Cassadaga

Cassadaga

"Cassadaga" is a supernatural thriller that has a lot going for it, but also had loads of missed opportunities. Kelen Coleman stars as Lily, a young deaf woman art teacher. Kelen is the best part of the film -- attractive and charming, she is instantly likable and easy to root for, which is important in a film like this. Early on, she suffers a horrible tragedy, the loss of her younger sister, and she moves on to take a fellowship at a college in the title town. It's there that the film makes it first misstep. After setting Lily's situation up, the film has her immediately jump into bed with the first guy she meets. And, of course, he is a doting single father, heroic paramedic, and former sports star -- the Triple Crown of Douchery. The setup parts of the film are dragged down by this unpleasant "romance" and the film only really starts to take off when he exits the scene. During an early date, Lily goes to a psychic to speak with her dead sister but ends up calling an apparently malevolent ghost. She also starts to see and hear things and general act a little crazy to those around her. Eventually, she starts to tie the spirit to the girl who lived in her room previously who went missing years ago, and also to a shadowy killer who likes to make human marionettes... As I said, "Cassadaga" has a lot going for it. Kelen is charming and easily carries the film. There are some creepy parts, and the killer's actions are suitable horrific (although "Criminal Minds" had a similar killer who was waaay creepier). But lots of missed chances, too. As I mentioned, the "romance" hurts the film. Lily's deafness is occasionally used to good effect (the audio goes silent), but other times it's almost ignored -- she can flawless read lips, sometimes characters aren't look at her, etc. Also, the killer appears to be an expert ventriloquist (although that's not explored) and Lily would be immune to that. And no matter what happens to Lily, nobody thinks to bring her to, you know, a doctor or hospital. And finally, the killer's identity is easily deduced using Roger Ebert's "Law of Economy of Characters." Even with it's problems, though, "Cassadaga" is worth checking out. Don't be afraid (or pulled in, whichever may be the case) of its poster, which promises a grisly time. The killer is a very minor part of the film.

Mix of serial killer mystery and revengeful ghost that doesn't really work. Bad dialog, wandering script, unnecessary drama, characters that seem relevant disappear half way through the movie to not come back, sub-plots not closed, predictable double end, bad guy is easily spotted at the moment he shows up on screen, deafness of the main character largely unexplored and unused, and so on... Looks like the movie was half-backed when they started shooting so the final product feels like needed much more thought and work in many levels. As it is, is just barely entertaining. Some good things like the two main plot lines coming actively together for the ending or the interesting and creepy idea of the human marionettes don't make up for the rest. Watch only if you don't have anything else near you and do so with very low expectations. 4 stars for the effort and some good moments here and there.

Judging by some of the online comments about Cassadaga, I was expecting something a bit special out of this indie horror. Sadly, there just didn't seem to be much new here to really stand out. It's okay - that's about it. It's one of those films where a young woman gets mixed up with something spooky. Obviously, no one believes her and she does that thing they do in all horror films where they research it on the internet and then seek out 'professional' help. It's definitely not bad. There are a few pretty sick scenes (nicely executed - no pun intended) for the gore hounds and everyone plays their part pretty well. However, it descends into territory where, if you're an avid horror watcher, you'll have seen it all before - how many times does the heroine knock over the killer and then just run away instead of continuing to batter him to death? Well, you get that sort of thing here. If you can be bothered with another horror film, you could do worse. Sadly there's nothing here that is that memorable or that will lift it out of that vast middle ground of straight-to-DVD horror flicks.

I really didn't like this movie. It started off OK with some promise of an OK movie (never had the potential to be good though). The first irritation was when the deaf woman started to speak. She spoke in a normal fashion, whilst deaf people tend to pronounce everything in a different way, because they can't hear what they say. The story was slow and felt like a cheap "stir of echoes" rip off. At times it was confusing. They failed to get in a suspenseful setting and in the end, they have never explained where the voices the victims heard before they were abducted came from. In the end, when Christian is about to kill the deaf woman, even he hears the voices. WTF... what was the point in putting these voices in, if they first help out this guy and then work against him and then leave us guessing what they were and where they came from. I say, don't waste time on this garbage. You're better off watching Thomas the Tank Engine, that has more suspense and if makes A LOT MORE SENSE.

