Starring: J.D. Brown, Natalie Jean, Adam Huss, Tim Cronin, Tabetha Ray, and Halfbreed Billy Gram
Directed by: Adam Ahlbrandt
Written by: Adam Ahlbrandt
Running Time: 85 minutes
Rated: Unrated (For extreme graphic violence, drug use, nudity, sexual situations, language)
I wish there were more independent filmmakers like Adam Ahlbrandt. Guys like him really know what horror fans want to see, because he’s a fan himself. He knows that we want to see gore, nudity, monsters, and a decent story, not necessarily in that order and his film The Cemetery fits that bill to a tee. Ahlbrandt isn’t trying to make the Citizen Kane of horror movies and we know that. It’s a small film with a limited budget, but instead of showing us what his limitations are, he plays up to his strengths and has fun doing it.
The Cemetery begins with a prologue detailing 17th century demonic possession scenes where priests brutally torture and in the process of trying to exorcise demons from their victims, end up killing them. These poor, helpless victims of vile priests and their bloodlust crusade to rid them of their demons are buried in a secret cemetery deep in the woods known only to the church.
Cut to current day where a group of five reality show ghost hunters are headed into the woods of Pennsylvania to track down the same abandoned church cemetery. Armed with a stolen church record detailing the whereabouts of this rumored haunted cemetery, they have to head in on foot miles into the wilderness. After finding the cemetery, they unearth more than they bargained for when the group discovers that sometimes the possessed souls of the dead don’t always stay that way.
The Cemetery is a fun movie to watch for a lot of reasons. Ahlbrandt has rounded up a wonderful ensemble cast to bring this ultra-gory story of demonic possession to life. Heading up the cast is J.D. Brown playing the role of “Bill”, the guy who stole the church records and the man in charge of this investigation. Brown plays a likeable character and the only one in the group that seems to have his head on straight. The other strong lead in the film is Natalie Jean who ends up playing one bad-ass possessed soul. Kudos to Jean for spending most of the film caked in blood and gore. Also, Adam Huss gives a hilarious turn as “Tim”, the pot smoking, over-sexed comic relief in the film.
The gore scenes are pretty brutal throughout with the special makeup effects looking pretty darn good for a low-budgeted indie film. The main demon was a cool creation and proved to be pretty creepy looking.
The locations served the film well. I especially enjoyed the look of the opening set design during the prologue where the priests were torturing their victims. I don’t know where it was filmed, but that location added immensely to the film’s production value.
The film is not without its problems, it has a few chinks in the armor, so to speak. The lighting looked ok, but could’ve been better. For me, that’s the number one problem in most of the indie films today is the lighting. The overall look of the film was good, better than most of the indie films coming out. The film flowed well without too many annoying editing mistakes. I also have to say that I love death metal, but at times the death metal soundtrack was too much and proved distracting.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed The Cemetery; it was just the right mix of horror with some comedic elements sprinkled in. It wasn’t really anything that we haven’t already seen before, but it was a good, solid effort from a filmmaker that I see a lot of potential in. Given more time to put a few more films under his belt and hone his craft, and a decent budget, this guy has a future in making movies. I would definitely recommend The Cemetery to any gore hound or horror fan looking for a fun ride, you won’t be disappointed.
Watch the trailer here,
4 Comments
Leave a Reply