User Reviews

The movie was not received well at the Frightfest festival in Glasgow in general. You can see why of course, especially towards the ending, when things got ... well a bit out of hand, you could say. The laughter that befall most people was definitely not intended by the filmmaker. The supernatural elements in it mostly work I'd say, if you let yourself into them of course.

It's a tough sell and I think you'll have to have a heart for that kind of movie. I didn't particularly think this was great, but I also didn't think it was as bad as some people thought. It comes down to if you think this will be worth your time.

This is a movie where I wasn't sure I'd like it; the name sounded like it might be a foreign film and the poster seems somewhat disconnected from the feel of the movie (at least, I think so).

I gave it a try anyways, and I'm glad I did. It had its flaws, definitely, for me mostly in that it could have been longer; more build- up and getting some of the smaller plot lines tied up neater would have easily pushed this movie to a higher vote. I can see why not to do it, though, as it's already longer than the standard 90 minutes.

To its credit though, I was scared enough to jump a couple of times and I was touched when I was supposed to be - which is more than many horror flicks can do these days.

All in all, I came away with the feeling that it was well worth my time so I definitely recommend checking it out at least once.

Judging by some of the online comments about Cassadaga, I was expecting something a bit special out of this indie horror. Sadly, there just didn't seem to be much new here to really stand out.

It's okay - that's about it. It's one of those films where a young woman gets mixed up with something spooky. Obviously, no one believes her and she does that thing they do in all horror films where they research it on the internet and then seek out 'professional' help.

It's definitely not bad. There are a few pretty sick scenes (nicely executed - no pun intended) for the gore hounds and everyone plays their part pretty well. However, it descends into territory where, if you're an avid horror watcher, you'll have seen it all before - how many times does the heroine knock over the killer and then just run away instead of continuing to batter him to death? Well, you get that sort of thing here.

If you can be bothered with another horror film, you could do worse. Sadly there's nothing here that is that memorable or that will lift it out of that vast middle ground of straight-to-DVD horror flicks.

The makers had a great concept, but sadly failed to really go anywhere with it. It could have been a cool, sick horror movie, but the truly disturbing part of the story (which is also what the movie is advertised for) completely stays in the background.

We hardly get to know or see anything about the killer and his work and thus are left with many unanswered questions, most importantly: his entire background story is hardly worked out. But also, for a character this sadistic he chooses a very unimaginative way of actually killing his victims.

The side story about Lily being haunted is completely superfluous and adds nothing to the movie, but it takes a lot of time and attention away from what should have been the actual storyline. To top it off, the movie derails even more in the end with an utterly inept cop and other ridiculous twists that the writers clearly needed to bring the movie to its end.

Had they focused on what this movie should have been about - a psychopath serial killer turning his victims into marionettes - it could have been great, but in stead we got a fairly bland ghost movie with a twist. It sucks that this concept is now ruined for future movies, because there was great potential there. But Cassadaga failed to deliver in all aspects.

Every once in a while, a low key movie comes along and makes you realise that there are writers and directors out there who enjoy making films, and more importantly, make them right.

Cassadaga is one of those.

Anthony DiBlasi works his magic over Bruce Wood's excellent story,. much in the same vein as Dread, but here, he manages to keep the suspense going right until the end. It's easy in this genre, to fall into the trap of letting the horror and gore overtake a great story, and in Cassadaga, the temptation to branch off to this must have be huge, however DiBlasi sticks to his guns, and directs us through the prickly path of the story mixing romance, horror, tension and chills in equal amounts to leave the viewer completely satisfied.

The casting of Kelen Coleman is a perfect - it's not often you watch a movie and instantly click with the lead actors, but Kelen's personality shines through from the start and the empathy immediately connects viewer and actor.

I don't like reviewing movies and putting spoilers in, and I'm not about to start now, suffice to say, that the suspense is carried through the entire film, and done brilliantly, and whilst the ending may not be as big a surprise as you may expect, it's delivered perfectly, closing off a superb chiller.

If you come across this little gem, don't pass it by, as you'll be missing out on an excellent film - grab it with both hands, sit back and let yourself go - you won't be disappointed.

7/10

CASSADAGA is a movie that tries to have it all but ends up coming away with nothing. It starts out as a traditional ghost story with a deaf girl losing her little sister in a car accident and afterwards finding herself haunted by the spirit of a disturbed spirit. About halfway through it veers off into needless torture porn territory and becomes much, much worse.

