[yasr_overall_rating]
A writer travels to a small southern town in search of a ghostly legend and finds the cursed residents waiting for his arrival as the centuries-old secret of Paranormalice rises from the blood and ashes of Mosswood.
Halloween is just around the corner, meaning that all things horror are destined to occupy the cultural spotlight for a while. The usual fare will dominate most critical discourse. I am sure that “The Simpsons”’ annual “Treehouse of Horror” episode will not fail to disappoint, nor will the season opener of “The Walking Dead.” These are foundational fixtures of every October (though “The Walking Dead” is a rather recent addition) along with, of course, classics ranging from silly (“Scream”) to legitimately unsettling (“The Ring”). “Paranormalice,” a low-budget independent film written and directed by Daniel Bamberg, will be largely ignored. This is not entirely without good reason. There were times when I felt that it was scarcely outpacing a high school film project in terms of quality, and the grainy product that somehow survived post-production was more reminiscent of the Zapruder film than of anything else.
That’s not to say that “Paranormalice” isn’t without its charms. First and foremost, it’s fun. Fun is an underrated quality in cinema these days. Nobody will confuse this with an avant garde masterpiece, or even with a decent studio film. But there’s something to be said for the hokey Halloween flick that knows exactly what it is. Additionally, the framing device employed here – a traveling writer being told local tales by a bartender – calls back to the heyday of 1990s horror-lite television shows such as “Tales of the Crypt” and “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” Perhaps as a child of the ’90s, I am uniquely susceptible to the siren call of nostalgia in this case, but I suspect most viewers will have fond memories of the kind of scariness that “Paranormalice” is trying to evoke.
That said, I don’t want to minimize how amateurish this film is. Clearly operating on a miniscule budget, there are numerous audiovisual flaws that significantly undermine the story. Grainy shots, poor lighting, and strange volume issues abound. Sometimes, an amateur feel can add to a film’s charm. This time, however, it adds to the film’s overall cheap feel and takes away from what ought to be a neat set of four stories tied together by a larger narrative.
If there’s ever a time to indulge in “Paranormalice,” October is it. Perhaps it’s my soft spot for ridiculous Halloween adventures, but I actually enjoyed this film almost in spite of itself. The tales spun by the narrative framer aren’t exactly bone-chilling, but are scary enough to pique the interest of hardcore horror fans for the two hour run-time. Bamberg probably didn’t intend for this to be a cult film, but its best chance for relevance are film junkies watching it ironically twenty years from now and declaring it a cult classic. It’s poor production value will never allow it to challenge the likes of “Rocky Horror” or other films of that ilk in terms of status, but perhaps “Paranormalice” can carve out its own niche in a crowded genre.
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I don’t fully disagree with this opinion, but rocky Horror never had this form of exposure. We didn’t try to make a revamp of a film to make money. We created a new film with a new story, something Hollywood could take a note in. Id rather see something new than a shitty remake.
We had issues, but in the end a viable product