 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: We Are Still Here • Year: 2015 • Country: USA • Director: Ted Geoghegan • Main cast: Barbara Crampton, Andrew Sensenig, Lisa Marie • Runtime: 84 minutes • Production company: Snowfort Pictures, Dark Sky Films • TRAILER |
Oh, hey! So I already found a haunted house movie that I can say I like! First I thought it would be another boring movie, but this film had some wild cards hidden. Although the start point of the story is very simple, something we have seen many times. I was there watching it and after the first 10 minutes I was already thinking “oh no, another more of the same creepy wannabe ghosts films. How many bad horror house-in-the-woods movies we have to get every year?”. But no, I was wrong, and things got interesting. Pretty interesting.
First of all, yes, the plot is very simple and not new. A couple of middle age city americans want to start over with their lifes after their teenage son is dramatically killed in a car crash. But the house in the countryside they chose is inhabited by a family of spirits who are thirsty for revenge towards the ones who ended their lifes. Until here, it’s the same old premise we have seen a milion times.
We Are Still Here is the first movie from director Ted Geoghegan, a very unknown name but somebody who has been involved for more than a decade as producer and writer in several short films, feature films or tv stuff. And it is a pleasure to see how he used all that knowledge and experience in his first work to accomplish a great work in both artistic and technical aspects. Also a great control of some tension moments, I loved this part. I was expecting things to happen, and when they actually happened they were still shocking.
The cast of actors, both main stars or for supporting roles, is also extremelly effective. Here we can find names like Barbara Crampton (who has starred more horror movies than 99% of the world population, with classics like Re-Animator (1985), Chopping Mall (1986) or From Beyond (1986) to more recent films like You’re Next (2011) or The Lords of Salem (2012)), Tim Burton’s ex muse Lisa Marie, 70s TV classic Monte Markham or multidisciplinary filmmaker Larry Fessenden. Photography, sound and edition are also taken with delicate care, with the intention to get you deep into the story and bring you the peace of the countryside when the plot starts to develop, but also open the gates of hell when the action starts.
A special mention is deserved by the special effects team. We Are Still Here has a GREAT work of make-up, prosthetics, tricks and old school gore scenes. And it all with a delicate final digital touch in post-production. The global result is sublime, who wants the CGI overdose we’re sadly used to nowadays? That is how all the special effects in movies should be made!
And my final summary, as always. For a person who is sick and tired of haunted houses and ghost movies, a genre that I actually never liked, I fully enjoyed We Are Still Here. I think it’s very well done, with lots of care and love for the horror world. I will recommend it to my friends, and maybe also to some of my enemies. At least, to the enemies I still get along with. Because, after all, we all are still here.
RATE: 6/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3520418