CASSADAGA has a good sense of creeping dread going for it but that's about all it does have. It lets the lead character be defined by her disability because without that she'd be a totally forgettable and uninteresting person. It doesn't help that the supporting cast are entirely bland in themselves and will quickly disappear from memory once off the screen.

The ghostly elements of the film, although predictable, are better handled than the shoddy torture scenes of the most routine serial killer imaginable going about his business trying to make life-life puppets from dead people. It's needlessly unpleasant, and helps sink the whole project. The expected chase scenes between killer and 'final girl' are as routinely staged as possible and the whole film has a familiar Hollywood vibe to it despite it being an independent production.

"Dread", Anthony DiBlasi's first movie is among my favorites, so I was quite thrilled seeing his second movie being ready. I was a little bummed when seeing it basically is a restless ghost story but hats of to the writing. They really made this word by incorporating several Slasher and Giallo influences (pretty obvious from the Italian influenced poster artwork) and writing a stone solid script.

"Cassadaga" deals with a deaf girl who loses her beloved little sister in a car crash and heads of for an off-time in a psychic community (the title-giving Cassadaga) to clear her head. After a séance gone wrong she is haunted by visions of a ghost-zombie-girl who won't leave her alone before she clears the story of her death. So up to here this is some really worn out story material but the girls deafness is incorporated in a pretty creative way and the lead character works perfect. Also the story of the nice guy falling for he after she gives his daughter painting lessons is kind of different with him being torn between a girl seeing ghosts and having regular breakdowns and fighting to keep custody for his daughter. Now when the killer is introduced it gets pretty messy since "Gepetto" is obsessed with puppets and tries to build human marionettes by severing limbs and reattaching them to the living dolls in a pretty bizarre way.

The movie manages to serve you some disturbing imagery, staying close to the basic ghost story and yet throwing you curve balls from the beginning on and mixing things up in a puzzling thriller-type of way that keeps you guessing all the time. With all that "Cassadaga" manages to be a creative and kind of different ghost movie that will also satisfy the gore hounds. The whole movie has a pretty romantic feel with the girls relationships to her sister and the nice guy and I think they went a little heavy on the music which along with some wooden acting was the weakest point in the movie and often came across rather cheesy. But besides these flaws its still a really solid movie and among the few better horror movies of last year.

Like in "Dread" DiBlasi manages to tell interesting and different stories with a strong focus on the story telling and right amount of sledgehammer to the head. I'll definitely be looking out for his future movies.

My kingdom for a half decent horror film! Thinking that I'd cleanse my mind of the initially promising but ultimately abysmal Lovely Molly, I immediately skipped to this one... Only to find it was just the same! A young lad cuts his pecker off in the introduction because he wants to be a girl, and the deaf woman's sister gets herself mown down on the road, and the stage is all set for no-hards-barred gore fun... But NNOOO!!

Instead we have to tolerate the cutesy-poo relationship between the hearing impaired lady, one of her sickly-sweet pupils and this schoolgirl's seemingly perfect father, who might as well have Generic Love Interest tattooed on the back of his head. Oh, and his break off of their relationship two-thirds of the way through and his reasons for doing it are utterly nonsensical. Couldn't they pay him enough to stay for the entire film? Same with the uniquely voiced Louise Fletcher, who disappears without a trace too with no explanation. You think we should form a search party?

Aside from that, we get sub-standard Sixth Sense style scares, a LOT of running about with no clear motive in mind, and of course the main draw... Girls being abducted and turned into human mannequins. It sounds like fun, and it is... But after a few short interludes of this, its back to the mind numbingly tedious main story, with the hopelessly convoluted antics and CRINGE CRINGE CRINGE dialogue. In fact, it got so painful at times, I wished I was as mutton as the heroine. And if you don't know what I mean, learn to speak Cockney. You Philistine.

I watched this today expecting very little. Recent horror efforts have not been much fun but I thought I would try this. I was actually happily entertained all the way through. The film has managed to avoid being corny which would have been a danger with a plot like this and it had its creepy moments. It was a little disturbing in some areas also without being too gratuitous. All in all an entertaining film delivering pretty much what I wanted. Horror based entertainment avoiding corn, endless running away and tripping over for no apparent reason and a mindless screaming heroine. All the acting was pretty good and the lady playing Lily acted well throughout. She is a very pretty girl and easy on the eyes but fortunately, can act with it unlike many similar horrors. Well worth seeing.

