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Rise of the Ghosts
Canada 2007
produced by Sv Bell for EnGarde! Media
directed by Sv Bell
starring Christine Ghawi, Robert Araujo, Kymberley Dawn Hugman, Joseph Taylor, Magenta Baribeau, Suzi Lorraine, Melantha Blackthorne, Alison Louder, Danay Cragaris, Matthew Saliba, Isabelle Stephen, Nadia Beliveau, Amelie Paul, Chantal Petrin, Sabrina Dumais, Stephanie Gagnon, Antonella Vaccaro, Gabrielle Fournier, Annika Cuzner, Etienne Beaulieu, Pamela Petrin, Penelope Jolicoeur, Denis Coupal
screenplay by Dustin LaValley, Robbie Ribspreader, based on an idea by Sv Bell, music by Deadhouse Music, Max England, Radio Cult, Midnight Syndicate, special makeup effects by Claude Bussieres, Jihanne Mossalim, Jef Grenier
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Years ago, the evil nurse of the local high school (Melantha
Blackthorne) - who by the way has hypodermics for fingers - kidnapped
quite a few of the students, locked them up in the school's basement and
tortured them viciously. When the police tracked her down, whe set the
whole school on fire, burning all of her victims to death. Her body though
was never found. Ever since that day, the school is considered to be
haunted, but now, Sarah (Christine Ghawi) needs to go there to make peace
with her sister Veronica (Alison Louder), one of the nurse's victims, who
has all these years ago saved Sarah's life by killing their abusive father
(Denis Coupal). On her quest, Sarah is accompanied by her best friends
Jessica (Magenta Baribeau), Liz (Kymberley Dawn Hugman) and Jared (Robert
Araujo) as well as a psychic (Joseph Taylor) - who proves to be pretty
ineffective in the course of the proceedings - and his sister (Suzi
Lorraine). Everybody knows this little excursion is full of dangers, but
none of them is aware of the evil they are really going to face, as the
place is not only haunted by ghosts, the ghosts of those the nurse has
killed are really after the blood of the living, as it seems they are
still under the control of the nurse. Before the nurse decides to appear
though, everybody but Sarah and Jared is killed in one gruesome way or
another, but interestingly, the nurse refrains from killing Sarah and
finally allows herself to be overcome by Veronica, Sarah's sister, whom
even death can't keep from looking after her sister. The end? Not quite
... Click
here to open the Spoiler Pop-up! Very nice ghost story
that finds just the right balance between traditional haunted house tale
and modern gore movie, helped also by characters that are more than just
cannon fodder, a story that features a few nice and unusual twists and an
ending that is not predictable for a change, and a directorial job that
remains fresh and interesting throughout without ever becoming
unnecessarily flashy or bland. And even though the film could
have done with a bit more irony (something director Sv Bell is no stranger
to), it's still not dead serious enough to become ridiculous, and
definitely not an insult to the viewer's intelligence, like so many other
haunted house films tend to be. Pretty
good, actually. By the way, this film can be purchased at http://www.horror-mall.com.
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