Posted April 18th, 2010 by Jamie Lisk

• Straight to Video
• Director: Keith Parker
• Written by: Keith Parker, Laura Parker
• Running Time: 82 minutes
• Language: English
• MPAA Rating: UNRATED
• Cast: Suzanna Hartzell-Baird, Steve Christopher, Justin Kelly, Michelle Shea Walker, Justin Klemann, Mark Austin, Keith Parker, Shayne Merritt, David Bright, Ella Merritt

 

Before diving into a review of Keith Parker's "The Shadow People", I'd like to relate a rather strange experience I had some six years ago, just a few years after moving into my new apartment. Nodding off to sleep early one night, I found myself sitting upright on my bed at roughly 3:00 am, alerted to strange noises coming from my water heater room. As it were, my cat's litter box was in that room so the door was always left ajar -- with specific instructions never to close it. On this night, not only was the door closed, oddly, there was also a reddish flickering light emanating through the crack at the base of the door. "Oh shit, a fire!" I told myself, while jumping out of bed. Desperate to find out just how bad the situation was, I scrambled to open the door - not the smartest idea I've ever had. Expecting to find the heater engulfed in flames, I was instead met with lots and lots of grey, billowy smoke. It obscured my ability to see inside the room more than a couple of inches - then *then* suddenly, a black 'shadowy-like' figure bolted out through the greyish haze, crashing into me with tremendous force. With the exception of ominous red eyes, there were no features; just blackness. The figure bounded into me and then, strangely, seemed to disappear into nothingness. I was terrified... and then I woke up. Yup, kids, it was a dream, but a dream that, I soon discovered, had been shared by millions of people around the world. Did I experience a shadow person in my dream? Possibly? But it's just a dream, so what's it matter? My girlfriend once parked her car in my fridge in a dream. Anyways, scouring the internet, I soon discovered that people are seeing these 'shadow people' when they aren't sleeping. Yup, it seems a whole phenomena has been built up around these shadow people. Skeptics claim it's people's imagination, or they blame it on medical conditions like pareidolia and, or, hypnagogia. Although people who have experienced the shadow people are quick to dismiss the skeptics, claiming that they "are usually people who have never experienced the phenomenon" themselves. Regardless of where you stand on this topic, you just knew somebody would make a movie about it.

 

 

Needless to say, my personal interest in the topic brought me to Keith Parker's "The Shadow People" with high hopes and, for the most part, they weren't dashed. It's a standard genre film, hunkered down with all the usual clichés, but unlike most standard genre films, "The Shadow People" somehow works! The idea of strange, faceless beings jumping out of the darkness to take you off to wherever it is they come from, well, that's kinda spooky - and certainly trumps the usual. And this film has lots of that stuff going on here.

 

 

Obsessed with the black arts, a greasy billionaire, Clarence Martel (Mark Austin), in a desperate bid to attain immortality, agrees to wipe clean the 50,000 dollar debt of a gambler, Mikey (Steve Christopher), if he will be willing to stay the night in an abandoned house. Sounds easy enough, huh? Well, there's a hitch. Mikey also has to be willing to engage in some good old penta-candle ritualism that could *just could* conjure forth some malevolent inter-dimensional beings known as the shadow people. Neither Mikey nor his ever-helpful brother Paul (Shayne Merritt), who agrees to tag along at the behest of Martel, believe much in ghosts or any of that stuff, so they have no problem fulfilling the rules of their contract. So with that out of the way, it's off to the spooky old house in the country they go. Upon arriving, it's the usual to-do list; clean all the furniture out of the place (it seems the shadow people don't like anything that can cast a... shadow?), set up some video cameras, arrange a mystical spear (like this object won't factor into the film's conclusion), light some candles, draw out a big pentagram on the living room floor and wait for "them" to arrive. As a storm rages outside, the pair settle in for a long night of listening to Martel's tape recorded message - a message sure to kick start the onset of our mysterious shadow people. And, well, it doesn't take long. Not long at all. Literally, within seconds of them setting up, the shadow folks are soon on the scene, jumping out of the darkness to violently dispatch Mikey in one of the many rooms, as Paul fumbles around with a camera in the living room.