Believe it or not I had no idea who this beautiful actress was before this show. It does help that I don't watch TV shows or comedies. To be blunt I think she might be the most beautiful girl I have ever seen and her acting is fantastic. Now to the story which was very good but predicable to say the least. This film does have a twist or two up its sleeve so don't think it is totally transparent. It's sort of a possession film meets a torture porn film meets a ghost story. All aspects were enjoyable but it just couldn't get to the next level with me probably due to my distraction with the pulchritude of the lead starlet.

I thought this movie had a plot that had some potential. A deaf girl tries to figure out the identity of a serial killer who turns girls into marionette dolls.

This is low budget. Everything has some level of issue. Not all the acting is great. Not everything about the story flowed smoothly. The effects aren't top notch. Even with the issues, I kinda liked parts of it.

I think that if you are going to watch low budget you have to lower your expectations. I think that for being low budget this is a fairly decent film. It needs work but it isn't awful. This is really going to have to be judged on your personal tolerance for low budget. I've seen worse so I'm giving it 5 stars.

There appears to be an attempt to make a coherent film by the filmmakers, but they misses it by a long shot. The production values for this independent film are the best part of it. Some of the acting is good. It's the story and then the subsequent direction that leads this film astray.

The attempt is to concoct some kind of horror/mystery/ghost story. The attempt would have been best to focus on one and not go scatter shot at them all. For in the end, it all just doesn't make sense. The writer could've plucked the horror part out and still had a good , if not standard, story. Or maybe just focus on the horror. I think the producers were looking to be clever in some way by combining it all. It just doesn't work. There are way too many "Why is this happening?" throughout.

There is also the now gratuitous drug smoking scene. No one else smokes cigarettes throughout the film. But drugs are OK. Sheesh! I get it, film makers - You want legalization. Maybe if you weren't so concerned about the politics and more about the story, the whole thing would have worked better.

The worse part of the film is the main actress who is supposed to be deaf. Then what's with the Valley Girl lingo? There are several goofs throughout the film where suddenly she hears. I get the feeling, the film makers didn't take the time to learn about how people who are actually deaf make their way in the world. Frankly, that could've been left out of the film and also helped with the story telling.

This is more observation: I also wish they had made more use of Cassadaga as a backdrop. There is limited use of the area throughout the film while it has so much charm and historically interesting structures. Spelling more out about the history would've also helped in storytelling. Then fleshing out more of the area's people and what they do. Otherwise, this could have just as well been shot in Micanopy or Arcadia which have their own ghost stories and spiritualists.

"Cassadaga" is a supernatural thriller that has a lot going for it, but also had loads of missed opportunities.

Kelen Coleman stars as Lily, a young deaf woman art teacher. Kelen is the best part of the film -- attractive and charming, she is instantly likable and easy to root for, which is important in a film like this. Early on, she suffers a horrible tragedy, the loss of her younger sister, and she moves on to take a fellowship at a college in the title town.

It's there that the film makes it first misstep. After setting Lily's situation up, the film has her immediately jump into bed with the first guy she meets. And, of course, he is a doting single father, heroic paramedic, and former sports star -- the Triple Crown of Douchery. The setup parts of the film are dragged down by this unpleasant "romance" and the film only really starts to take off when he exits the scene.

During an early date, Lily goes to a psychic to speak with her dead sister but ends up calling an apparently malevolent ghost. She also starts to see and hear things and general act a little crazy to those around her. Eventually, she starts to tie the spirit to the girl who lived in her room previously who went missing years ago, and also to a shadowy killer who likes to make human marionettes...

As I said, "Cassadaga" has a lot going for it. Kelen is charming and easily carries the film. There are some creepy parts, and the killer's actions are suitable horrific (although "Criminal Minds" had a similar killer who was waaay creepier). But lots of missed chances, too. As I mentioned, the "romance" hurts the film. Lily's deafness is occasionally used to good effect (the audio goes silent), but other times it's almost ignored -- she can flawless read lips, sometimes characters aren't look at her, etc. Also, the killer appears to be an expert ventriloquist (although that's not explored) and Lily would be immune to that. And no matter what happens to Lily, nobody thinks to bring her to, you know, a doctor or hospital. And finally, the killer's identity is easily deduced using Roger Ebert's "Law of Economy of Characters."

