The Channel (2016) Reviews

• Just life and a bunch of rotting bones

  nogodnomasters2018-01-11

  Cassie (Kristen StephensonPino) survives a car accident after being revived from being dead. "Something come backs with her" and it wants her dead. She goes through various hauntings with a bad sound track especially that chant they played every time a priest was on the screen. The film reeled me in from the start, and then fell off a cliff into the great abyss. The acting was comical. Jared Boghosian who played Seth was a terrible ghost. Andrew Olson as the friend had a really bad scene when he visits Cassie. At this point the film dies. Nick Clark's exorcism was a laugh. What was with all that screaming? Writer and director Tom Lewis choose the overused name "Cassie" which is popular in films and the name Dunne for the victim. Ba-da-bum. The film was not exactly faith based but was faith friendly. There was no swearing sex or nudity, even though Cassie's friends looked slutty and drank and did "X." Don't they call that Molly now? The priest when talking to the psychologist uses a modified form of Pascal's Wager which hints this is faith based inspired. Who uses a cassette recorder for notes anymore? Just asking. Nice shower scene of Cassie. We get to see the outside of the bathroom door and the phone ringing. HEY! This is a horror film, at least show some shoulder and leg. The film makes use of the phenomenon known as periphery vision where one sees "shadow people", explained as evil ghosts in this film. I have them on rare occasions when driving at dawn and dusk and suddenly look up from the dashboard....always moving from right to left. It is caused by a blind spot in our vision. Our brain manufactures what it thinks should be there. Normally we don't see anything. Sometimes when the lighting is right, the head jerks suddenly and after I have seen a lot of horror films with dark figures...I see them too and I am not the only one. It would have been responsible for Tom Lewis to have included the scientific explanation in his film instead of allowing everyone who has these experiences believe a demon is trying to kill them and suicide or exorcism is the only way out.

  More

• Don't waste your time on this.

  highpitchedpirates2017-04-24

  After reading the synopsis for this movie, I went in knowing that it was likely going to be a disappointment. It was even worse than I suspected it would be. I know that it's popular to cast older actors to play teenagers and a lot of them can get away with it, the actors cast in this film look their real life ages which are mid to late 20's. They acting is atrocious, there are moments where it sounds like they're reading their lines from cue cards and the writing is horrible. Another thing that really bothered me was the amount of times the other characters repeated the name of the main girl, Cassie, I have no idea what any of the other characters are called but they were determined that you know her name. I had to stop watching after 30 minutes because it was just painful to watch.

  More

• Cliched indie horror

  Leofwine_draca2018-03-07

  I caught this indie horror on Amazon Prime under the title THE OTHER SIDE. It's a typical kind of film that goes through all the motions without ever being particularly interesting. The plot incorporates renegade priests, car accidents, ouija board experimentation, lots of emoting, nightmares, and teen angst. A lot of it is shot at night via blue tinted scenes. The actors look too old for their roles and don't give very interesting performances. The whole thing is rather cliched and not very interesting.

  More