Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Near Death (2004)

One of my observations about movies is that if there are boobs before the credits, you know you're in trouble. So I knew I was in for a long haul on this one.

June, a professor of the occult, along with her assistants Tammy and Billy head to the mansion of Willie von Brahm to investigate stories of it being haunted.  Von Brahm was a movie director who took his own life after his girlfriend dumped him.

The three arrive with suitcases in hand prepared to stay for the weekend. But the person who answers the door has no idea who they are.  Tammy says she sent a letter detailing their intent to stay there, but never got a response. "Didn't you get it?" she inquires.  Are you kidding me?  Someone slap some sense into that girl.  This does not bode well for her investigative prowess.

The host proves to be not your normal person when he says "It appears we have not choice but to let these people stay."  What? Okay, this is also not a good sign.

They're shown to their rooms but told not to leave the room after midnight. Since they are doing paranormal research, they aren't amused.

Billy has invented a specter alert that flashes on the computer if a ghost is near.  I'm wondering how he confirmed that this program works.

Professor June is working on a book about ghost. Tammy was the one who recommended investigating this house.  But once there she gets mad and says she doesn't care about the book or research as she's not there to work.  Confusing? Yes.  After there are some strange occurrences, June and Billy want to leave, but Tammy wants to stay. More confusing? Of course.  Once again paranormal investigators try to confirm supernatural activity and then want to leave when something happens.

The audio has a lot of ambient noise in it, and there is a bad alt rock soundtrack.  The background sounds, music and sound effects are often mixed just as loud as the dialogue.  The effects are bad and so is the acting. The acting is about at community theater level and seems like they're playing for the back of the room.  Dr. Blanchard is particularly bad with a horrible over emphasis on everything he says.

Bad bad, stay away.

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