“Nobody knew what was under this house until it was too late!”
Retro-style horror is a curious thing. Sometimes – and this is a compliment – it can play like a mixtape, or a mash-up song, something that celebrates the versatility of the genre. We Are Still Here is like that. Baked into its DNA is Rosemary’s Baby, The Elementals, Hell House, Burnt Offerings, Dagon, A Stir of Echoes, Suspiria, Poltergeist, any number of Lucio Fulci films; there are even hints of more contemporary horror films, such as Cabin in the Woods, mother!, and The Babadook. At its best, a retro horror film can show the director’s love and obsession for the genre; when they don’t work, it feels like watching a bad cover band. Ted Geoghegan’s film is more of the former than the latter.
The plot will sound familiar to anyone who has ever seen a horror movie (not a dig): Paul and Anne are moving to a house in the country, trying to rebuild their lives and marriage after the accidental death of their son. That’s not the kind of thing that relocating can fix, and Paul and Anne seem to know it deep down. “If anything’s in the wrong place, we’ll fix it,” Paul says. Anne echoes him: “We’ll fix it.” But they won’t.
With grief and trauma at the core of the film, one would imagine a slow burn. That’s not the case, and it’s a welcome surprise. We Are Still Here comes in at a svelte 84 minutes, meaning once things start going wrong they don’t let up; they just get worse and worse. At times it can feel rushed, as if the film needs a little more breathing room than Geoghegan has given it. Apparitions start showing up behind Paul and Anne almost immediately, and Anne is convinced she hears her son’s voice in the house. “I can feel him here,” she says. It might not be her son, but something is definitely there.
In one instance of the film’s tight runtime working to its detriment, some neighbors stop by to say hello, and within minutes are telling the story of the house’s sordid past. We’re barely given any time to get to know the house before we find out that the original owners were selling dead bodies and subsequently run out of town. And we only meet the neighbors, Dave and Cat, long enough to grow suspicious of them. Cat passes Paul a note, telling him in no uncertain terms that the house will harm them. And for some reason Paul doesn’t even tell his wife.
A film like this – short, character-driven – needs to be anchored by solid performances. Unfortunately, they’re somewhat scattershot. Andrew Sensenig never makes much of an impression as Paul; he’s techincally fine, but I couldn’t tell you much about Paul as a character, and I watched this movie last night. Barbara Crampton fares better as Anne, although her delivery is occasionally flat (she also has to act around an unfortunate haircut that is clearly meant to mimic Mia Farrow’s ‘do in Rosemary’s Baby). Like Jamie Lee Curtis, Crampton has rounded the bend from scream queen to icon, and the ineffable aura of cool that surrounds Crampton makes her the most watchable person on screen at any given time. She’s a legend. Larry Fessenden and Lisa Marie play Jacob and May Lewis, friends of the couple who spend the weekend. Marie is mostly flat, and while Fessenden can be a little over the top – he’s playing a hippy but everything about him says trucker – but he also gets the film’s meatiest scene, and sells it nicely.
We Are Still Here really sings in its gonzo climax. Here the film’s quick clip works wonders, as things descend into a nightmare rapidly. The blood and gore are both so over the top that the movie seems more like a drive-in splatter flick, and I mean that in the best possible sense. It’s funny and outlandish, but not without a certain undercurrent of emotionality, and it’s by far the best directed section of the movie.
Geoghegan’s film is uneven, but made with love. And it’s refreshing to see a cast comprised entirely of middle-age actors (anyone in the movie who seems to be in their twenties is dispatched of pretty quickly). Uneven though it may be, We Are Still Here invokes confidence in Geoghegan’s abilities, and his passion. You can’t make horror movies if you don’t love the genre, if you don’t know your history. Ted Geoghegan knows his history.
Thursday, 10/1: Phantasm
Friday, 10/2: Frozen
Saturday, 10/3: Suspiria
Sunday, 10/4: Suspiria (2018)
Monday, 10/5: Emelie
Tuesday, 10/6: Castle Freak
Wednesday, 10/7: Session 9
Thursday, 10/8: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Friday, 10/9: We Are Still Here
Saturday, 10/10: The Changeling
Sunday, 10/11: The Bad Seed
Monday, 10/12: Verotika
Tuesday, 10/13: The Legend of Hell House
Wednesday, 10/14: Lake Mungo
Thursday, 10/15: Puppetmaster
Friday, 10/16: Marrowbone
Saturday, 10/17: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
Sunday, 10/18: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Monday, 10/19: Sweetheart
Tuesday, 10/20: Girl On the Third Floor
Wednesday, 10/21: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Thursday, 10/22: Triangle
Friday, 10/23: Dog Soldiers
Saturday, 10/24: Noroi: The Curse
Sunday, 10/25: Train to Busan
Monday, 10/26: Tales From the Hood
Tuesday, 10/27: Mandy
Wednesday, 10/28: Sometimes They Come Back
Thursday, 10/29: Veronica
Friday, 10/30: The Wicker Man
Saturday, 10/31: Child’s Play
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