This was another On Demand viewing (this is a nice system that I am taking advantage of) that took place on November 7th. My girlfriend and I dig scary films. Now, I am partial to the stalk/slash films (from my 80s childhood) but she's into more possession type films. We've done a few Netflix binges that had some decent films and some bad ones. Which is the problem with these particular films, they are hit or miss. They flood the market and all can look pretty cool in the trailer but it's a crap shoot.
The film is loosely based on the Philip Experiment, where a group of parapsychologists try to prove that the supernatural does not exist (that usually means that it does indeed exist and with dire consequences). Jared Harris plays Professor Coupland, the Oxofrd professor leading the experiment, rounding out his team are Krissi (Erin Richards), the group hottie, Harry (Rory Fleck-Byrne) and Brian (Sam Claflin). Krissi and Harry are students of Professor Coupland and Brian is the cameraman hired to chronicle the experiment. The subject of the experiment is Jane (Olivia Cooke) a young woman who's spent most of her life institutionalized for various alleged mental disorders. Coupland manages to get a hold of her, convinced that she's not crazy and has the ability to manifest weird sh*t when provoked.
Since the mental health laws are pretty lax in England in the 70s, Coupland manages to stash Jane away in a remote country manor (remote being equal to death). The group take turns keeping an eye on Jane and also trying to provoke her manifestations. Sure enough, weird sh*t begins to happen and it starts to freak everyone out.
This constitutes weird.
As the weirdness mounts Coupland and the rest start to come unglued. Brian starts to fall for Jane and decides to do some investigating as he questions Coupland's story about her origins. What he finds out (without the internet mind you) is that Coupland lied about a previous experiment with a patient that turned out to be his son and that Jane's manifestation, Evey, actually killed the members of the cult that worshipped her in a fire. Jane is really Evey (not too sure how this happened but it did). Allegedly. Jane/Evey uses her telekinetic powers to dispatch Harry and Krissi in gruesome fashion. Coupland subdues Jane/Evey and knocks out Brian when they argue over her. Jane is strapped down to gurney as Coupland is going to give her a lethal injection to stop her heart long enough for the negative energy to dissipate and cure her, allegedly. Brian breaks free, beats up Coupland and revives Jane/Evey. Jane/Evey mentally removes Brian from the room, kills Coupland and sets herself on fire. The film ends sometime in the future with Brian clearly institutionalized being asked about the events of the fire (he's been blamed for everyone's death), he goes a little crazy and his hands start burning just like Jane's. Fade to black.
This film moved a little slow and quite frankly was not that good. It mixes the 1st person narrative with "found footage" and it doesn't work all that well. There are some genuine scary moments but it's not enough to overcome the drabness. Jane/Evey is a bit too derivative of Carrie White and Charlie McGee and the rest of the characters were cliche as well (not only is Krissi sleeping with Harry but she's seeing Coupland on the side as well, a bit too cliche and it does nothing for the plot). The Taking of Deborah Logan is a better film in my opinion.
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