The Passing

So, after the passing of the matriarch if a family, there is an inheritance that us only passed down the females in the family. And it's supernatural. That being said, this film is heavily cliched with not much acting present (although some do better than others). By the book plotting is only hampered by the bad special effects. Boring. Avoid it.

Learning they've inherited their grandmother's mansion, a group of siblings decide to hold a party to celebrate the acquisition, unaware the spirit of the deceased hasn't left the home and is intent on passing on a grave family secret to them that will put them in extreme danger once they realize they're not alone in the house.

This was a really hard one to get a handle on, as there's a lot to like here but some utterly maddening moments as well. The best part of this one is the fact that there's a rather effective house where the action takes place in, which is well-suited to the types of scares present here with the lurking behind the corners, spying in the distance and such. Definitely gory enough as well, with some nice kills, and there's enough action to keep it interesting, but the problem lies in the fact that the film doesn't know what it really wants to be. Most of the evidence points to a haunted house/ghost film, yet a twist late in the film adds in a murderous deformed family member into the mix and it doesn't gel all that well with what's been shown/discussed and it comes off rather funky and weird. An incredibly dragging pace in the first half also lowers this, but it's still not too bad.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language and Nudity.

I saw this film at Raleigh Studios for the film festival "Screamfest" which it won for best editing. The film has an interesting story that kept me wanting to see what happened next. The horror scenes were not over done but quite graphic. There were a few popcorn scares that were well executed and made me jump. The film also had some comic relief with the detective character played by Paul Gleason, he was great. The performances were all good, especially the one played by the lawyer. The female characters were all hot. My favorite couple was Josh and Cindy who had some smokin' scenes as well as the best performed. Overall the movie was good with an ending that definitely makes you think. It's a movie that I would recommend.

This was apparently shot some five years before it made its way onto DVD, by which time the distributors might as well have just called it 'MIRRORS 3'. A vapid girl and her two self-centered brothers inherit the estate of their late grandmother (the final role for Lilyan Chauvin). The old cliche' of having to spend a weekend in the creepy old house in order to claim a share of the inheritance is dug out of mothballs in order to place the trio and their sex-crazed friends in jeopardy. Grandma was an evil witch who means to possess her granddaughter. Or turn her into a witch too. Or drive her insane. The script is less than clear on this point. A wooden box full of computer-animated black smoke occasionally kills people, although its exact function is never explained either. Granny's spirit emerges from mirrors, pools of water and other reflective surfaces and slaughters the clueless twentysomethings in surprisingly rushed and underwhelming FX sequences. She speaks with both an implaceable foreign accent and a ghostly reverb effect, so it's not always easy to make out what she's saying. Which is a problem because, as dead people go, she's rather chatty. A large portion of what I will kindly term the plot is told in flashback, as the girl relates the events to a police detective (Paul Gleason, who is excellent) and his irritating partner (the director in a comic role the movie would have been better off without). The confused script is replete with loose ends and senseless bits of business presented as though they are serious clues. Who are the thieves at the beginning and why do they think the box contains something valuable? How does it end up back in the house? How do some characters know about the box when it hasn't been mentioned to them yet? What offscreen individual is being handed the keys to the mansion at the end of the movie? Who are the "others" the detective mentions at the end? Did anyone really die or is the heroine just nuts and imagining it all? Did she kill them herself? Could the writer have cared less whether this movie made any sense? The cast give it their best shot and the women are beautiful but in the end the whole thing is inconclusive, incoherent and utterly unsatisfying. Pass it by.

I have to start out by saying for the horror movie, you have to look long and far to find the horror. There was nothing scary about this movie at all. Sure it had some great moments and built up a good atmosphere, but it never unfolded into something truly scary.

The story is about three Naibert youngsters who inherit an old estate from their recently deceased grandmother. Instructed, as per her will and testament, the three heirs must spend a weekend at the estate without adult supervision. But they invite some friends over to spend the weekend. But there is a terrible secret to the estate, and everything is not well at the estate.

As for the story, well it was actually entertaining enough, but again, it failed to really spook or scare. There were some great moments here and there, and the effects were actually quite good. There is even a small amount of blood and gore in the movie, just to make it more interesting. The mirror effects were quite good.

Personally I think that the director just brushed too lightly over Billy Naibert (played by Layton Matthews). Who was Billy really? And what drove him? We weren't given much information about him, where he came from, why he was there, or even what was really wrong with him. Too bad that the director didn't bother to take the effort to make Billy a bigger part of the story. It was as if he was just some filler to add something to make the story a bit more bizarre.

To star in his movie, they had Crystal Day (playing Elizabeth Naibert), Sam Upton (playing Ray Naibert) and Brian Gleason (playing Jack Naibert), and they all did good jobs with their roles. However, it was Lilyan Chauvin (playing Rebecca Naibert, the grandmother) who carried the movie with her somewhat disturbing visage and her portrayal of the malignant entity.

The movie was nicely shot, and there was a lot of nice details to the house, to keep up a dark, brooding atmosphere. So that really worked well in favor of the movie. "The Passing" is not a visual horror movie that assaults your senses and shocks you, it is more of a subliminal and psychological horror movie.

If you are looking for a great horror movie to spook you and keep you on the edge of the seat, then "The Passing" is hardly the right choice. However, if you like horror movies that have a really great atmosphere, then "The Passing" might just be something for you.