Horror Pick: Banshee Chapter
Usually when a screener comes in an old-school CD sleeve without any art on the disc, the resulting film is never something to write home about. Unfortunately, because it’s my job, I then have to write about said movie anyway, despite however miserably awful the experience might have been. But in the case of Banshee Chapter, never judge a DVD by its Microsoft Office made label. This indie winner is scary, spooky, and highly unnerving – exactly what extraterrestrial movies are typically lacking.
To be fair, Banshee Chapter is more of a conspiracy movie than it is full-out alien horror flick. Ok, well, to be even more fair, Banshee Chapter is a mix of paranormal/extraterrestrial/conspiracy/scare-you-senseless horror movies that becomes surprisingly more intuitive than it lets on initially, because sometimes governmental fuckery gets away from preachy filmmakers. First-time-director Blair Erickson shows a surprising amount of genre knowledge while toying with darkness, our paranoias, and things going bump in the night – more of the same, but in ways unseen before.
It’s true, some might find Banshee Chapter generic based on overall scare-tactics, because a large amount of jumps and jots come from popping images, but unlike movies that cheaply rely only on jump scares, Erickson never lets you stabilize your senses even for a second. While I certainly saw better horror movies in 2013, not many movies raised my hairs like Banshee Chapter could. If I’m being vague, it’s only because revealing any conspiracy points would ruin your initial viewing experience – once again you’re going to have to trust a man who has seen more horror movies this year than some see in their lives. You’re in good hands, they just might be stained with blood is all…