Banshee Chapter

Last updated
Banshee Chapter
BansheeChapterFilmPoster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBlair Erickson
Screenplay byBlair Erickson
Story byDaniel J. Healy
Based on"From Beyond"
by H. P. Lovecraft
Produced by Zachary Quinto
Starring Ted Levine
Katia Winter
Michael McMillian
CinematographyJeremy Obertone
Edited byJacques Gravett
Music byAndreas Weidinger [1] [2]
Production
companies
Sunchaser Entertainment
Before the Door Pictures
Favorit Film
Distributed by XLrator Media [3]
Release dates
  • August 22, 2013 (2013-08-22)(Fantasy Filmfest)
  • December 12, 2013 (2013-12-12)(United States)
Running time
87 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Banshee Chapter (sometimes referred to as The Banshee Chapter) is a 2013 American horror film and the directorial debut of Blair Erickson. [4] [5] The film had its first screening at the Fantasy Filmfest on August 22, 2013, and released on video on demand on December 12 of the same year. [6] Banshee Chapter stars Katia Winter as a journalist who is trying to discover what happened to a missing friend. The film is loosely based on the H. P. Lovecraft short story "From Beyond". [7]

Contents

Plot

James Hirsch, a young man, is investigating the government experiment Project MKUltra. With a friend filming him, James takes the drug used in the experiments, dimethyltryptamine-19 (DMT-19). Bizarre music and voices broadcast from a nearby radio. A shadowy figure comes and leaves James with all-black eyes and a disfigured face.

Anne, a reporter who attended college with James, is concerned over his disappearance. James's friend also mysteriously disappeared a few days after he was questioned by the police. Anne investigates James's house and discovers a betamax cassette that contains footage of the MKUltra experiments as well as a book of notes about the project. Anne goes to a local expert and discovers that the bizarre radio broadcast heard by James is a phantom radio station which can only be tuned into in the desert, at a certain time of night. Anne drives out into the desert after dark and picks up the broadcast, but flees when a monstrous form appears from the darkness.

Anne discovers that a mention of "Friends in Colorado" in James's notes is related to counter-culture writer Thomas Blackburn, who is known for his drug use and unpredictable behavior. She contacts him by phone and is angrily rebuffed when she mentions Project MKUltra. Anne travels to Blackburn's home and lies to gain his confidence. Thomas sees through her ruse and tricks her into taking DMT-19 that his friend Callie made. Anne is angry at the deception, and Callie begins exhibiting the same behaviors and disfigurement that James did. Anne hears the bizarre music played by the phantom station, goes to investigate, and is attacked by a strange entity. Anne and Thomas awaken to find Callie missing. They head to Callie's house to find out more about the DMT-19. Anne is nearly captured by Callie, who is now controlled by the entity. She and Thomas realize that DMT-19 works as a "radio antenna" that allows otherworldly entities to broadcast signals to people on the drug as well as take over their bodies. The government never came up with DMT-19 but instead received instructions from the otherworldly entities and made the drug without realizing the full implication of their actions. In addition to the base chemical compound, scientists were adding harvested material from the pineal gland of a female corpse, dubbed the "Primary Source", who returned to life during an experiment and attacked one of the doctors.

Anne realizes the signal is likely coming from the laboratory that performed the Project MKUltra experiments. Thomas reveals that he lied about giving her DMT-19. Realizing that the entity will pursue her regardless, Anne resolves to end the broadcast. She and Thomas travel into the desert and discover the laboratory in an abandoned fallout shelter, taking a can of gasoline to burn whatever they find. Inside, they discover a room full of radio equipment and a large tank. A pale figure with black eyes resides within a small porthole built into the side (implied to be the "Primary Source"). The radio equipment comes to life and broadcasts the numbers station.

Anne hunts for the gasoline can, avoiding a grotesque figure who chases her. Thomas begins to bleed from the eyes and convulse. Apologizing to Anne, he shoots himself in the head. In a frenzy, Anne smashes open the porthole in the tank, pours the gasoline inside, and throws a lighter scavenged from Thomas' corpse. The resulting explosion knocks Anne unconscious. When she comes to, she finds the clothing worn by James before his disappearance lying outside in the hallway, implying that the creature chasing her was "wearing" James.

Anne is taken into police custody and one of her co-workers visits. She and Anne discuss the tape that Anne discovered. Part of the tape was erased, but was retrieved by a video forensics company. Anne cannot understand why James's friend disappeared, as he never took the drug. She hears the phantom broadcast issuing from the intercom and realizes that the effects of the drug can be passed along by human touch, as she still saw the creatures despite never having taken the drug. She turns to discover that her co-worker (whose hand she held moments before) has been taken over by the entities. Recovered footage on the tape reveals that a college-age Thomas Blackburn was a test subject in Project MKUltra.

