Jennifer's Shadow

Now, look not at the fact this film has not many ratings, look more towards the film in general. In my opinion, The Chronicle of The Raven is a Gothic masterpiece (as a goth I greatly appreciate this). The story, is indeed originally and quite Poe-esquire. For the plot revolves around a woman, in a grim and beautiful section of Argentina, just moved into her grandmother's mysterious old mansion. Facing surrealistic settings and dreams, each night she is tortured by a ravenous raven that devours parts of her body. Indeed a gruesome and unlikely tale for a film generation perhaps in the dusk. I strongly recommend it, also the originality of the filmmakers with such a plot. The acting is stubble yet in this case, like a play and performed melodramatically. The cinematography and use of lighting is low, a dark stark colour surrounds the film-this is one of the greatest things of the Chronicle of the Raven. Anyway, look for this film wherever you can find it, you'll indeed be impressed.

Jennifer Cassi (Gina Philips from "Dead and Breakfast") returns back to the house she grew up in which she recently inherited from her deceased sister, unbeknownst to her grandmother (Fay Dunaway) who's still living in it. Jennifer decides to sell it as she's in dire need of the money much to Granny's chagrin. She also begins to have troublesome recurring nightmares of a mysterious raven. There was really no one to relate to in this film. Jennifer seemed cold, distant, unsentimental, and narcissistic, whereas the grandmother seemed spiteful, sad, and also narcissistic. The film is good and well-made, but with no one to empathize with I found it hard to care about what happened to them.

My Grade: C-

The movie does fill the bill of a true horror movie in the old Gothic school of a haunted house slash conspiracy witchcraft theme.

The location and sets are spot on. The house itself lends it'self perfectly for what you would call a haunted house. It positively drips with a doom and gloom atmosphere which is what makes the movie worth seeing for this reason alone. I would love to own a house like this.

I did feel that the acting is a bit contrived leaving you with a feeling as if the actors are still rehearsing their parts instead of a leaving you with a polished performance.

I did enjoy the movie though. Maybe I'm just a sucker for this genre and that makes me bias.

What few actors that were in the movie all had a good feel for this deep, psychological horror story. It involves a family curse, that takes members of a wealthy family to a place worse than death. Faye Dunaway sells this perverted material but is at times hilarious, with flashes of campy brilliance, (especially near the end). If you like simple, inspired horror stories, a la Rod Serling, then this is for you. Its too bad our American audiences don't care enough about intelligent, disturbing stories like this one. The bitchiness between sexy Gina Philips and hot older mama Faye Dunaway is wicked and classic.

I fell asleep halfway through. Ditto on the second attempt, though I did manage to catch a few scenes and the TWO annoying endings.

Jennifer annoyed me. By the end of the film, I didn't care what became of her.

Ms. Dunaway was once a great actress, but her lifted/filled/injected face just can't communicate emotion anymore. Guess that's why she resorted to near-comical melodrama for this part.

The ending (the second one) just made me wonder why the heck I bothered staying awake through (most) of the film.

If someone made it through the entire film and wants to explain just what the heck I missed, I'd appreciate it, since I'm not up to giving this bore-fest another run.