In Memorium
Amanda Gusack’s film, “In Memorium,” adopted the “found footage”/cameras around the house aesthetic employed so effectively in the original “Paranormal Activity” a full couple of years before that runaway hit made its way into the hands of Dreamworks and Paramount, although it didn’t get released for the public until a year after Oren Peli’s film hit theatres. Made before “found footage” was a commonplace horror genre, it’s arguably the best one I’ve seen, and a lot of that stems from the emotional core at the center of the film, along with the ways it deploys it’s “found footage” style. That the film was mentioned last year on Blumhouse.com as one of the “13 Lesser-Known Found-Footage Horror Films We Dare You to Watch” is fitting given that it was this style with the “Activity” franchise that has helped build Blumhouse into a powerhouse in the genre.
In the first few minutes, we find out what we need to know about Dennis (Erik McDowell) and his girlfriend, Lily (Johanna Watts), as they move into a new house. They are renting it for a short time, as Dennis does not have long for this world. You see, he has terminal cancer, and his prognosis is quite dire (a month, if that). He and Lily have decided to rent a house, and Dennis is setting up motion-detecting cameras throughout it to chronicle their final days together, the video of which a friend has offered to edit together. Already, we have a considerably stronger emotional core for this film than any other “found footage” film we’ve seen over the years, and it gets to a point of narrative greatness from there when the creepy things begin happening. At first, we think it’s your standard “bad thing happened here” story, as Dennis and Lily find out more about the history of the house, but it’s actually with a visit by Dennis’s brother, Frank (Levi Powell), when things begin to kick off, and Dennis’s condition worsens. Their mother died not long before Dennis got sick, and while Frank stayed with her, as domineering as she was, until the end, Dennis left when he could, and didn’t look back. Frank has said that their mother was at peace, but gradually, truths come out that throw everything else into perspective.
Amanda Gusack’s last film as a writer-director was in 2008, and she only has two features and one short to her name according to IMDb. Watching “In Memorium,” I can’t help but be disappointed in that, as there is so much talent as a storyteller and visual filmmaker in this film to let it go underutilized in modern movies. True, if you’ve seen “Paranormal Activity,” you have a good idea of what to expect here, but the truth is, there’s so much more happening as a narrative that the moments that make you “jump,” and the way they are presented, are almost secondary to the film’s overall effect. This is about a couple dealing with a lot of real-world anxiety and pain, who are thrust into a situation that makes what they’re going through even more difficult, and even violent to watch, and will sucker punch them in unexpected ways. The character dynamics are comparable at the start to Micah and Kate in the first “Paranormal” film, but go off into an even more emotional path that grabs us and doesn’t let go. With the film now available on Amazon Prime, any fan of horror in general, and “found footage” in particular, owes it to themselves to check this film out, to see what happens when a genuine storyteller gets this type of film right. You won’t be disappointed.