When Lily loses her sister due to a car accident, she seeks solace from a local spiritualist. Unfortunately, Lily gets more than she bargained for when the restless spirit of a murder victim "latches" onto her and starts to show herself more and more. Realising that the spirit is actually trying to show her the path to who killed her, Lily becomes involved in a shocking mystery that will lead her face to face with a brutal serial killer who seems to like making puppets of his victims. After watching Casadega, I so wanted to like it and give a pretty good rating, but unfortunately I can't because, well, it's just a pretty boring movie really and I'm being generous enough with my 3-star rating. It doesn't grip you; it doesn't really scare you; and it doesn't have that much of a riveting story. Don't get me wrong - there are a few good moments in the movie but these are ultimately very few and far between. I sometimes look forward to a low-budget movie like this as they can sometimes be better than some of the usual predictable Hollywood serial killer movies. Unfortunately, this is no better THAN the usual predictable Hollywood horror/serial killer movies. The killer's setting was a bit too Hostel-like with the workshop, his overall's and mask, which I didn't really mind, but the menacing effect this look had in Hostel gets lost with him wearing his little pink dress underneath the overalls. Also the deaf character of Lily done a fantastic job of knowing what some people were saying to her, even when she wasn't even looking at them or their lips. All in all, Casadega is a very mediocre serial killer horror and I guess as long as you go into it not expecting much then you should be fine. Just don't be surprised if you feel a bit bored when watching it.

Another entry in the After Dark legacy and another one without shock value. The positive thing is the fact that the ghost isn't done with CGI. But again it doesn't has much blood to see and when the ghost appears it is never scary or has any jumpshots. The acting was okay. And you quickly are involved with the characters but what annoyed me the most is the fact that the deaf person talked normal. People who are deaf can't talk like a normal person. The séance where things go wrong is maybe the strongest part. We do fall in some emotional scene's that really doesn't add a thing towards the story. But we don't have only a ghost we also have a killer. All part of the ghost that appeared before her, a woman being killed. So in fact we have a romantic part that takes way too much time in Cassadaga, and that is suddenly stopped towards the end of the flick. We have the mystery of the ghost and a serial killer walking around in Cassadaga. And that's where this flick fails a bit. The combination of those events doesn't work. I'll give it a six due not using CGI for the ghost and here and there some low gore shots. Gore 1/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

I was prepared to love this movie. I read the reviews posted here, watched the trailer and was quite excited when I finally had a chance to view the film. As it turns out, I couldn't have been more disappointed. The film begins telling one story and clumsily transitions into something completely different. I am objective and pretty liberal when it comes to indie films. I have a healthy tolerance for a little disconnect as it relates to attempting to involve multiple elements is a decently written story. The fact of the matter with Cassadaga is it is not very well written. There are very few genuine scares and they come after irrelevant character interaction that is never explored deeply enough to matter and seems out of place. Some of the special effects in the film are outstanding,but sadly the weak storyline just doesn't support the effort.

CASSADAGA is a movie that tries to have it all but ends up coming away with nothing. It starts out as a traditional ghost story with a deaf girl losing her little sister in a car accident and afterwards finding herself haunted by the spirit of a disturbed spirit. About halfway through it veers off into needless torture * territory and becomes much, much worse. CASSADAGA has a good sense of creeping dread going for it but that's about all it does have. It lets the lead character be defined by her disability because without that she'd be a totally forgettable and uninteresting person. It doesn't help that the supporting cast are entirely bland in themselves and will quickly disappear from memory once off the screen. The ghostly elements of the film, although predictable, are better handled than the shoddy torture scenes of the most routine serial killer imaginable going about his business trying to make life-life puppets from dead people. It's needlessly unpleasant, and helps sink the whole project. The expected chase scenes between killer and 'final girl' are as routinely staged as possible and the whole film has a familiar Hollywood vibe to it despite it being an independent production.

This movie may have been planned as a horror movie but it didn't came out as one. The supernatural theme was obviously meant as the ingredient holding the flick together, but it felt like someone got embarrassed of this and started experimenting by patching different plots and actions together - none of them is carried through to the end. I felt like listening to someone embroidering a vaguely interesting story with unnecessary detail: the movie is frequently wandering off by showing actions and telling story lines with no importance or meaning for the main plot. It is using the stylistic inconsistency as a device, but in my opinion this is not well enough executed. It left me slightly annoyed.. especially when I felt forced to witness some interactions between the main character and a young divorcée dragging along, which then break off whimsily like they couldn't find the space to end properly what they started. I found the frequent depiction of the main actress in revealing clothing ridiculous and therefore looked for a hint of self-irony but couldn't find one. I think it was really meant as: "we also could show some bum".. The movie delivers shock moments too scarcely to play the horror card even though the set-up would have left more than ample room for them! Why? It's a trial, I think. It's not bad, it's uncommon and mostly entertaining. But sadly it's not good either.. it feels unbalanced. So there is the ghost-story, some relationship drama.. at some point you may even think it's a serial killer story - but with every strand of action there is the phenomenon of negligence after introduction! the problem is that even after having finished watching the movie, I wasn't clear about its intention - it lacks a theme! The production value is good though and the result is surprisingly coherent - at least enough to keep me vaguely entertained.. Honoring the eagerness to do things differently and the technical workmanship, I give it 5 stars.