THE BANSHEE CHAPTER 3D

Stars: Katia Winter, Ted Levine, Michael McMillan, Alex Gianopoulos, Chad Brummett, Jenny Gabrielle, JD Garfield, David Midthunder and Vivian Nesbitt.
Writers: Blair Erickson; based on a story by Daniel J Healy.
Director: Blair Erickson.

Rating: 4/5

Dealing in the same complex, paranoia-based mythology that fuelled The X-Files and little-seen but ambitious low-budgeters like Matthew Avant’s Lunopolis, debutant director Blair Erickson wilfully casts logic aside in favour of chilly, often frightening atmospherics in The Banshee Chapter. Whether catching this at a genre festival screening or, as is more likely, via ancillary channels in your home, you will find yourself occasionally covering your eyes or, on at least two occasions, jumping when you are not quick enough to do so.

Erickson based his loopy script (from a very original treatment by Daniel J Healy) upon the MK-ULTRA trials, a real-life incident in which naive subjects were administered drugs by government-sanctioned doctors and monitored to gauge physiological response. The Banshee Chapter merely conjures, “Ok, what’s the worst that could happen?” then sets about answering that question with a heady mash-up of cross-dimensional channeling, demon manifestations, Area 51 iconography and a cautionary line in letting strangers bring you drinks.

The heroine is web-journo Anna (Katia Winter), who has lost contact with her college friend and agitant-cohort James (Michael McMillan), a young man whose curiosity has led him into contact with a group called ‘The Friends of Colorado’. We learn via a white-knuckle passage that James has been supplied with a covert narcotic called DMT 19 and subsequently disappeared after having imbibed the bright-blue substance.

Anna’s investigations lead her to the eccentric, Hunter S Thompson-like recluse, Thomas Blackburn (Silence of the Lamb’s Ted Levine), who embarks with her upon a quest for the truth regarding the heartless experimentation upon young people four decades ago and the dark denizens of another plane that come forth when DMT 19 allows them to.

Erickson’s plotting plays out a series of scary encounters in closed-in spaces (cabins, basements, industrial estates), all of which are lit like a theme-park horror-ride. Glimpses of mutated forms and their dark shadows cast on high walls in strategic spotlighting ensure The Banshee Chapter follows Low-budget Horror Rule #1 – be scary.

What is a little harder to define is the style the director employs. There are passages of found-footage coverage, shot via camera-phones and CCTV, but there is also hand-held shaky-cam action when no camera is logically present to capture the footage. Admittedly, this doesn’t always register during the narrative, but soured the experience post-screening.

That said, it is ultimately a minor distraction. Winter, a striking beauty and convincing on-screen presence, has a terrific chemistry with Levine, who whoops it up as the off-the-rails anti-establishment underground renegade. The twist ending doesn’t quite impact as it should, but that is mostly because Erickson’s imagery and storytelling has scaled such convincingly offbeat heights up to that point. He is a filmmaker to watch.

(Editor's Note - The Banshee Chapter will screen in 3D at Monster Fest but was reviewed in the 2D format via a DVD screener)