A ghost trap The genre of horror films attracts thousands of young enthusiasts who believe that they have enough strength and desire to rise above the rest and inscribe their name among the best horror directors along with Wes Craven or James Wan. Modern horrors are good because you can save a lot of money on their production, and in return get a multi-million dollar profit. Oren Peli will not let you lie, because his, roughly speaking, penny “Paranormal phenomenon” could become the winner of box office reports and bypass more expensive and advertised projects of major studios at the box office. But people like Peli do not appear in cinema as often as they would like, and most aspiring directors who try to conquer horror are actually talentless artisans who miraculously got the opportunity to put a full-length film, which often becomes their first and last try. And there are those lucky people who are clearly deprived of creative skill, but for some miraculous reasons they are allowed to stay in business for a long time, which in most cases leads to the fact that the segment of home video with inexorable speed is filled with outright slag, from which horror fans simply cannot hide. One of these filmmakers, spawning a whole army of films of disgusting quality is Philip Adrian Booth, who combines the functions of director, screenwriter, producer and editor. The creative path of Booth is littered with continuous failures, disappointing thirsty for high-quality horror entertainment for the evening of the audience and quite naturally ignored by high-brow critics. Beginning with his professional debut, Tunnel of Death, Philip Adrian Booth boasts nothing of substance. The only project that honored him was the semi-documentary mystery film Scared, on which he worked as an editor, cameraman and one of the screenwriters, losing the post of director to his colleague. As you can see, Booth is quite good at making films, working as a team. But when he wants to lead the creative process alone, nothing makes sense. Nevertheless, this circumstance does not stop his zeal, and he again and again fights for the attention of the public, with enviable constancy occupying the director's chair. The next Booth movie that came to our screens is called Still Dead. One of the leading roles in it is played by Hollywood veteran Ray Wise, adorning with his participation many iconic paintings, including the phenomenal “Stalemate” and “Jeepers Creepers 2”. Judging by the opinion of most viewers who reviewed Booth's tape, Ray Wise could not save it from quite a natural failure. In turn, I agree with the opinion of the public, because some films are not able to save even divine intervention, not even Wise’s participation.
The plot of the film is built around an ancient camera, which, according to legend, keeps human souls in its lens, being a kind of prison for ghosts. Once it was owned by the famous photographer, the universally recognized master Venton Davis (Wise), famous for photographing only dead people, compiling incomparable compositions that imitate life. Around the image of Davis walked a lot of controversial legends, some of which were real nightmares. Nevertheless, the master was awarded a place in history and his own corner in one of the most prestigious museums in the city. The main character of the film is the great-grandson of the master, Brandon (Ben Browder), who also chose the profession of a photographer. However, unlike an eminent relative, Brandon can not boast of special fame, vegetating in his own modest atelier. A series of failures on the personal and professional fronts, however, did not break the hero, and he always tried to keep the bright side. Believing that one day he will have to learn success, Brandon unexpectedly receives from his suddenly deceased grandfather the same camera that Maestro Davis used. Unable to resist temptation, Brandon uses it in his work, unconsciously releasing an evil spirit from it, imprisoning the souls of unfortunates who had the carelessness to get into the lens. A series of mysterious deaths flooded into the city and it is quite clear that only the heir to Davis can stop the evil forces facing them face to face.
It is not clear how, but Philip Adrian Booth managed to destroy all the original developments that somehow penetrated his head. The synopsis of the film turned out to be truly intriguing and in skillful hands it could turn into a blood-cold mystical thriller. Capable of captivating the imagination. But Booth erroneously thought he would be able to bring all his ideas to life, thereby creating another offensively squalid horror film intended for viewing by people engaged in the shooting. I'm afraid no one else will be able to rate "Still Dead" in a positive way. From the very first frames it becomes clear that before our eyes is a half-amateur production, similar to one of the series of some second-rate horror series. The creators of the tape could not get a decent camera for the filming of this opus, and the processing of the frame for an allegedly decent full-length film still causes a sense of righteous anger in the viewer who expects to see something more than a fake for a professionally shot movie. Surprisingly faceless, stamped soundtrack crowns the primary impression of the plot and hints that it is better to end the suffering on the opening credits and not continue the agony.
Further narrative develops crumpledly. The director either rushes to overtake time itself, giving us a lot of optional, but heavy information for one scene, then, on the contrary, artificially tightens the timekeeping with wretched attempts to frighten the audience or reveal the characters that can not be called otherwise than wooden. There are films whose negative moments echo the positive ones, so that the story is partly balanced and digestible. And there are also tapes that you just want to take and turn away from. “Still Dead” refers to the latter. You will not find anything worthy of attention here, except for the makeup of some ghosts, as if escaped from the town of Silent Hill, as well as the game of Ray Wise, who managed to create a more or less intriguing image for those meager minutes on the screen, which Booth allocated to him. Unfortunately, these ghostly virtues do not affect the overall impression, completely eluding memory due to the disgusting directing, cinematography and play of the lead artist, Ben Browder. Philip Adrian Booth most likely chose him for the lead role because he saw in the actor a kindred untalented soul. Browder played the whole film with the same facial expression, believing that since the director does not require his efforts, then he does not need to try to raise the bar of his skill.
Most of all, in “Still Dead” irritates neither the inconsistency of the director, nor the amateur operator, nor the actors-Istukans, and the fact that it is quite a good story Philip Adrian Booth selfishly left in his hands, thereby burying it at the very beginning of the filming process. I do not recommend this film to watch and advise to pass by all projects Booth without stopping.
1 out of 10