The Curse of Lilith Ratchet

The story may not be completely original but it is classic evil spirit, cursed object storytelling, and a strong, straightforward foundation always the story telling immediate plausibility. It also anchor the acceptance of paranormal events where concepts may play out creatively. In "American Poltergeist: The Curse Of Lilith Ratchet" is old-world folk magic, a cursed object and a really bad idea.

The film starts out how I like, dropping us right in the middle of horrific events unfolding as the monster, in this case a vengeful ghost, is on a killing spree. It makes it easier to tolerate the coming exposition and character grounding drama and heavy dialog to come. And this film is no exception. There is a lot of melodrama, banter and mundane "living life" moments in APTCOLR. Some could have been cut or shortened in post because it actually drags the movie's pace after such a gut-punch beginning.

That being said I liked the quality of the performances by this indie cast. Most are recognizable in indie film circles. I have seen most of the horror and sci-fi stuff from this midwestern community, or is it Mid-Atlantic? Anyway I recognize the growth and skill development from this cast, and it shows in this movie. There are moments when dialog and suspense suffers due to scenes that don't seem to move as smoothly as others though.

When the horror finally gets back in play and the paranormal activity starts, APTCOLR picks up. The creature design for Lilith Ratchet is some of the coolest ghost work I've seen. Kind of like one of the gentleman (Hush so. Buffy) in drag. Love the character and horror sustainability for future development. The tricks imployed to create the horror is the standard paranormal effects, but they work.

Overall I found a lot that I liked with "American Poltergeist: The Curse Of Lilith Ratchet". The story premise is classic ghost story fodder, with a memorable character. The cinematography is great and keeps a creepy atmosphere going through the movie. I did find the over stretched dramatic stuff boring at times. Still this is a cool indie paranormal horror with some entertaining stuff happening.

This doesn't start in a promising fashion. A pre-credits sequence that is so mild, it fails to deliver much tension or atmosphere (our villainess looks much better later on in the film). As things progress, we become acquainted with a shrunken head, and the game that comes with it. You wouldn't, would you? Play the game, I mean.

So when the main characters play this game, you know things aren't going to end well. You also know that this bunch aren't the smartest gang you'll ever meet - but you get into it. For an independent film, the budget is very well utilised, the sound and direction (by Eddie Lengyel, who also wrote) are polished. The acting is uneven (some of lack of expression is restricted by the surgically enhanced appearance of some performers) - a good example being a séance that shifts effortlessly from moments that are effective to others that are pretty poorly performed. You win some, you lose some. There is, however, a compelling and troubling inevitability regarding the characters' fates. Lilith herself looks progressively effective, although her kills are fairly mild. There's also a nice twist at the end. My score is 7 out of 10.

It's not quite as terrible as some of the one-star reviews made it out to be. The story isn't all that original but there was still a level of fun to it that could have been saved with better actors and a little more carefully placed attention on the cinematography. I hate to see it given a one star. Four seems adequate.

Not the worst you can do with independent horror but far from the best.

It's like a bad porno but without the fun part. The acing is horrible, the cinematography is done by amateurs and is very bad, the whole movie sucks.

It's clear that all the 10 rating comes from friends and families of the movie maker.

Nothing is worth to be said about this movie, except they managed to collect every bad criteria in one movie, the acting is horrible, the costumes is like school plays and the soundtracks are really irrelevant. PLEASE DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME WATCH IT