“A TOWN FULL OF GHOSTS” (2022) SHOWS US HAUNTED ATTRACTIONS MAY BE MORE FACT THAN FICTION
Found footage films about ghosts, monsters, and terrifying events have been on the rise since the early 2000s. These days found footage movies (especially ones about ghosts) are kind of a dime a dozen. We see so many of them coming out on streaming services these days that it is hard to know what is the best one to watch. We usually wait for a friend to tell us how much they enjoyed or didn’t enjoy the movie. We also depend on social media and content creators to deep dive into these movies, so we don’t have to. While this is all well and good, it kind of gives us a missed opportunity to enjoy it with fresh eyes and fresh opinions of our own.
Don’t get me wrong, having someone give you an opinion on how they thought the basic premise of the movie was still worthwhile (hint hint, our awesome reviews from Macabredaily.com) may make you more excited about the film than you would have thought. That’s the great thing about things when I was growing up. The only thing we had was movie trailers, MTV shows talking about movies when they interviewed the actors, and the occasional “First Look” into the movie. Yes, I get it. I am old. I just turned 37 and was alive before the internet, big deal. The main point I am trying to make here is always to give yourself a chance to enjoy any horror movie you can with a brief spoiler-free review (again I’m hint hinting here) and sit back to enjoy it yourself.
This time around, I got a chance to check out “A Town Full of Ghosts” (2022) from No Sleep Films. This movie stars Andrew C. Fisher, Mandy Lee Rubio, Lauren Lox, Sarah Froelich, Isaac Rodriguez, Keekee Suki, and Vania Vasquez in an Isaac Rodriguez Film. To give you a bit of an insight, here is the movie’s premise:
“Mark (portrayed by Andrew C. Fisher) and his wife Jenna (portrayed by Mandy Lee Rubio) sell everything they have to purchase a western ghost town called Blackwood Falls in the middle of nowhere. They plan to turn the ghost town into a tourist attraction with hotels, restaurants, and attractions. They hire a small film crew (portrayed by Ali Alkhafaji as Justin and Lauren Lox as Lisa) to document their journey and upload the videos to their video channel.
When funding falls through, they find themselves stuck in the middle of nowhere. Things take a twist when Mark discovers the town has a horrible history of death. He secretly digs deeper into the past and stumbles upon something evil.
Tensions start to rise when one of the film crew goes missing, and everyone finds themselves trapped in the town. Jenna comes up with a plan to escape, but Mark begins to lose his mind and takes matters into his own hands.
Jenna makes one last attempt to escape the town. She gets lost in the wooden maze while something evil goes after her. She must escape or become an eternal resident in Blackwood Falls.”
Watching this movie from start to finish was quite enjoyable. I am a big fan of found footage movies, especially if they have their own unique story. To my knowledge, I don’t think there is one that takes place in a haunted old west ghost town attraction, so that was a nice touch. The pacing of the movie was great. I didn’t feel like I do during some horror movies I review where I shrug my shoulders and say out loud to no one “Huh?”. Every moment of this movie had me on the edge of my seat wondering when the haunting would be the main characters undoing. Not to mention the ghost “The Burnt Woman” (portrayed by Sarah Froelich) looked great in costume and truly made the character shine. Not to mention there are a couple of amazing scenes revolving around an old wooden maze that really stood out to me.
After watching this movie, I found some more info about what inspired Isaac Rodriguez, it made me excited to plan a rewatch of the movie. He stated when making this movie, “After visiting the J. Lorraine, TX, ghost Town in Austin, TX, I was immediately inspired to make my next film there. The town was actually all built by the current owner. Some of the buildings were very small and looked fake, but I knew I could incorporate that into the story. A few months back, I saw a YouTuber who sold everything and moved into a real ghost town in California. I wanted to use that basic idea with a married couple and add a ‘The Shining’ vibe to it.”
I enjoy nothing more than knowing the inspiration behind the story of a good horror movie. We have heard it many times with the greats like “Nightmare on Elm St”, “Friday the 13th”, and many others. The lore behind a good horror movie makes you want to come back to enjoy it for multiple viewings, share your love of it with your friend, and maybe even shout about how good it is on social media. Horror movies are always a good time, despite what some people say and this one was very much an enjoyable watch. The ambiguous beginning shines a light on the fact we know these main characters are inevitably doomed, but we still get caught up in their story.
Their story of being a married couple trying to do what they can to get out of financial trouble and make something of their own is quite awesome. Add a dash of a ghost story to that and we have quite the wicked time. Again, I love the ghost town aspect and was very surprised by the setting of the set. Everything looked so well and honestly, couldn’t get over the fact of how bad I wanted to go there. Granted, I would be super freaked out due to all the paranormal happenings there, but it would be fun.
“A Town Full of Ghosts” (2022) from No Sleep Films is out now on VOD. Be sure to watch it and get spooked by all the haunted scares ahead of you.
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