The Horror Show
Haunting of Cellblock 11
by Andrew P. Jones
The paranormal is a time-honored element to the horror genre. No matter your individual opinion on ghosts and spirits and the “other side,” they can be a lot of fun when it comes to a getting a good scare while watching a movie. Hauntings are the most timeless of paranormal concepts and many movies have been made on the subject. With the fairly recent slew of TV investigation shows centering on ghost hunters, it unsurprising that several movies have focused on these types of people experiencing sinister entities. Haunting of Cellblock 11 is one of many with this theme. And, in the end, it wasn't the best and it wasn't the worst.
Haunting of Cellblock 11 centers around the crew of a paranormal investigation show called Ghost Sightings who are in a dry spell. They haven't had much luck in competing with the flashy rival shows of the same ilk, especially given the crew's refusal to fake or manipulate anything. They are contacted by an elderly man who claims that he is being terrorized by spirits on the property of an abandoned prison in the town he lives in. The show decides to help the man, and hopefully their ratings, by making the prison their next destination.
In classic, borderline-cliche form, the locals warn them to not go into the prison. Their guide won't even enter certain parts of the prison and practically begs them not to spend the night. He explains that the prison is especially haunted thanks to the cruel work by a sadistic doctor that worked there. He explains that many of the inmates were tortured and killed there, which would explain the phenomenon going on as of late.
The crew may be believers in the paranormal, but they also consider themselves professionals who could never get in over their heads during an investigation. As the night progresses, it becomes very clear that they are wrong in that assumption.
To the film's credit, it's well made. It's shot competently and the acting is good. The characters don't stand out too much from one another except for a few worn archetypes, but it's not a personality driven story anyway. The effects range from impressive to unfortunate which leaves me unsure how to feel about them as a whole.
Perhaps the biggest problem with Haunting of Cellblock 11 is the pacing. The film doesn't even try to build suspense in any way. Right off the bat we are greeted by full-on spirits in complete clarity. This may work for the Insidious films and similar titles, but it doesn't work with this one. The monsters are out of the dark almost immediately so there's nowhere to go but down. The most baffling aspect is the fact that the film still tries to have the characters be logical when it makes no sense. At one point, when a crew member is possessed, the host suggests that he hopes he's joking. That would be fine if the possessed character hadn't been dragged, completely against the laws of physics, in front of the host's eyes mere seconds earlier.
I'm a skeptic when it comes to the paranormal, but even I would stop trying to find a logical explanation when unbridled paranormal chaos begins to happen. All of the character's reactions would be perfectly understandable if the film didn't jump the gun so early with the presence of the offending forces.
The film is never boring, per say, and it keeps moving. But it doesn't keep you on the edge of your seat, either, and isn't interesting enough to be especially entertaining. There are no scenes that I find particularly dumb, but none of them are memorable either. This is a shame, because it could have been an effective film if its pacing was refocused.
It would have been tempting to make this a “found footage” style film and I'm glad it didn't go in that direction. Don't get me wrong, I lovefound footage and when such movies work they are among the best. But they are very hard to pull off and I've seen way too many paranormal based ones at this point. It was a good choice having this one be of a more standard style and made the plot easier to sit through.
All in all, Haunting of Cellblock 11 is an adequate film. It tells its story and never gets too dull. However, it doesn't leave its mark and didn't leave me with any real type of emotion. I don't regret watching it but I doubt I'll think about it too much in the future either.
P.J. Griffin, HMS
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