Directed by Kevin Greutert (the man behind Saw VI, Saw 3D, and a directorial contributor to the cult film Donnie Darko), Jessabelle tells the story of a woman who returns to her childhood home and comes face-to-face with a distressed spirit who has been awaiting her return, and has no intention of letting her escape. Rotten Tomatoes awards it a stinky 25%, IMDB a measly 5.4/10, and AV Club a modest B-. It’s mixed feedback across the board. So, where exactly does Jessabelle sit on our film review radar? Is this a hair-raising horror or a boring blunder? Read on…
The film begins with our female protagonist, Jessie (played by Sarah Snook), who’s packing up and moving in with her boyfriend along with an unborn plus one. However, en-route to their new home, their futures are shattered when they’re involved in a high-speed side-on collision. Her boyfriend and unborn baby are killed in the crash, and Jessie is left temporarily paralysed. Despite Jessie having an aunt who she gets on perfectly well with, Jessie is “forced” to move back into her childhood home with her estranged father Leon (David Andrews). (Personally, if we were in this position, we’d probably just go and chill with the friendly aunt but, hey, where’s the film opportunity in that?)
When she moves in the supernatural presences and eerie goings on start taking place from the get-go, but things really start going downhill when she discovers and plays some old VHS tapes under the bed. There’s something we really like about the inclusion of VHS tapes in a horror film; the graininess and discolouration, the fuzzy snow static, the jumpy quality caused by poor tracking, oh, and nothing gives us the creeps more than an unlabelled one – who knows what’s been recorded on that? The worn VHS effect shines through nicely in the footage and generously adds to the sense of mystery surrounding the suspicious activity in the house.
The first tape she watches shows her dearly departed mother (Joelle Carter) giving her a good-natured ‘beyond-the-grave’ tarot reading which leads to her disclosing that an evil presence is in the house. Each recording provides a more accurate reading (stating that the presence is an evil demon), and the mother’s reactions to this evil spirit gradually begin to escalate with each tape. Leon catches Jessie watching these tapes, and eventually decides to set these (and accidentally himself) on fire. Safety first, kids! Don’t cover video tapes in gasoline and light a match immediately after.
Stop, drop ‘n’ roll! Stop, drop ‘n’ roll!
Fast forward to Leon’s funeral, and Jessie bumps into her old friend *cough ex boyfriend cough* Preston at the service (played by Marc Webber). Jessie and Preston have a catch-up over dinner, with Preston disclosing that he is married whilst the two stare longingly into each others eyes. Preston is unhappy about her being in the house on her own, and offers for her to stay the night with him and his wife. At one point Preston has Jessie in his arms and they engage in intense eye contact for an awkward 30+ seconds. Err…hang on! What happened to the story about the evil spirit that haunts Jessie? The impression that we both had at this point is that all elements of peril and horror take a distant backseat whilst the story focuses too heavily on the boring relationship between Preston and Jessie. This isn’t Eastenders, Kev. Nobody cares about this storyline!
With Preston becoming more and more involved in the mystery of Jessabelle, they both watch the tapes together (one of which is discovered hidden behind the house wall after a fight sequence with Jessie and spirit Jessabelle), and the storyline takes an interesting turn when both Jessie and Preston discover an ancient burial ground across the bayou. A tiny headstone with ‘Jessebelle’ crudely marked into it sits amongst an array of voodoo paraphernalia, and Preston digs up the grave to find the bones of a small child. The police become involved and take the bones away for examination. Apart from another discovery of a similar site used to bury ‘Moses’ (who previously told Jessie’s mother that Jessabelle was a demon), the voodoo magic themes are left very much unexplored. A shame really, as this could’ve given the story a slightly different edge instead of taking the cookie cutter ‘demonic spirit’ route.
Preston is eventually attacked by Jessabelle when he takes Jessie back to his home. Jessie learns that the buried child was a black girl murdered after birth, leading her to believe that she needs to be saved. Jessie tries to do this by speaking to Jessabelle directly, but instead discovers another VHS tape on the coffee table which shows a recording of Jessie’s mother cursing a white baby and shooting herself.
“Goin’ down d’bayou, Goin’ down d’bayou!”
Her mother’s spirit then appears to her and reveals that the unwanted presence is Jessie herself (not Jessabelle, OMG #plottwist!) Turns out ol’ Mrs Jessie had had a sordid affair with Moses and, in a fit of rage, Jessie’s father had discovered this and killed the baby and moses using Jessie as a cover-up. Moses’ spirit appears before Jessie and, working in tandem with the apparition of Jessie’s mother, they wheel her into the bayou where she sinks into it’s murky depths. Jessabelle is there too, and uses this opportunity to enter Jessie. The film is wrapped up with Jessie leaving the bayou in Preston’s arms and, as the police sheriff asks if Jessie is alright, her contorted face turns to answer him and splutters a final corny line – “It’s Jessabelle”. Cue credits.
