NoA Review: 'The Chair'
First printed at www.movingpicturesnetwork.com
Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek
(from the 2008 AFI Dallas International Film Festival)
Director: Brett Sullivan
Writer: Michael Capellupo
Starring: Alanna Chisolm, Lauren Roy, Nick Abraham, Paul Soren
Having picked up the Best Feature Film Award at Shriekfest, Brett Sullivan’s The Chair was one film I wanted to make sure I caught when it hit the AFI Dallas International Film Festival.
It starts off innocently enough down the horror film path of known elements: hot girl alone in an empty house takes a bath, and all is peaceful until the noises start, first a creak, then a breath and then…
From that moment forward, every noise is calculated to heighten the expectation of menace – dentist’s drills, extending tripods, knives grating on stone, leaves bristling. Sullivan has studied his predecessors carefully, even integrating nursery rhymes into the score.
The film sets up the haunted house to have belonged, at the turn of the century, to Mordecai Zymytryk, a consonant-laden sod whom even the great Harry Houdini couldn’t figure out. And I had to buy into why the girl first stayed on at this house after it was clear there was some force of evil in it (especially when her family lives nearby).
As Dani, Chisolm is both believable and gives an inherently natural and watchable performance. When she starts to become possessed by the soul of the man buried in the house, the actress’s subtle, nuanced choices pay dividends. Similarly, the movie definitely transitions up a notch once Dani accepts her destiny and integrates the house’s unique history into her college thesis; from that turning point, Dani has reason to indulge the house’s whims, and the legend and lore come to life.
Along with Slamdance’s Paranormal Activity, Sullivan’s film delivers as one of the best indie efforts in the psychological horror genre this year.
Photos courtesy of Panic Pictures and AFI Dallas International Film Fest.
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