We Are Still Here--Ted Geoghegan (2015)

Annie (Barbara Crampton) faces the darkness with a fist full of knives in Ted Geoghagen's We Are Still Here (2015)

One of the highlights of the Fantasia Film Festival is the guests that they bring in to talk about the films that the festival screens.  Believe me, festival audiences give filmmakers (and other cast and crew members) a raucous and enthusiastic welcome.  Director Ted Geoghagen and Cinematographer Karim Hussain have had a long collaborative relationship with Fantasia, so screening Geoghagen's feature debut was like coming home.

Speaking of home, the film opens on a snowy country road that leads toward a rather ominous looking house.  Anne and Paul Sacchetti (Barbara Crampton and Andrew Sensenig) are renting a house in the country, attempting to get over the recent death of their son, Billy, who died in a car crash.  As I was watching the film I thought--this landscape looks familiar.  Really familiar.  Turns out that Geoghagen and co. shot the film in Palmyra, NY, and I grew up in the adjoining little town, Newark.  Palmyra is a slightly strange place, especially with its unique history.  In fact, the Hill Cumorah Pageant is happening right about now, and that performance is really something...Also, the film is set in 1979, and the decor is really distinctive.  Back then my family's big home renovation project was turning the garage of our little ranch house into a BAR with orange shag carpeting and bean bag chairs.  That room is where the hi-fi rested.  Geoghagen gets the time period just right.

The late 70's were not so chic--the art direction in this film was spot on 1979

Anyway, shortly after their arrival, while Anne is unpacking, weird things start to happen, especially in the BASEMENT.  Within the film's first ten minutes, Anne investigates the basement two very nerve-wracking times, and the audience is informed very quickly that something's down there with her.  She, unsurprisingly, thinks it's Billy, and maybe it is.  And maybe not.

Soon, the neighbors, Dave (Monty Markham) and Kathleen, visit, and pretty much freak the Sachettis out with a story about the former home-owners, the Dagmars, with corpse selling, and death by fire.  Kathleen makes little noises throughout, and in the end sneaks a note to Paul stating "The house needs a family.  GET OUT!"  Nice people.  Anne does feel strange things in the house, but even she thinks that these neighbors are nutty.  Well, there's a lot more going on with the neighbors than even their slightly strange etiquette.  Think Wicker Man.

Anne decides to invite their friends May and Jacob to visit, and that's when things get really, really great, because they are hippie new age folks that do seances and stuff, and Jacob smokes a lot of pot.  And May is played by Lisa Marie and Jacob is the absolutely awesome Larry Fessenden.  Everything those two do in the film from here-on-out is MAGIC.  A seance w/ Jacob turns horribly awry, and a scene with him eating his own gag is truly, truly excellent.  You may ask, "Why is Jacob gagged?"  Why indeed.  That's just one of the film's delights.  Oh, and May and Jacob invite their son, Harry, and his girlfriend to visit too, because four victims is clearly not enough!  Harry checks out the basement too.

Jacob (Larry Fessenden) and May (Lisa Marie) think the Sachetti's new home has some bad vibes

The film is a delightful hybrid of haunted house film, with some possession hijinks, and evil villagers thrown in for good measure.  In the Q & A, Geoghagen stated that the film is a homage to Lucio Fulci, especially House by the Cemetery (1981), but the beauty of We Are Still Here is that it tells a story of its own--one with some familiar moments, but also with plenty of fresh surprises. 

What makes this film stand out as exceptional horror is its careful balancing of chilling atmosphere with gore.  That's where Karim Hussain's talents really come into play.  I'm not a fan of gore.  I know to some that would make me a lame-o horror fan.  Yet, my favorite television show right now is Hannibal (and Hussain shot a couple of those episodes).  That show is all about human parts arranged in aesthetically unique ways--it's damn gory, but very beautiful.  The blood spatter in We Are Still Here is plentiful, but it's also painterly.  So many beautiful framegrabs.  The film's compositions are really stunning, and Hussain has a wonderful visual sense.  Can you tell I'm crushing on him too?  I stood in line to talk to the filmmakers after the screening, and Crampton, Geoghagen, and the film's producer, Travis Stevens, were really nice and gracious.  Meeting Karim Hussain was the high point.  He was charming and friendly--I just like the ways in which he sees the world.

We Are Still Here is really, really good horror.  Geoghagen compared his film to Ti West's House of the Devil (2009), shot near my current home weirdly enough.  I really like West's film, but I think Geoghagen's is better.  Let's hope he gets to make another film soon.

The film's ending is pretty ambiguous, and even if there is some slight plot weirdness, Barbara Crampton's Anne is utterly convincing.  She's the soulful heart of a film that mixes good scares, pretty gore, and characters about whom you care.  I've always liked her in Re-animator (1985), but I'm a fan of her most recent work. She's great in Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem (2012), but We Are Still Here really allows her to show her range.  I'm really dying to see Sun Choke (2015) where she also has received rave reviews.  She's also in Tales of Halloween which I will see in just a few days!  Crampton seems to be getting some of her best roles yet, and I'm just delighted that genre filmmakers can appreciate the work of this gorgeous, talented woman.