Starring: Kelen Coleman, Avis-Marie Barnes, Kevin Alejandro
Director: Anthony DiBlasi
When a young deaf woman’s younger sister is tragically killed she moves to the spiritual capital of the world Cassadaga to study art. While on a date she attends a séance that attaches the tortured ghost of a murdered woman to her. She must solve the mystery of the Ghepetto killer who took her life to release the spirit.
What’s peculiar about Cassadaga is that it doesn’t quite fit into any one genre while there are horror elements the focus isn’t on Ghepetto but rather the thriller mystery aspect of solving the haunting. There is also a side story that involves a romance between Lily (Kelen Coleman) and Mike (Kevin Alejandro). Sparked when Lilly teaches Mikes daughter Art lessons.
Fans of traditional horror are going to be a bit pissed off. Any story that involves turning woman into human marionettes has a lot of opportunity to be gory and focus on this aspect of the story yet Cassadaga never goes there. Another point that will piss people off that I particularly liked was how certain plot points go unresolved much like life.
The entire aspect of Lily being deaf is a completely pointless gimmick, it’s not even utilized to maximum effect, there are very few scenes where this even comes into play. Cinematically the look of the film is strong this doesn’t look like a cheap indie. I would have preferred for the deaf angle to be dropped and have that time better utilized to flesh out Ghepetto there is more story there that should have been explored. Not to mention how about an explanation as to how he throws his voice or why he cuts off woman’s limbs.
Grade-68
