Over the years of watching bad movies you start to get a little gunshy on checking new ones out. Shucks, and can you blame me or anyone else because of that? Hecks no. If it isn’t seeing bad mainstream movies it’s seeing bad indie ones and sometimes the worst are the ones that the world SWEARS are simply genius yet you just hate with every fiber of your being. Once in a while though you take a deep breath, hold it, and dive right back into the movie poop and see what is out there. Thanks to services like Netflix, trying new movies isn’t nearly as daunting as it used to be. Enter Chronicles of an Exorcism, a movie that isn’t great in any manner but is just solid enough to be worth a look.
Small time filmmakers join three priests in the middle of nowhere to videotape and chronicle the exorcism of a young woman. When they arrive they are not sure what to expect but soom realize that they may be in far over their heads. Something is clearly wrong with the young woman but what it is they are not sure, but the longer they stay, the more unsafe they begin to feel. As the exorcism begins there seems to be hope that the girl can be saved but could this be another trick of the thing that may reside within the girl? All the filmmakers can hope is that they can get away from the small farmhouse before it’s too late.
An oft times effective and tense film this is one of those little films that could. With a solid cast and some great sets, this one really plays on the nerves. This is, as with most of the exorcism films that come down the pike, not something new to us but just the same there are some real shocks and the film takes interesting turns. The biggest issues here are some melodrama and a huge miscasting in the part of the possessed girl. It isn’t that she’s bad (though they needed to either play up the possession aspect more or really underplay it, as it is they played the middle and it wasn’t always effective) but she just doesn’t fit the part. She looks too clean, too pretty, and too prom queen to feel like this is a lost lamb of God.
Chronicles is far from a bad film it just isn’t anything to get overly excited about. The movie is effective for what it is and does well with its meager budget. This is definitely the sort of film you watch late when you have nothing else to watch. And seen late, and in the dark, it’s sure to put some creep in your bones, for sure.
6.5 out of 10
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 