Some day, aliens will come to earth and watch out found footage movies and marvel at how in the mid-20-teens everyone and their aunt was making a paranormal reality show for streaming. At least according to found footage movies of the time. Which, if I am honest, sounds right. When you think of the utter glut of paranormal shows that hit the once proud cable networks focused on history and learning, it does make sense. Once “Ghost Hunters” and “Ghost Adventures” and the rest broke big everyone had a haunted pitch. You need a niche and a pitch and you could get the hitch it seemed. “Hey, so I wanna hunt ghosts with my family, and we are all circus performers who can speak with the dead!” SOLD!
It was clear from most of these that the shows were more orb than specter but that didn’t mean they didn’t capture people’s imaginations. Heck, I admit that a good spook-out is fun but jeepers, did that drain get clogged. Haunted Bigfoot. Ancient Ghosts. Spooky-Ooky Homestead. It’s no wonder we got so many found footage movies about the same. While it mirrored what was happening though, a lot of these films used that as a lazy “in” to their movie.
“Oh, hey, set it in an abandoned place that’s haunted, Oooooo!” And that makes sense. It’s a controllable set that comes ready-baked with its own aura and atmosphere. Heck, if you’re lucky, something weird happens on the set. With so many people using those same parameters though, you need something to set what you are doing apart, and if you don’t then you’re just another movie with people running around in the dark, screaming and filming when they should be hiding and sheltering in place.
Welcome to the Park Hotel, scene of tragedy and horror, and the makeshift backdrop for what is hoped to lead to a paranormal series. The showrunner and his brother have tabbed the showrunner’s girlfriend to put together a crew for an overnight shoot. They found an abandoned hotel with a dark past to shoot in and have permission to film. With the addition of a Native American woman who will tap into the vibes of the hotel and open a channel for the spirits to interact with the ghost hunters, things seem perfect for capturing something for the show. What they don’t realize though, is that there is a darkness in the hotel that, once unleashed, is far more than they could have bargained for and they’ll all be lucky to leave with their lives, let alone the perfect shot.
By the time this movie was made the premise was already well-worn and tired. You need to bring something special or different to the plate if you’re going to go this route. With annoying, bickering characters, and a tired story, it wasn’t looking good. Then, as the crew gets into the space and starts to set things up, you see shadows moving in the background, promising that, well, this might be more interesting than it seems. Alas, no. It devolves into lazy possessions, more bickering, running in circles, and warnings that they have gone too far.
Sigh.
The thing with a set-up like this is that if you can get past that initial – ooo, we’re hunting ghosts in a haunted place – you can create some good scares. GRAVE ENCOUNTERS and GONJIAM are two great examples of what can be done. You have to offer more than jump scares and the cast acting like they are possessed though.
The film is shot well enough, they mostly stick to the rules of the subgenre (until the very end, aaaargh!), and folks are trying to keep it all moving forward. It’s not a bad film. It’s just not compelling and offers nothing new. The appearance of actor Tom Sizemore in a bit part just makes it all the more distracting. Maybe the film will rock your socks but there’s no real story to tell, no history that we learn, no secrets uncovered, so it’s just people running around and screaming in the dark. Which, I suppose, would have made this a really popular ghost hunting channel in the real world.
It’s currently streaming for free on Tubi so do as you will.
(PS, I guess it was also called “THE SPEAK,” uh, OK.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1656197/
2 out of 5
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 