Cast

Production

While creating Banshee Chapter, writer/director Blair Erickson was inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's short story "From Beyond", as well as the history of hallucinogenic drug experiments performed by the United States Government. [8] Ted Levine was one of the first people cast for the movie, but casting the lead of Anne was more difficult and Erickson said he auditioned "several hundred" women before deciding on Katia Winter. [8] Erickson also experienced difficulty with the film's limited budget and filming timeline, as they only had 28 days to film Banshee Chapter. [8] As a result, some characters were eliminated from the beginning of the script in order to fit the limited shooting schedule. [8]

Reception

Critical reception for Banshee Chapter was mostly positive and the film holds a rating of 77% on Rotten Tomatoes based upon 22 reviews. [9] However, the it only rated 5.4 stars out of 10 on IMDb upon 11k reviews. [10] Common praise for the film centered around Winter and Levine's performances, [11] with both Screen Daily and Fearnet marking the performances as a highlight. [12] [13]

Related Research Articles

<i>N</i>,<i>N</i>-Dimethyltryptamine Chemical compound

N,N-Dimethyltryptamine is a substituted tryptamine that occurs in many plants and animals, including humans, and which is both a derivative and a structural analog of tryptamine. DMT is used as a psychedelic drug and prepared by various cultures for ritual purposes as an entheogen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MKUltra</span> CIA program involving illegal experimentation on human test subjects (1953–1973)

Project MKUltra was a human experimentation program designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to develop procedures and identify drugs that could be used during interrogations to weaken individuals and force confessions through brainwashing and psychological torture. The term MKUltra is a CIA cryptonym: "MK" is an arbitrary prefix standing for the Office of Technical Service and "Ultra" is an arbitrary word out of a dictionary to denominate this project. The program has been widely condemned as a violation of individual rights and an example of the CIA’s abuse of power, with critics highlighting its disregard for consent and its corrosive impact on democratic principles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda Blair</span> American actress and animal rights activist (born 1959)

Linda Denise Blair is an American actress and activist. Her portrayal of Regan MacNeil in the horror film The Exorcist (1973) established her in popular culture and as a scream queen, earning her a Golden Globe Award, as well as an Academy Award nomination. She reprised the role in two sequels: Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and The Exorcist: Believer (2023).

<i>Born Innocent</i> (film) 1974 American television movie directed by Donald Wrye

Born Innocent is a 1974 American made-for-television drama film which was first aired under the NBC World Premiere Movie umbrella on September 10, 1974. Highly publicized and controversial, Born Innocent was the highest-rated television movie to air in the United States in 1974. The movie deals with the physical, psychological and sexual abuse of a teenage girl, and included graphic content never before seen on American television.

Fearless is a series of teen novels written by American author Francine Pascal, creator of the Sweet Valley High franchise. The first book in the series, Fearless, was published in 1999 through Simon Pulse and concluded in 2004 with the 36th entry, Gone. A spinoff series, Fearless FBI was launched in 2005. The first book in the primary series, Fearless, was named one of YALSA's "Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers" for 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Callie Khouri</span> American screenwriter, producer and director

Carolyn Ann "Callie" Khouri is an American film and television screenwriter, producer, and director. She is best known for writing Thelma & Louise, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Thelma & Louise has since grown to be considered a classic, and was inducted into the Library of Congress National Film Registry in December 2016.

<i>The Devil Commands</i> 1941 film

The Devil Commands is a 1941 American horror film directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Boris Karloff, Amanda Duff and Richard Fiske. The working title of the film was The Devil Said No. In it, a man obsessed with contacting his dead wife falls in with a sinister phony medium. The Devil Commands is one of the many films from the 1930s and 1940s in which Karloff was cast as a mad scientist with a good heart. It was one of the last in line of the low-budget horror films that were produced before Universal Studios' The Wolf Man. The story was adapted from the novel The Edge of Running Water by William Sloane.

Katia Winter is a Swedish actress. She is best known for her roles as Nadia in the Showtime series Dexter (2012), Katrina Crane in the Fox series Sleepy Hollow (2013–15), Freydís Eiríksdóttir in The CW series Legends of Tomorrow (2017–18), and Gwen Karlsson in the CBS/Paramount+ series Blood & Treasure (2019–2023). She also appeared in the satirical superhero series The Boys on Amazon Prime Video as the Russian Mob boss Little Nina (2019–present).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unethical human experimentation in the United States</span> Experiments that were performed on humans in the US that are deemed unethical

Numerous experiments which were performed on human test subjects in the United States in the past are now considered to have been unethical, because they were performed without the knowledge or informed consent of the test subjects. Such tests have been performed throughout American history, but have become significantly less frequent with the advent and adoption of various safeguarding efforts. Despite these safeguards, unethical experimentation involving human subjects is still occasionally uncovered.

<i>Absentia</i> (film) 2011 film by Mike Flanagan

Absentia is a 2011 American independent supernatural horror film written, edited and directed by Mike Flanagan in his directional feature film debut, and produced by FallBack Plan Productions. The film's principal photography phase was funded by way of the film's project page on crowdfunding website Kickstarter. Courtney Bell stars as a pregnant woman whose missing husband briefly reappears after an unexplained seven-year absence.

