User Reviews

I am an unashamed connoisseur of paranormal investigation films. When I saw this title it piqued my interest not only for the subject matter but because I am familiar with the location and its reputation. What I saw instead was something that can only be called a dramatic waste of film.

Let's start with the "team", whose credentials, character and intelligence looked more like it suited a group of beer drinking idiots on the Boardwalk than a group of serious investigators. I have rarely witnessed such a breathtakingly stupid and incoherent bunch. The lead idiot couldn't manage a half cogent description of the prison outdoor area, with gallows and surrounded of course by a high wall. He and his hand held camera run down gave us gems like "as you can see there is no way out" (imagine that - it's a prison) or "this is where hundreds, or probably....hundreds...of people died". Math skills. He led a group including ball-cap and sports jersey adorned co-morons, an angry lesbian and a bar fly in the making who couldn't manage to even express why she was involved. What ensued was 60 minutes of lolling aimlessly around, making rambling and unimportant comments, pointing continually to the jumping needle of an EMF detector with zero context or investigative reasoning, and other empty quasi-scientific monkeyshines.

An hour later, save for one interesting EVP, they had a whole lot of nothing to show for their sad efforts. These clueless apes spent the entire last ten minutes on a "discussion" amongst themselves about a piece of dust they caught floating around in front of their camera, as if lead guy had just discovered proof positive of life after death.

Save your time and aggravation. If I do come back as a ghost, I will haunt these dumbasses for eternity for their brass balled temerity in making such a cinema turd in the first place.

Minus ten stars.

While I agree with irminsulharp review, I'll be a little more constructive. The idea and location for the "film" was a great one, but like most wannabe filmmakers, a lot of important (critical) elements were left on the planning room floor. More than once, the crew tried to make sure their cell phones weren't causing the EMF detector to go off. (see below)

FIRST... you shouldn't ever have cell phones on set. EVER! It disrupts audio, even if put in silent mode. Second.. No regard was given to audio/sound period. Every new filmmaker I've ever met wants the best shots, but as far as sound, they bleat "we'll fix it in post." You can't fix what you haven't recorded properly. Using a Zoom recorder or an onboard camera mic nets you audio that this film produced. All of the dialog sounds like it was recorded with two tin cans and a piece of string. Three.. you don't have to buy or rent costly steadicams. You can make really good, practical steadicams with materials bought from a hardware store (usually under $200.) Sometimes shaky cam shots reveal a tense moment... most often they reveal the operator not having the first clue how to get a shot worth using, and unfortunately what we saw here.

I'd shoot this again... "The return to Burlington Prison" but find some crew who know what they're doing. Most film school students would love the opportunity to jump on these projects for the experience and food.