A complement sandwich
OK enough synopsis talk, let’s tell you what we thought about this film. Ever heard of the ‘compliment’ sandwich‘? We’ll start off with the good, talk about the areas that need improvement, and finish on a positive note.
The acting is pretty decent all-around from start to finish, but it’s Sarah Snook’s character that stands head and shoulders from the rest of the cast. We have to be honest, before watching the film we didn’t know who she was, but I thought she played the leading role pretty well. As we both lazily slunk into bed after a hard day’s work, I asked Laura for her thoughts on this. “I just thought she was rubbish”, she told me, “a bit like a poor man’s Emma Stone”.
Difference of opinions aside, our main gripe is that her performance is shrouded by an incredibly busy storyline. We’ve barely covered the film’s synopsis earlier in this post – A LOT happens in the film’s hour and a half duration. It has it’s little moments and some interesting themes are presented to the viewer but, due to the sheer volume of these ideas hastily weaved into the script, none of them are really explored to their full potential. It makes the film very fast paced and, like the London Underground’s Central Line during peak time in Zone 1, far too much is packed into a small space.
The story comes with it’s share of unanswered questions and unusual scenarios which make no sense and lend nothing to an already muddled plot. Notable examples include:
- Preston’s wife being absolutely fine with his ex-partner sleeping in their marital home. Laura and I aren’t married (well…not just yet), but if she brought her ex-boyfriend back and said “Hey babe, you remember my ex right? Do you mind if he sleeps on the couch as I don’t want him to be alone?” Personally, I’d respond by grabbing the guy by the scruff of his neck and comically throwing him out the door and onto his backside.
- Mr and Mrs Jessie obtaining a white baby so soon after Mr Jessie murders the first child? Last time I checked, you couldn’t naturally create a new child with such a quick turnaround. Either they have stolen one from another family at this point, or they have convenient access to some-sort of artificial baby-making factory. “Quick, grab any one off the ‘finished product’ conveyor belt and let’s crack on with this voodoo magic tomfoolery.”
- The physiotherapist who decides it’s a brilliant idea to leave a paralysed woman in a bathtub on her own. “Here you go, Jessie. I ran you a bath! Just in case you get hungry I’ve popped some bread in the toaster and perched it on the edge of the bath just by the taps, there’s a hairdryer plugged in too so you can dry your hair before you get out of the water, and I’m going to switch the lights off on my way out so you can save on your energy bill. See you in 6 hours!”
- We acknowledge that Jessie’s mobility is affected due to her accident, but what exactly is stopping her from leaving the house at any time? She isn’t completely housebound, she hasn’t been locked in against her will, she’s old enough to make her own decisions, and there’s certainly no point in her staying there when her dad pops his clogs. “Just discovered the house is haunted and I’m really lonely and miserable here, regardless of this I will never leave”
- Coincidences. Lots and lots of coincidences, which only serve as a half-assed attempt to patch up holes and crudely tie up loose ends. Examples of these include Preston randomly showing up at her father’s funeral despite him not being made aware of the location/date/time of the event (let alone the fact that Jessie’s father is now dead), Jessie and Preston discovering Moses’ little burial plot on their way to see him (“Let’s go see Moses. Wait, stop everything – he’s buried over there.”), and a group of men showing up from nowhere to beat Preston senseless when they visit the aforementioned burial site
On a positive note – the deep-south Louisiana scenes serve as a lovely visual backdrop throughout the film. The camera work captures these chilling images with good detail, particularly with the bayou’s haunting mist contrasting with the rich summer colours from the surrounding trees and foliage. The scenery effectively adds to the sense of mystery and complements Jessie’s discomforting loneliness and isolation from society.
So, overall, Jessabelle is a mixed bag of pros and cons. To summarise, it’s a run of the mill supernatural horror which has it’s little sparkles of interest but suffers badly due to the plot being like a Rube Goldberg machine. Casual horror fans might enjoy it but, for the connoisseurs among us, there’s much better out there.
The Lampy-metre
Novices might be hit harder with post-scare insomnia from the jumpy appearances of Jessabelle in spirit form (add an extra 3 to the below score if you don’t watch a lot of horror), but we’re immune to this basic tactic now! Apart from a 3am visit to answer nature’s call, we slept like babies.
It's Under The Bed... 