"Wallflower" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of the Fox science-fiction drama television series Fringe, and the series' 72nd episode overall. "Wallflower" served as the show's mid-season finale, as it was the last to air in 2011; the next installment was broadcast on January 13, 2012.

<i>Europa Report</i> 2013 US science fiction film directed by Sebastián Cordero

Europa Report is a 2013 American science fiction film directed by Sebastián Cordero and written by Philip Gelatt. It stars Christian Camargo, Anamaria Marinca, Michael Nyqvist, Daniel Wu, Karolina Wydra, and Sharlto Copley. A found footage film, it recounts the fictional story of the first crewed mission to Europa, one of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. Despite a disastrous technical failure that causes the loss of all communications with Earth, and a series of further crises, the crew continues its mission to Europa and finds mounting evidence of life on the moon.

<i>Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader</i> 2012 American film

Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader is a 2012 American 3D science fiction comedy horror film directed by Kevin O'Neill and produced by Roger Corman as his first 3D production. The film stars Treat Williams, Sean Young, Olivia Alexander and Jena Sims. The film was released on August 25, 2012, on Epix.

<i>Little Deaths</i> (film) 2011 British film

Little Deaths is a 2011 British anthology horror film written and directed by Sean Hogan, Andrew Parkinson, and Simon Rumley. The film has three segments: House & Home, Mutant Tool, and Bitch. Each segment is directed by a different author and are unrelated to one another in any way other than sharing a theme of sex and death. Critical reviews for Little Deaths were polarized and the United Kingdom DVD release had to have some portions removed due to their sexually violent content.

<i>Devils Pass</i> 2013 found footage horror film directed by Renny Harlin

Devil's Pass is a 2013 horror film directed by Renny Harlin, written by Vikram Weet, and starring Holly Goss, Matt Stokoe, Luke Albright, Ryan Hawley, and Gemma Atkinson as Americans who investigate the Dyatlov Pass incident. It is shot in the style of found footage.

Lili Marie Simmons is an American actress and model known for her role as Rebecca Bowman in the Cinemax series Banshee (2013–2016).

<i>Cow Country</i> 1953 film by Lesley Selander

Cow Country is a 1953 American Western film directed by Lesley Selander and written by Adele Buffington and Thomas W. Blackburn. The film stars Edmond O'Brien, Helen Westcott, Robert Lowery, Barton MacLane, Peggie Castle, Robert Barrat and James Millican. The film was released on April 26, 1953, by Allied Artists Pictures.

"Pilot" is the pilot episode and series premiere of the post-apocalyptic horror television series Fear the Walking Dead, which aired on AMC on August 23, 2015 in the United States. The series is a companion series and prequel to The Walking Dead, which is based on the comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard.

<i>Blair Witch</i> (film) 2016 film by Adam Wingard

Blair Witch is a 2016 Found footage supernatural horror film directed by Adam Wingard and written by Simon Barrett. It is the third film in the Blair Witch series and a direct sequel to the 1999 film The Blair Witch Project. It ignores the events of its 2000 non Found footage follow-up Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, whose events comprise a film within a film. It stars James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Brandon Scott, Corbin Reid, Valorie Curry and Wes Robinson. The film follows a group of college students and their local guides who venture into the Black Hills Forest in Maryland to uncover the mysteries surrounding the prior disappearance of Heather Donahue, the sister of one of the characters.

References

  1. "Film Review: ‘Banshee Chapter’". Variety.
  2. "‘Banshee Chapter’ Soundtrack Released". February 2, 2014
  3. "Look Inside the Brain of 'Banshee Chapter'". Bloody Disgusting. 20 November 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  4. "Banshee Chapter sells at AFM". Screen Daily. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  5. Movie Review: Banshee Chapter | InSession Film
  6. "Banshee Chapter". Fantasy Filmfest. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  7. Linden, Shari (January 9, 2014). "Review: CIA, LSD and dread lace 'Banshee Chapter' with chills". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved November 6, 2023.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Jimenez, Christopher (December 12, 2013). "Shock Interview: The Banshee Chapter's Blair Erickson". STYD. Archived from the original on December 16, 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  9. "The Banshee Chapter". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  10. Erickson, Blair (2013-12-12), Banshee Chapter (Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi), Katia Winter, Ted Levine, Michael McMillian, Sunchaser Entertainment, Before The Door Pictures, Favorit Film, retrieved 2024-05-10
  11. "Banshee Chapter, The (2013)". Dread Central. 10 December 2013. Archived from the original on 15 December 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  12. Weinberg, Scott. "FEARnet Movie Review: 'Banshee Chapter'". Fearnet. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  13. Newman, Kim. "The Banshee Chapter (review)". Screen Daily. Retrieved 15 December 2013.