Sarah Landon (Rissa Walters) is not exactly thrilled with the idea of visiting the grandmother of her childhood friend. For one thing, there are too many memories that she fears will be painful.
The friend is dead, and Sarah is still hurting from her loss. But the grandmother seems lonely, so Sarah reluctantly agrees to a visit. Once there she is housed in the guest quarters where she and her friend stayed as children.
In these familiar surroundings so closely associated with the friend, and it is easy to imagine that she is seeing a ghost of the past. Is this ghost a benevolent spirit, or is it sending a warning of something more sinister occurring in the small town of Pine Valley?
This movie has great potential, but never seems to hit the mark. The story is good, the characters well drawn, and the filming seems very real. I don’t know exactly what makes it fall short of expectation, but perhaps it is something in the timing of the actor’s delivery of their lines.
At some points it is reminiscent of a group reading of a play, where people are trying to give the dialog interesting lilts and expression as they read. Only it sounds forced and as if the character speaking is not investing any emotion in the delivery.
This is not true of all the actors, but with enough of them that the production is dragged down by the annoying tones and pauses.
As far as supernatural mysteries go, this is a nicely developed story. There is meaning for the hauntings, and clearly defined good and evil aspect. I liked the casting, I thought every character looked his or her part, and individually did a good job making me believe they were frightened or worried.
It just needed some polish, or something to break away from the feeling of “yes I am acting in this role, and I know all the lines letter perfect, and here is where I’m supposed to put emphasis on a word.”
Sarah Landon is presented on single disc in high definition, with a running time of 80 minutes. It is available with English or French subtitles. The special feature is “Frida’s Psychic Readings” interactive game, where players ask questions to be answered by Frida’s talents.
This should be interesting to the middle school age crowd, but even they may be frustrated by the irregular patterns of dialog. It isn’t a bad film, and has some very good moments especially as Sarah gets closer to solving the mystery.
Sarah Landon & The Paranormal Hour is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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