Are u a horror movie buff? Do you really love a chill running down your spine, while watching a gruesome thriller like “scream”, “I know what u ……”& “urban legend”? Because if u are, then u must have seen enough number of Hollywood teen horrors. So have I, but recently I came across another fascinating edge-on-the-seat thriller, that sends innumerable chills down your spine. This movie, if not better than the above mentioned names, then is at least comparable. It explores the dark and mysterious world of faith and belief, leaving you spellbound at the end of the movie.
THE STORY:
The story starts with a stormy night of 1698, showing a bunch of villagers attempting to burn alive a girl in her teen accusing her of being a witch. 300 years forward, and here comes another stormy night (but this time, of 1998!) showing a mother and daughter in search of their newly purchased home “Lancaster House”. Actually they have just shifted from LA to this small town. The daughter Sarah (Sarah Chalke) is an introvert and very different from other girls of her age. She use to read books on occult science, she is into palmistry, she wears strange clothes (somewhat like a priest!). In short everything around her is so suspicious and unusual that she results in standing out alone in her new school. There she comes in contact with five friends. Kevin, his girlfriend Kyra, Debbie, her boyfriend Eric and Misty. All of them except Kevin (who develops a crush on her) instantly develop a feeling of hatred towards her.
One day Sarah meets an antique shop owner Charlie (Ben Foster) who reveals to her something that is going to change her life forever.
‘It was in the same city 300 years ago, a witch was burnt alive in her own house, after the initiation of five persons. It is believed that the witch will return from her grave to take revenge from the descendents of those 5 persons exactly after 300 years (means the present year).The name of that house was “Lancaster house”!!!
Sarah immediately runs from there and reaches the garden of her house, only to find the grave of the witch there. She reads the name of the witch, “Sarah Lancaster”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’
Some days after Kevin and Kyra invite Sarah to the Halloween party in their house. They persuade Sarah to assist them in an amusing game. All she has to do is to act like a seer. They gave her a small earphone by which they will inform her about various facts (whatever they could gather from the stolen student record books), from an underground room. The party begins nicely with Sarah scaring the hell out of the students, by narrating them their little known secrets, but suddenly all hell broke loose and everything goes haywire!!!
Wanna know why??????
In the middle of the game Kyra and Kevin suddenly left the room, but Sarah continues to tell people about their life. She tells misty that something terrible is going to happen tonight. Later in the morning she comes to know that misty was murdered brutally last night!!!!! Suddenly one by one the remaining friends start getting attacked by a ‘masked killer’ (a look alike of every other Hollywood teen slasher!). Charlie too manages to escape a fire in his shop (Sarah actually warned him once, to be cautious of fire).He too is now scared of her and tries to avoid her. The whole town starts muttering that Sarah is not exactly like what she seems to be. Her life seems to be turned into a living nightmare until one day when …. …………
Now u must be wondering that
1) Was Sarah really that witch who promised to return from the grave?
2) Did all the 5 friends get killed in the end?
3) As it seems from the review that the 5 friends were the descendents to be punished, then how come Charlie gets attacked?
4) who was the masked killer(Sarah herself or someone else???????)
5) Doesn’t this udvignaprakash has to do anything else? (writing this much for an incomplete story)?
For first three questions, check out this slightly twisted version of LOUIS DUNKAN‘s all time bestseller “GALLOWS HILLS”. In case u aren’t a big admirer of Hollywood thrillers and don’t want to waste time and energy finding CD and then spending 2 hours, just mail me and I will send u the remaining part of the story.
APART FROM STORY:
To be honest, this portion is not that exciting as the one written above.
Sarah Chalke does full justice to her role. She successfully manages to create an eerie feeling surrounding her character. Ben Foster as his boyfriend fails to impress. In fact his character hasn’t been provided enough screen time to develop well. Among the five friends Chad Cox (Kevin) does catches your attention with his handsome looks and so-so performance.
A fact that u may be aware of:
Louis Duncan is the author of famous suspense thrillers like “I know what …” and “I still know what….”, the books on which these movies were based and his forthcoming book coming in 2006 is “I will always know what…..”
A fact that no one may be aware of:
This movie never saw the light of theatrical release. I don’t exactly know the reasons, but the movie was first shown on NBC!!
Well it is possible that u may find difficulty in finding the CD, but I must tell u, it’s worth your search. I wonder what it would be like to watch it in the darkness of a theatre. Anyway it’s only a matter of technical enhancement, the sole of a movie remains same everywhere .
One more thing, for complete effect “WATCH IT, WHEN YOU ARE ALONE IN HOME WITH LIGHTS OFF OF COURSE!”