Rating: C
Dir: Shannon Alexander
Star: Ashley Roland-White, Javier Vega, Soledad Haren, Chris DeFlorio
This documentary manages to be both fascinating and frustrating – in the end, the latter just outweighs the former. It unfolds in a Brooklyn apartment: not exactly prime territory for paranormal activity. Or so you might think. Roland-White might beg to differ there. Then again, she has been having weird experiences for decades, dating back to her childhood, and an entity nobody else could see called Max. However, what’s happening in the residence where she now lives with her children, is far less pleasant. Dark shadow figures lurk in the corners, odd events are a frequent occurrence, and young son Javier has a “friend” of his own, whom he calls Kitty – and who may not be as amicable as Max was.
This is a strong opening, because Ashley comes over as a highly credible witness. Whether or not there’s something supernatural going on, it’s clear that she genuinely believes there is. With Javier, it’s a bit murky. At his age, I certainly had an imaginary friend I could have talked about. Was he perhaps picking up on his mother’s anxieties, and enacting them in sympathy? In terms of objective evidence, there’s not much which would convince the sceptical. It’s difficult to put much trust in noises: it is an apartment in New York, and not a new one at that. There is an odd incident involving a boom-mike. That’s as extreme as it gets. Yet the prosaic nature of these things lends it credibility.
Things go off the rails with the introduction of elements which feel like they could have strayed in from a bad horror movie. For example, Ashley seeking to communicate with the spirits through a ouija board, or even a dangling piece of string. I wonder how much was the influence of Haren, the sage-waving spiritual advisor who is brought in? She lets me recycle the old joke about her being called a medium, because she is neither rare nor well-done. I would not call her a charlatan. But you’d be forgiven if that’s the sense you get. The same goes for investigator DeFlorio, whose equipment includes an XBox Kinect camera, which is novel. As you’d expect someone from “New York Demonic Investigation“, he inevitably pulls out a crucifix and starts yelling (top).
On the other hand, it says something that Ashley is willing to try anything to address the problem, and protect Javier and her other children. Who can blame her, especially after apparently receiving the chilling message which gives the film its title. Just do not expect to discover what the “it” might be: the film ends without any real conclusion. That is in line with Alexander’s laudable commitment to avoid any artificial “juicing up” of events – what you see here is what took place. Yet this may leave the film in need of structure since real life, tends not to follow a convenient three-act layout. There’s no real sense of resolution, and I wanted to know more. Though that’s certainly better than wanting to know less.