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In Memorium (2005)

DVD Cover (In Memorium Productions)
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Overall Rating 47%
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Ranked #9,553
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After being diagnosed with a terminal cancer, Dennis moves with his girlfriend Lily to a new home, where he installs cameras and microphones everywhere to record his last months of life, in order that the material be used later to make a documentary. However, the devices capture the presence of another inhabitant there. --IMDb
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Review by bluemeanie
Added: July 12, 2006
Since Movies Made Me has started accepting independent films for us to review, I have received about four, and this was the first one I have actually gotten around to seeing, thus far. I will make it to the others soon, but this one was more suited to my typical tastes as a critic. The horror genre is my favorite genre, and though this plot was somewhat stereotypical, it had enough originality to make it worth my while. "In Memorium" is a horror film by writer/director Amanda Gusack.

The premise for "In Memorium" is original enough. A young man, Dennis (Erik McDowell) is diagnosed with terminal cancer. In a last hoorah, of sorts, he and his girlfriend Lilly (Johanna Watts) max out as many credit cards as possible and purchase a house, along with a truckload of audio and visual equipment. Dennis has decided that he is going to record his every movement in the house, so that after he is dead, and editor can cut the footage into a motion picture. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, the problem comes when Dennis and Lilly start noticing strange things on the cameras. Dennis also starts to notice that his sickness starts to spread faster and faster and get worse and worse the longer he stays in the house. All of this boils down to a climax that I will not reveal because I guess it is one of those endings that audiences should see for themselves.

Now, on to the review. Though the premise is original, the execution is cliched. This was like watching "The Blair Witch Project" mixed with "My Life" with a little "The Others" thrown in for extra measure. The filmmakers did a good job of making me care about the title character and make me genuinely feel for his illness and what was happening to him. Erik McDowell did a fine job of portraying Dennis and really connecting with an audience. However, Johanna Watts as Lilly was more annoying that anything else. Her performance was lackluster, and that impeded her ability to turn the character into anything more than a ranting sidekick. By the end of the film, I was so tired of looking through the camera lens, it really hindered my ability to enjoy the film – I felt like they were going out of their way to bring "The Blair Witch Project" into "The Amityville Horror". Oh, and the house just wasn't creepy. You cannot have a creepy haunted house when the house looked like the Winslow Residence from "Family Matters" – it just doesn't work that way. Better art direction and better production design would have worked wonders for this little horror flick.

Alas, this was not a wasted effort. There were a couple of scenes that were creepy enough to get under my skin. Erik McDowell's performance was strong, not to mention actors who make good eye candy also get extra points, because I hate looking at ugly for too long on screen. With a larger budget, I would have loved to have seen Mia Farrow as Ms. Sporec. With any budget, I would have loved to have seen any actress other than Johanna Watts as Lilly, aka 'the harpie'. "In Memorium" was an enjoyable enough little indie horror flick that has been doing the rounds on the film festival circuit. I would recommend you check it out if it comes to a festival near you. It would make a good film for a midnight screening at any film festival, and it might genuinely creep a lot of people out more than it did me. These days, it just takes more than creaking floorboards to raise my roof. "In Memorium" is currently not available on DVD, so if you cannot make a festival screening and are just dying to check it out, I would suggest visiting the website and contacting the filmmakers and trying to score yourself an advanced copy.

6.5/10.
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