old sanatorium with the echoing corridors that go on for miles and the silent rooms with the paint peeling off the walls, with the odd abandoned wheelchair or gurney lying around the place to remind us of the invalids who stayed there in bygone days.

I personally wouldn't set foot in such a frightening old dump of a place like that, let alone on the anniversary of the night that the sanatorium's most infamous patient bludgeoned three child invalids to death before hanging himself over five decades ago tonight, but that's exactly what the paranormal experts from GhostTrackers go right ahead and do, those crazy mofos, haha. What a way to celebrate the arrival of a brand-new year...! A few nice bottles of plonk would do for me.

The director has obviously seen and enjoyed other horror films that came before this, such as THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and THE SHINING. I definitely noticed affectionate nods to both films in SANATORIUM, which I appreciated.

My favourite parts of the film were the ones where we heard isolated snatches of music (that bit was bloody terrifying!) and conversation coming from the rooms and corridors ahead or above. The director laid his scares on with a light expert hand and not a flippin' trowel, and I think that that really contributed to the film being genuinely scary in places.

I was dreading the thought of seeing yet another dark-haired ghost girl, with black face-paint circling her eyes to give her a 'possessed' look, popping up to do duty as a jump scare, but this guy didn't stoop to that level, haha.

The scares are all nicely spaced out and they don't just bombard you from all angles the minute you press 'play,' and the director doesn't just trot out the same tired old tropes either, like the aforementioned possessed girl. Kudos to you, Mr. Sersen, if you're reading this, big kudos.

I liked the character of Irwin, the empty building's caretaker, and Tyler's obviously as cute as a button and can do loads better than the annoyingly chirpy Sam. What's she so happy about, anyway? Oh yeah right, she's all knocked up good and proper and has a major claim on Tyler now for the rest of his natural life, good for her, the Pill-missing, boyfriend-tying-down hussy...!

Found footage films filmed in night vision, that most annoying of all visions, have been known to irritate me somewhat in the past, but this one doesn't irritate me. I might even watch it again sometime.

That is pretty much the highest praise I can bestow on any film, apart from the full five thumbs-up I save for the real corkers. I'll pause a moment to allow for your astonished gasps. There. All gasped out, as it were? Then go and enjoy the film. It's got snow in it and stuff...

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.

Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO

 You can contact Sandra at:


http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com







No comments:

Post a Comment