Penny Dreadful

What a night! I attended a cast screening of the new short film Penny Dreadful last night which was a wonderful time. Betsy Palmer was on hand to sign autographs after the show as was the lovely Emily Vacchiano who plays the lead role of Jessica in the movie. Both were so nice and were willing to talk to fans. Penny Dreadful is an excellent film with good, old fashioned story telling. No flashy or slick BS thank God. Listen carefully and you can hear the 'Silver Shamrock' jingle from Halloween 3 in the background of the kitchen , which made the audience erupt with laughter, as did an wonderful in-joke about Betsy's take on dead children being mischievous. The story is good and there is a neat twist at the end that makes me want to see the movie all over again so I can pay more attention.

Penny Dreadful is a somewhat simple ghost story with some very unique twists. What makes the film so charming though, is the gathering of many horror icons, like Betsy Palmer as a doddery old psychic, Peter Dupree as a sleazy real estate agent, and Warrington Gillette. Tina Krause also shows up, but has no nude scenes, which lowered the rating of the film marginally.

Also, since it's a short, it doesn't suffer from the usual slow plodding found in most ghost stories.

One aspect that makes PD unique, is the reaction of the main character when she realizes that her and her husband are living in a "haunted house". Instead of the usual freaking out and every one assuming she's crazy, she's excited by the aspect of living with ghosts and embraces it. Very different.

An overall well crafted film.

Penny Dreadful: written and Directed By Bryan Norton. Starring Emily Vaughan, Sebastian Lacause, Tina Krause, Peter Dupre and Betsy Palmer. Screenin Date: Oct 26, 2005

***1/2 out of **** stars

'Penny Dreadful' is old fashioned haunted house movie that will most probably please connoisseurs of the genre. While it hardly breaks new ground, the film is at times funny, scary and violent. There are subtle references to other films, such as "Don't Look Now" and "The Haunting of Julia". Betsy Palmer (Mrs. Voorhees from the original Friday the 13th) comes to investigate a seemingly haunted New York City townhouse inherited by a handsome couple Jessica and David Clausen(Emily Vaughn and Sebastian Lacause). Is the house possessed or is poor Jessica losing her mind from repressed guilt of a secret abortion from years before? Just when you think you've figured it out, you haven't. The acting, score and cinematography are first rate.

This little film really caught me off guard. I couldn't believe this was a student low budget film. The quality is excellent and very very well made.

The director of this film has a bright future ahead of him and I cant wait to see what else he comes up with. \ Betsy Palmer is wonderful as Trudie the psychic and even though his part isn't a big one it was great to see another Friday veteran Warrington Gillette again after an all too long absence from films.

This film deserves all the attention it can get. Don't miss this one and pay close attention to ALL the details.

Synopis: Jessica and David Clausen (Emily Vaughan and Sebastian Lacause) are a young married couple that inherit a beautiful brownstone townhouse in the West Village from Jessica's long lost Aunt. The couple is shown the empty house by an estate attorney (Peter Dupre) who delivers some bad about inheritance tax on the property. Jessica and David, in short, can't keep the house. The couple do, however, move in temporarily, as the agent promises to line up a few buyers. Slowly, Jessica experiences strange occurrences in the house. Noises from downstairs, a blonde child in a red sweater (John Thompson) looking at her from the front window. Instead of being scared off, Jessica embraces it. David, too busy with medical school to care, humors her. Jessica's friend Marla (Tina Krause) dismisses her claims that the house is haunted thinking instead it's some sort of repressed guilt. But is the house trying to tell her something? She enlists the aid of Trudie (Betsy Palmer), a dotty local psychic to figure out what's happening. Review: Right at this moment, the best way for me to describe my feelings on "Penny Dreadful" is that it is cutely, immensely sad. The inclusion of "cutely" there may appear... strange. While this movie was chilling in certain parts, the ultimate feeling it conveys (to me) is some sense of a heavenly, sad and beautiful evil. And also that feeling of how separated from the rest of the world the core story is, it's like an own universe where everything is about someone passing through time in darkness. The story is complex and moving,the acting is very good (Emily Vaughan is very understated and very good in the lead role),the direction is elegant, the sets and locations perfectly fit the mood of the film. I must add that the ending is one of the most stunning and PERFECT ever,in every ways (direction,cinematography,acting,music)! To sum up: this film is sad, chilling, haunting and yes, in some ways, moving. I have read a review that criticized the film's slow pace: I, for one, especially appreciate the Director's willingness to take time to build suspense and terror. I believe that silence is an important part of a horror movie (perhaps almost every kind of movie) and it's obvious that the Director shares my appreciation for what's NOT said. What a treat this turned out to be. If you judge a movie based on blood and guts, or CGI effects, you won't care for this. This film is a much more cerebral movie, which requires multiple viewings to take it in fully