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Cast: Kevin Alejandro, Kelen Coleman, Rus Blackwell
CASSADAGA tells the story of Lily Morel (Kelen Coleman), a post-lingually deaf artist, who participates in a séance in the spiritualist community of Cassadaga. But instead of getting closure with her recently departed sister, Lily contacts the vengeful ghost of a murdered woman. As the ghost becomes increasingly angry and violent, Lily rushes to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding the woman’s death – a task that will bring her face-to-face with a sadistic serial killer who turns his victims into human marionette dolls.
As the film opens we see a little boy playing with doll while wearing a dress. His mother comes in and destroys the doll and cuts up the dress while screaming at him about wearing the dress he had on. The boy waits till his mom leaves before picking up the scissors and mutilating himself. The scene happening in the past so the film quickly jumps to modern day where we are introduced to Lilly, a deaf art teacher. Lilly has a younger sister who attends the school Lilly teaches at, one day after visiting her older sister the young girl is killed in the parking lot. Depressed and not able to coup Lilly decides to move away, when she arrives at her destination she finds out that there is a spiritual community in Cassadaga. Desperate for closure she participates in a séance in hopes of talking to her sister one last time but instead of getting her sister they get a vengeful ghost who is determined to haunt Lilly till she helps her right the wrongs from her own past.
The little boy in the beginning of the film, the ghost and the crazed lunatic are all connected by horrific events that continue to take place in Cassadaga but that is about all you really need and should know before watching the film. I never read into any of the films I receive for review so not to ruin the experience so I was real sure what to expect from this film. I can tell you that the film was definitely a bit different than I expected, I was expected a bit more torture porn but instead I got some supernatural elements as well as a lot of character driven drama. Now don't get me wrong I liked the film but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for.
The story itself plays out at a lot slower pace than I expected it to and like I said there was a lot more character development than I thought there would be as well but there is nothing wrong with that. The film also keeps you guessing as to who this madman is in the film, it offers up a few suspects and it does a decent job of hiding who it is till the very end.
Story wise the film could seem a little confusing at first but all the pieces fall together at the end which is all that matters. One of the most impressive parts of the film to me was the cast, Kelen Coleman is fantastic as Lilly and it was great to see Louise Fletcher again in a supporting role. The entire cast did a great job playing their roles.
"Cassadaga" is far from being the best horror film to come out but it is an entertaining one none the less, it offers up some creepy moments as well as a bit of disturbing moments as well. If you are a fan of horror I recommend checking this one out.
The DVD doesn't contain any Special Features but you can order it HERE.
Released by Archstone Distribution
*** Out Of *****