'We Are Still Here' Review: A Legitimately Scary Movie That Surprises Viewers No End
Although the haunted house bit has been done to death in countless horror movies over the years, a new movie titled "We Are Still Here" comes as a pleasant surprise. It's a legitimately scary horror movie that pays homage to 70s-80s horror films.
The premise may seem so familiar that we think we can predict how the movie will progress. But the movie surprises us with its memorable and quite terrifying material.
Barbara Crampton stars in this movie, playing the role of a housewife who has just moved to a New England town together with her husband in an attempt to leave behind their grief for their recently deceased grown son. Immediately, she feels the presence of her son in the house. Her husband doesn't believe at first but eventually realizes that it's true.
The movie starts melodramatically, but once it kicks into high gear, it goes into insanity mode. The audience think they know what's happening. The characters think they know what is happening as well. However, the film veers left when the audience think it would go right. It puts everyone on their toes, right up to the bloody third act.
There are scenes that are just so effectively scary that they remain imprinted in your mind even after several days. One reviewer said the movie made him jump three times from his seat, a reflex action he had never done before.
Although there are scenes made using computer-generated imagery, they are never intimidating. The scares come from well-shot, well-paced and well-edited moments that show the beings to be scarier than they actually are. There are scenes that are genuinely terrifying.
"We Are Still Here" is one modern horror movie that obviously wouldn't exist had it not been to the other films that inspired it. But it does a good job of mashing these older movies together to create a modern tale that is wholly satisfying. Horror fans will not be disappointed.
Apart from Crampton, who plays Anne Sacchetti, the film also stars Andrew Sensenig, who plays her husband Paul, as well as Larry Fessenden and Lisa Marie as their New Age friends Jacob and May, who spend a weekend in Anne and Paul's new house for some drinking, remembering and a séance. Monte Markham plays a neighbor who reveals the history of the house.
The production is the first feature film venture of its writer and director Ted Geoghegan. Cinematography is by Karim Hussain.
"We Are Still Here" will be shown in limited theatrical release and video-on-demand services on June 5.