 

 

According to the rules outlined in some immortality-for-dummies book Martel stumbled upon, he needs 100 souls to acquire immortality, and well, with Mikey and his doting brother Paul (Shayne Merritt) served up on a platter, he's only four away from his goal. Wouldn't it be great if four more people were to arrive out of the night to shack up at the old house. Uh... well, that's what happens. As it turns out, the early stuff with Mikey and Paul was but a mere set-up for the film's real premise; four "teens" attempting to make it through the night while being terrorized by shadowy, murderous paranormal entities. Yes genre fans, we've been to this house before. Not long after high roller Mikey has some eye-removal surgery performed on him courtesy our pesky shadow people, the four teens (twenty-something's, more like) arrive to provide the human fodder needed to make this a feature-length affair. It seems the storm has gotten a little too furious for our four youngins who are just happening along, and they are forced to pull off the road and seek shelter in that old abandoned looking house - the same house where Martel is conducting his little experiment. Awesomely convenient, if I say so myself

 

 

The four kids are more like a broad outlines of characters rather than real people. Sadly, more time should have been used to flesh them out, and time is definitely something the writers had plenty of here. Minus the usual who's-got-the-hots-for-who, we know zilch about them from the first scene to the last. Of the four, Laura (Suzanna Hartzell-Baird), has the most personality. She's a goofball early on, but emerges as the only one final-girl-smart enough to figure out how to end it all. Hint: It involves the spear and appropriately misplaced book. Laura's hunky boytoy, John (Justin Kelly), proves a little too laid back for my liking and his insistence on being a hero flies in the face of rational thought. The only reason he went to save Paul is because the script told him to. Lastly there's Matt (Justin Klemann), one of those only-in-the-movies "You're not buying this?" guys who poo poos the notion of shadow men, even as he's being attacked by shadow men. Yes, he's the genre's ubiquitous skeptic, always present to provide a common sense solution to things where the rules established by mainstream science don't necessarily apply. Of course, his decisions get people killed -- and he eventually comes around to the reality of the supernatural right about the time he's getting his shit pushed in. Matt's dream girl, Angie (Michelle Shea Walker), is one of those high maintenance ice queens that we genre fans love to see get murdered in brutally heinous ways. She's selfish, annoying and we hate her. Her death brings us great joy.

 

 

While pointing out some fresh chalk, Laura somehow concludes that nobody has been in the house in a long time. I'm not making this up. Later the four are shocked to discover the pentagram set-up in the living area and that one of the empty bedrooms is absolutely caked in blood. Paul soon emerges out of the darkness, battered and bruised and ready to talk. He lets the four in on the situation they have suddenly found themselves in. The kids react appropriately by beating and tying him up. They brush off his ludicrous-sounding claims that shadow people killed his brother and that he was able to get away thanks to his flashlight (shadow people don't like the light, we learn) - until about the time the shadow people arrive to pick them off one by one. As we inch closer to that 100 souls marker, Martel, who is observing the whole fiasco on a closed-circuit television back at his million dollar palace, soon discovers that his own personal misplaced diary might prove his downfall. Another coincidence, or have the forces of good reared their head - intervening to save mankind? So deep. So deep. Will Laura be able to read it and save the day? Will Martel gain the immortality he so desperately longs for? Sigh.

 

 

"The Shadow People", for all of its narrative and character faults, still proves to be a rather enjoyable affair. There's plenty of atmospheric-creepiness at work, thanks to copious shots of blackened tree's rustling just on the outskirts of the property and an ominous thundery audio backtrack which runs the entire length of the film. I've always been a sucker for some good old spooky audio ambience. The fact that 95% of the movie takes place in the dark, is quite a feat unto itself in a filmmaking sense. Shooting at night is a bitch, as anyone who has ever attempted to make their own indie movie will tell you. In exchange for a real CGI budget, the producer's rely heavily on camera tricks and layering to sell the eerie shadow people as non-earthly beings. I have to admit, early in the film before I became accustomed to seeing them, the shadow people actually creeped me out. Sadly, there's not much effort made to explain them, where they come from or just how Martel is manipulating them to gain his immortality. Although in the role of monsterous-boogeymen, these shadow people make for some pretty effective villians.

 

 

Regarding the acting, it's ridiculously below par and almost every second of dialogue feels forced (or laughable). Justin Klemann practically stumbles over every one of his lines. Only Steve Christopher, who disappears quite early on (and has the film's most gore-ious death scene), and Suzanna Hartzell-Baird, who plays the final girl, have anything burgeoning on legitimate acting careers. The rest of the cast is comprised of friends and or family of the director. Interestingly, Keith Parker, the director and writer, provides himself the film's most three-dimensional character. As Martel's bodyguard Burton, he is introduced as cold and callous, holding a knife to a little girl's neck, only to emerge later, as the film's sole voice of reason. "They're just kids," he barks at Martel, as his boss begins checking off four more souls. It is never clarified if he placed Martel's diary in the place on purpose, or if it was a simple oversight. Too bad Parker and his wife (and writing partner), Laura, didn't spend an equal amount of time constructing the other characters. Had they done so, this might have been a great little film, rather than the creepy little diversion it is.

Sadly, while the film doesn't really explore the shadow people phenomenon (minus a cool intro montage of new stories), it doesn't turn into a bait and switch as another similar film I reviewed, "Old Hag", did. In this film, what you see is what you get. Or maybe I should say, what you don't see.