Bethany

For some frightfest filmmakers the challenge of molding and shaping the horror genre in their own imaginative vision is a definite given. The horror genre is a broad scope of a creepy canvas in which movie-makers can manipulate the kinds of colorful fear and tension that they want to convey artistically. Writer-director-producer James Cullen Bressack is no different when catering to his brand of glossy horror-themed hedonism in certain substance and style. Bressack’s Bethany is the nightmarish narrative rooted in conventional creepiness that is surreal enough to be considered somewhat intriguing yet routinely atmospheric in its traumatic presentation. Nevertheless, the twenty-something Bressack is loaded with the potential behind the camera and one can measure the enthusiasm of his supernatural endeavors embedded in the somber-induced Bethany. Still, Bressack’s 90-minute stretched-out cinematic shock-to-the-system is recycled, saggy and manufactured.

Bethany pretty much sticks to the familiar formula of the hellish horror playbook and one wishes that if Bressack had the gumption to deviate from such a known pedestrian format than perhaps his goosebump spectacle could have benefited from a welcomed twist of an unpredictable edginess. Essentially, Bethany is a laundry list of follow-the-dots caustic cliches that include the obligatory unknown factors of a haunted house, a beleaguered and possessed little girl, strange happenings that transpire in the darkness, spousal indifference and uncertainty and a miserable maternal presence lurking in the shadows. Unfortunately, Bressack presents a disjointed juggling act as all the sketchy and bizarre elements in Bethany feel cobbled together to tell a rather drowsy, nail-biting tale.

The scary story is jointly anchored by Aaron (played by the film’s co-screenwriter Zack Ward) as a businessman whose decision to relocate to a large dilapidated house that he has inherited with his wife Claire (Stephanie...

33/100

A woman inherits her childhood home from her deceased mother ...and her imaginary friend appears to still be living in the wall. This movie was one very long sequence of not-all-that-scary scenes, one right after another, without any progression to the story. Finally they progress into the ending which, weirdly enough, was sick, sad and silly all at the same time. -- DrNostromo.com