THE WITCH IN THE WINDOW (2018) Round Table Movie Review

THE WITCH IN THE WINDOW (2018) d. Andy Mitton

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Join AC and his awesome panel of guests (S.A. Bradley, Gert Verbeeck, Stephany Perez) for a fantastic and phantastic discussion about writer/director Mitton's (Yellowbrickroad, We Go On) 2018 haunted house venture that sees a father and son bonding through the renovation of an old house with a dark past. What could have been a standard and effective chiller about things that go bump in the night becomes something much richer come the final credits crawl.

YELLOWBRICKROAD (2010) Blu-ray Review

YellowBrickRoad (2010) d. Jesse Holland / Andy Mitton (USA) (98 min)

“One morning in 1940, the entire population of Friar, New NH, walked north up an unmarked trail into the wilderness. Some were later found frozen to death. Others were mysteriously slaughtered. Most, however, were never found. Among the classified records is [an] audio recording of a lone survivor, conducted at the outset of investigation.” So reads the pre-titles onscreen text, after which it is revealed that in 2008, the coordinates for the “YELLOWBRICKROAD” trailhead have been declassified and investigative photojournalist Teddy Barnes (Michael Laurino) is eager to explore the legend of Friar. He assembles a team comprised of his wife Melissa (Anessa Ramsey), the brother/sister mapmaking team of Erin and Daryl Luger (Clark and Cassidy Freeman), the Luger’s intrepid intern Jill (Tara Giordano), forestry service rep Cy (Sam Elmore), and behavioral psychologist Walter Myrick (Alex Draper), with a last-minute addition in the form of Friar local Liv (Laura Heisler), and into the woods they go.

YELLOWBRICKROAD (2010) movie review

YellowBrickRoad (2010) d. Jesse Holland / Andy Mitton (USA)

The writing/directing team of Holland & Mitton conjure an incredibly rich scenario, then people it with an exemplary array of characters such that the first 45 minutes of this well-crafted yarn were literally spent on the edge of my seat. The wonderfully simple premise – a group of researchers seeking to unravel the mystery of a New Hampshire village’s population who, one quiet day in 1940, simply wandered out of town and disappeared forever – is so well cultivated, with creepy, organic atmosphere to spare, one feels like applauding each passing scene for its chutzpah and execution. (The high point is a mid-film gore set-piece aka “the leg scene” that had me squirming and muttering, “Holy crap, ain’t never seen that before... and I’m not sure I needed to.”)

CHILLING VISIONS: 5 SENSES OF FEAR (2013) Blu-ray Review

Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear (2013) d. Various (USA)

The multi-headed anthology film, where a disparate group of filmmakers ally forces (or at least throw their respective hats into the same ring), continues to gain steam and **thisclose** to being a legitimate subgenre unto itself. Three...Extremes, Chillerama, the V/H/S films, The Theatre Bizarre, Little Deaths, The ABCs of Death and so on. However, I can’t say I’ve been really impressed by most of these, since many simply feel like a two-hour short-film festival with little unifying rhyme or reason. On the one hand, I’m happy these artists are reaching a broader audience than they might just shilling their short on YouTube, Vimeo, et al., but at the same time, my nostalgic heart pines for a time when the portmanteau format was utilized with a bit more cohesiveness and forethought, where a unifying vision ran through the proceedings. Even if the stories themselves were uneven, they at least felt like they were of the same universe. Happily, Chilling Visions (originally produced for and aired on the Chiller network this May, and now available on Blu-ray from Scream Factory) is that rare beast where all involved are pulling in the same direction even as they utilize the “divide and conquer” method of filmmaking.