Blackwater Valley Exorcism
Picture: C Sound: C+ Extras: C- Film: C-
After the
two awful prequels to William Friedkin’s The
Exorcist rightly bombed and The
Exorcism Of Emily Rose was not the big hit it deserved to be, you would
think the idea would be given a breather.
For those considering making such projects, do they really weight the
possibilities of success and failure both critically and commercially? Ethan Wiley’s Blackwater Valley Exorcism is a flat, tired, dull, badly directed
and badly written entry that never works.
What’s worse, it dares to say it is “based on actual events” when one
viewing will tell you that is tired, dumb hype.
Isabelle
is the latest young lady to be possessed, because I guess Satan is not as
interested in males? Anyhow, this
straight-to-DVD turkey gets worse as every cliché shows up and done in the
worst possible way. Acting is badly
handled by the very bad directing, everyone looked more bored than scared and
even decent actors like Jeffrey Combs and James Russo cannot save this. It is just filler and there is no way to
exorcise the lack of rip-off out of this.
It will give you new respect for Exorcist
2 - The Heretic!
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X1 image is awkwardly soft for a new production
and for a Supernatural Horror genre piece, the cinematography by “Rebel Film”
is as flat as not having a name. The
Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo mixes have poor dialogue recording, meaning
surround audio was an afterthought for what is obviously still a low budget
affair and the surrounds are hardly ever used or very weak. Extras include trailers, director’s
commentary and a making of featurette that don’t add up to much.
- Nicholas Sheffo