Even with it's problems, though, "Cassadaga" is worth checking out. Don't be afraid (or pulled in, whichever may be the case) of its poster, which promises a grisly time. The killer is a very minor part of the film.

I was prepared to love this movie. I read the reviews posted here, watched the trailer and was quite excited when I finally had a chance to view the film. As it turns out, I couldn't have been more disappointed. The film begins telling one story and clumsily transitions into something completely different. I am objective and pretty liberal when it comes to indie films. I have a healthy tolerance for a little disconnect as it relates to attempting to involve multiple elements is a decently written story. The fact of the matter with Cassadaga is it is not very well written. There are very few genuine scares and they come after irrelevant character interaction that is never explored deeply enough to matter and seems out of place. Some of the special effects in the film are outstanding,but sadly the weak storyline just doesn't support the effort.

A brutal horror that delivers on gore, whilst having a clever and interesting plot. certainly a decent choice for fans of way-out and 'Out-There' type movies. Well worth seeking out if are in need to watch something different, or need a good shocking! The title is great to.

This movie may have been planned as a horror movie but it didn't came out as one. The supernatural theme was obviously meant as the ingredient holding the flick together, but it felt like someone got embarrassed of this and started experimenting by patching different plots and actions together - none of them is carried through to the end. I felt like listening to someone embroidering a vaguely interesting story with unnecessary detail: the movie is frequently wandering off by showing actions and telling story lines with no importance or meaning for the main plot. It is using the stylistic inconsistency as a device, but in my opinion this is not well enough executed. It left me slightly annoyed.. especially when I felt forced to witness some interactions between the main character and a young divorcée dragging along, which then break off whimsily like they couldn't find the space to end properly what they started. I found the frequent depiction of the main actress in revealing clothing ridiculous and therefore looked for a hint of self-irony but couldn't find one. I think it was really meant as: "we also could show some bum".. The movie delivers shock moments too scarcely to play the horror card even though the set-up would have left more than ample room for them! Why? It's a trial, I think. It's not bad, it's uncommon and mostly entertaining. But sadly it's not good either.. it feels unbalanced. So there is the ghost-story, some relationship drama.. at some point you may even think it's a serial killer story - but with every strand of action there is the phenomenon of negligence after introduction! the problem is that even after having finished watching the movie, I wasn't clear about its intention - it lacks a theme! The production value is good though and the result is surprisingly coherent - at least enough to keep me vaguely entertained.. Honoring the eagerness to do things differently and the technical workmanship, I give it 5 stars.

As B-horror movies go, this was actually one of the better ones. I actually really enjoyed the idea and it was surprisingly thematically quite strong. Exploring issues of control and a desire for being a puppet master, the film goes deeper than just telling us that the villain likes to make marionettes out of his victims. We actually get to know a little about his psyche and why he does this. The plot idea is original even if it is trying to ride on the idea of shock that was introduced with movies such as Saw and Hostel. I would not put this on the top of my list of good entertainment, but it was worth the time watching it. The execution of the film is standard. Though it won't win any awards in my book, it is done by the book and the thematic ideas are interesting enough to keep you seeing it though.

Another entry in the After Dark legacy and another one without shock value. The positive thing is the fact that the ghost isn't done with CGI. But again it doesn't has much blood to see and when the ghost appears it is never scary or has any jumpshots.

The acting was okay. And you quickly are involved with the characters but what annoyed me the most is the fact that the deaf person talked normal. People who are deaf can't talk like a normal person. The séance where things go wrong is maybe the strongest part. We do fall in some emotional scene's that really doesn't add a thing towards the story. But we don't have only a ghost we also have a killer. All part of the ghost that appeared before her, a woman being killed.

So in fact we have a romantic part that takes way too much time in Cassadaga, and that is suddenly stopped towards the end of the flick. We have the mystery of the ghost and a serial killer walking around in Cassadaga. And that's where this flick fails a bit. The combination of those events doesn't work.

I'll give it a six due not using CGI for the ghost and here and there some low gore shots.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5