The Poltergeist of Borley Forest (2013)
"You Will Love Me" (original title)

Usually these days "microbudget horror" means "found footage mockumentary" such as "Paranormal Activity" and "Blair Witch Project" and all of their dozens of copycats. So it is somewhat refreshing to see "The Poltergeist of Borley Forest" filmmakers try something different with no budget, even if it does end up being largely the same as many Hollywood supernatural horror productions.

In fact, its distributor Image Entertainment neatly nestled the home video release of this movie between the theatrical releases of two films from franchises it was trying to emulate: the "Poltergeist" remake and "Insidious 3." It's no "Insidious 1" but about the only difference between it and the lame new "Poltergeist" is 35 million dollars, which means Image got a bargain and Fox got screwed.

"The Poltergeist of Borley Forest" is more of a mystery film than anything else. High-schooler Paige Pritchard (first time actress Marina Petrano, who could be Lindsay Lohan's twin) accidentally releases a trapped supernatural entity while partying in the woods. The entity shows its gratitude by following her home to the suburbs and stalking her. Like in most movies of this nature, it takes her a while to realize what's happening, maybe a little too long and drawn out in this case. After it finally attacks one of her friends in the creepiest scene in the movie, she and her other friends start investigating, leading them to some eccentric characters such as an off-the-wall unbelieving parapsychology professor played deliciously by Jason Beck and a suspicious spinster who sends them back into the woods to uncover more clues. As usual, just as soon as they think they've figured it all out, the ghost shows up to mangle their theories.

As most of the cast are a long ways from SAG cards, the acting is hit-or-miss, but who goes into a horror film expecting Laurence Olivier and Meryl Streep? Petrano is charismatic and most of her young co- stars have potential, particularly Chris Ingle as Paige's brother, veteran actor Nicholas Barrera as her living romantic interest and the OTHER Rebecca Hall as one of her best friends, while modelesque Weston Adwell and Rhea Rossiter bring the eye candy as another close friend and her sister-in-law, respectively. Most of the adults like Paige's parents (Lisa Nunez, Chris Cook) show up for a minute then disappear, but not usually in a supernatural way.

The main issue I see from a production point-of-view is that these guys were overly ambitious. The cast is large, the movie was shot all over Tampa (not exactly the world's scariest place) and it apparently took them a lot of production time by indie standards. So despite director-cinematographer-editor Stephen McKendree's best efforts, there are far too many areas of sloppiness, and screenwriter R. Presley Stephens' dialogue, although somewhat entertaining, is much too dense for a horror film and often cannot be handled by the largely inexperienced cast. Sometimes it's like watching a community theater put on Shakespeare, if Shakespeare had ever written lines like "This library smells like a morgue" or "You WILL love me" (the movie's original title before Image sensed a piggyback marketing strategy). The tension is also come-and-go, which in the second half is not a good thing. The impressive flashback opening chase scene is the most intense of the movie. It's not so much downhill after that as just inconsistent.

But the story is interesting despite not being particularly original (the ending twist is solid), and the film has moments of cinematic cleverness, particularly McKendree's eye-catching camera work. The first shot of the party scene is more gorgeous than it has any business being, seemingly belonging in a Victorian Age romance instead of a modern day teen horror film. Most importantly, several of the scattered scare scenes actually work, even with microbudget visual effects. But the way Image is marketing the film, it's mostly reaching an audience that's not patient enough to wait for them. If you want a non-stop gorefest and half-naked girls, this film is not for you (which is not to say the actresses aren't attractive; they just don't get naked). But it's been in a number of festivals and won some awards, so it does appeal to a non- hardcore horror segment of the population.

On the behind-the-scenes documentary, the "Borley Forest" team outright admits they were trying to make a "The Ring"-type film, and it also has plenty in common with "The Grudge," "The Unborn," "The Eye," and all the other "The"-titled PG-13 teen-targeted ghost flicks since the heyday of "The Sixth Sense" and "The Others" 15 year ago. And by what has to be a coincidence, it follows almost the exact same structure as this year's indie horror hit "It Follows," which is not coincidentally referenced on the back of the DVD cover. "Poltergeist of Borley Forest" tries really hard to be those films, but it proves that it's nearly impossible to accomplish that on such a small budget. But if you like those films, it's worth at least a rental to see these guys try to do so. I give them an A for effort but C for execution.