The Horror Show
We Are Still Here
by Ted Geoghegan
Scream queen Barbara Crampton stars in Ted Geoghegan’s old-fashioned We Are Still Here, a movie that features probably one of the most overused storylines in the horror genre.
A grieving couple decides to relocate and move into a seemingly peaceful house seeking some distance from their miserable daily life after tragically losing their son in a car accident. Anne (Barbara Crampton) and Paul Sacchetti’s (Andrew Sensenig) new life is set in a quiet and somewhat dour village in New England. While craving seclusion, the middle-aged couple will soon realize that the small rural town has its own dark secrets and they all revolve around their new house and its macabre previous owners.
Sporting just a few intense moments but several clichés, Geoghegan’s paranormal opus feels like the echo of 70s or 80s horror, which has clearly anchored the genre but also has its own pacing problems. Crampton’s portrayal of the emotionally anguished mother is unravelled in a rather formulaic manner and, as expected, she is the first person to sense the spectral phenomena that begin to occur.
We Are Still Here features an eerie and gloomy ambiance supported by a legendary cast (Larry Fessenden, Monte Markham, Susan Gibney) and that provides just the right boost in tension for viewers. It is a movie fun to watch with noticeable star power, but its raw ingredients – including plotting and dialogue – are rather weak.
Haunting spirits, séances, neighbours who know too much but hide even more – all that tightly connected with a house’s evil past – form the entire storyline of Geoghegan’s movie that is not bad to watch and entertains exactly the right amount within a set formula.
Maria Kriva, HMS
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