SOUTHERN GOTHIC

SOUTHERN GOTHIC
By Ken Leicht

Steve Sessions’ films should be better than they are. It’s almost infuriating. He’ll have a great premise, a good story and pretty decent effects for a low budget. But problems with pacing, acting and sound design tend to undo all the creepiness he creates.

In the case of SOUTHERN GOTHIC, Frank Griffin (Jeff Dylan Graham) plays a ghost buster in the New Orleans area. When one of his associates is seriously injured after an encounter with a confederate soldier zombie, Jeff thinks maybe he should give it up and just concentrate on his writing. This idea doesn’t stick and he is soon back in the game after getting a letter from a housewife whose house is being haunted by an increasingly violent ghost.

Over the protestations of her skeptical husband, Frank takes up residence and tries to see what’s up. Things start to get ugly fast as Frank’s researcher meets a violent end and things in the house start to get more and more out of hand.

While what eventually unfolds is no great surprise, it is a fairly entertaining detective ghost story with echoes of Sam Raimi’s THE GIFT. However, what entertainment I should be getting from Session’s interesting stories is undone by his leaden direction and pacing. I understand setting up a sense of dread but come on! Get on with it man. Use the editing machine.

I can get past it being slow but what is up with the characters total deadpan performances? Why is nobody ever scared in this film? When someone sees a zombie, why don’t they scream? When someone throws up maggots, why don’t they freak out? While there is always plenty of menacing music pulsing on the soundtrack, everything seems to quiet when a big shock arrives…and nobody ever acts scared or screams. What is up with that?

Steve Sessions has a creative mind. His visual sense isn’t bad for low budge…but he needs to work on getting the actors to, well, act with more of a capital “A” then a small “a.” And for God''s sake, teach these people to scream!