Starring: Kelen Coleman, Kevin Alejandro, Louise Fletcher, Rus Blackwell, Lucas Beck, Lucius Baston, Amy LoCicero
Directed by: Anthony DiBlasi
Written by: Bruce Wood & Scott Poiley
Running time: 108 minutes
Rated: R (for violence, disturbing images, sexual content and language)
The title of the film Cassadaga refers to a small spiritualist community in east-central Florida that is known as the
psychic capital of the world. The film is also set and filmed in this real-life community and serves as the backdrop to this superior supernatural chiller.
Lily (Kelen Coleman- Children of the Corn: Genesis, The Mindy Project) is a deaf art teacher and guardian of her younger sister Michele (Sarah Sculco). The two are saving up enough money to move to France so Michele can study in Paris like they’ve always dreamed, but a car accident tragically takes the life of Michele, leaving her older sister Lily devastated. Trying to cope with the loss of her sister, Lily packs up and moves to a small spiritualist community in Florida called Cassadaga where her mother once attended school.
There Lily tries to connect with the spirit of her sister but instead, she contacts the spirit of a murdered woman seeking vengeance. Lily begins to have fragmented visions of images that might be clues to the murdered woman’s killer. Lily’s life begins to collapse around her as she has increasingly more hauntings from the relentless spirit played by Amy LoCicero (The Summoning). The only way Lily can save her sanity is to piece together the fragmented images from the ghost and try to solve her murder, but in doing so puts her in the direct path of a demented serial killer known as “Geppetto” who assembles his victims into grotesque real-life marionettes.
Cassadaga isn’t your normal supernatural movie. It’s more of a supernatural whodunit where the viewer is right
there with the lead character trying to unravel the mystery and discern the clues the ghost gives to Lily in the form of sporadic images burnt into her mind that she can’t ignore. I was caught off guard by this movie. I was expecting quite a bit less and was pleasantly surprised by the depth of story and characterization along with some great plot twists and turns.
The level of acting in the film was very good, especially by the lead Kelen Coleman who portrayed Lily. She did a marvelous job of playing a deaf woman who had to deal with these nightmarish hauntings. Also, Kevin Alejandro (True Blood, Red State) turns in a fine performance as Lily’s love interest in the film. There is a small role with acclaimed Academy Award winning actress Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Exorcist II: The Heretic) who rents Lily a house with a creepy son who lives upstairs.
Director Anthony DiBlasi (Dread, The Profane Exhibit) does a great job turning the film into a terrific supernatural mystery. The film is shot and looks incredibly good for a low budget affair. He makes good use of the southern locations which really add a haunting atmosphere to the film. There are a few creepy scenes that make the film an effective ghost story. Although the film is not without its weak spots, local law enforcement seem to be inept at piecing together clues to track down the serial killer and it takes a deaf woman to figure everything out, and I wish the psychic community of Cassadaga would’ve had a larger role in the film than what it does, but overall they don’t really detract from the enjoyment of the film.
There’s not a lot of blood and gore in the film. There are a few scenes with the ghost where her makeup is average, but not really what one would expect a vengeful ghost to look like. The scene of Geppetto where he is piecing together his human marionettes was blood free. I would’ve been nice to see more carnage in those scenes, but I understand what the director was going for.
I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with Cassadaga. It looks to be another run-of-the-mill serial killer snoozer, but in reality it’s a well written and superb ghost story with a nice whodunit that’s clever enough to keep most people guessing. I would definitely recommend Cassadaga for fans of superior supernatural chillers.
3 ½ out of 5 Pentagrams!
Watch the trailer for Cassadaga here:
