Shadow People (film)

Last updated
Shadow People
Shadow People DVD poster.jpg
DVD poster
Directed by Matthew Arnold
Written byMatthew Arnold
Story byMatthew Arnold
Travis Rooks
Produced by Michael Ohoven
Starring Dallas Roberts
Alison Eastwood
Anne Dudek
Mattie Liptak
CinematographyMatthew Heckerling
Edited byMartin Hunter
Todd Killingsworth
Herbert James Winterstern
Music byCorey Wallace
Production
companies
Infinity Media
Upload Films
Distributed by Anchor Bay Films
Release date
  • March 19, 2013 (2013-03-19)(USA)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Shadow People (previously known as The Door) is a 2013 American supernatural horror thriller film written and directed by Matthew Arnold in his feature directorial debut. It stars Dallas Roberts, Alison Eastwood, Anne Dudek, and Mattie Liptak.

Contents

Plot

The film begins with a series of videos posted to YouTube, with users of the website relating their experiences with unexplained sightings. Later, radio talk show host Charlie Crowe (Dallas Roberts) becomes convinced that mysterious nocturnal entities known as shadow people are responsible for a spate of deaths in his hometown. He is joined by CDC investigator Sophie Lacombe (Alison Eastwood), who seeks a more rational explanation.

Cast

Production

Shadow People was filmed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Phnom Penh, Cambodia.[ citation needed ]

The film mixes dramatic scenes with both real and simulated archival footage. The simulated footage includes interviews with the characters from the dramatic scenes, while the actual footage incorporates segments from the 2008 web documentary Your Worst Nightmare. [1]

The movie is dedicated to victims of Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome (SUNDS).

Release

The film made its Marché du Film premiere during the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. [2] It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 19, 2013. [3]

Reception

Matt Molgaard of Best Horror Movies wrote, "This is a stirring flick, and in truth, I’d be holding back if I called Shadow People anything other than an outstanding success that far exceeded expectations ... Shadow People has already established itself as one of 2013’s most inspired efforts." [4] David Maine of PopMatters wrote, "Shadow People is a spooky little movie that could have been much spookier, but still makes good use of its limited means to convey an unsettling story." [5] Ain't It Cool News declared that "it made me think twice about turning on the light as I went to bed. Any film that does that is a winner in my book." [6] Brad McHargue of Dread Central rated the film 1.5 out of 5 stars and called the film "novel and ambitious" but too messy to fulfill the potential of the premise. [7] Pat Torfe of Bloody Disgusting rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, writing that Shadow People lacks balance and "doesn't know what it is." [8] Thomas Marcum of The Crypto Crew said "the movie is well done all the way around and well worth watching". [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Raimi</span> American filmmaker (born 1959)

Samuel M. Raimi is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for directing the first three films in the Evil Dead franchise (1981–present) and the Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007). He also directed the superhero movie Darkman (1990), the revisionist western The Quick and the Dead (1995), the neo-noir crime thriller A Simple Plan (1998), the supernatural thriller The Gift (2000), the supernatural horror Drag Me to Hell (2009), the Disney fantasy Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), and the Marvel Studios film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).

A snuff film, snuff movie or snuff video is a type of film, often explicit, that shows, or purports to show, scenes of actual homicide. The victims are supposedly typically lured to their murders by false pretenses and their murder is filmed and then produced for the goal of a profit or financial gain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clint Eastwood</span> American actor and director (born 1930)

Clinton Eastwood Jr. is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series Rawhide, Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of spaghetti Westerns during the mid-1960s and as antihero cop Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. Elected in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alison Eastwood</span> American film director and actress

Alison Eastwood is an American film director and actress.

<i>Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2</i> 2000 American film

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 is a 2000 American horror film directed and co-written by Joe Berlinger and starring Jeffrey Donovan, Stephen Barker Turner, Kim Director, Erica Leerhsen, and Tristine Skyler. Its plot revolves around a group of people fascinated by the mythology surrounding the film The Blair Witch Project; they go into the Black Hills where the original film was shot and experience supernatural phenomena and psychological unraveling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dina Eastwood</span> American news anchor

Dina Marie Fisher, known professionally as Dina Eastwood, is an American reporter, news anchor, and actress. She is the former wife of actor and film director Clint Eastwood.

<i>Vampire in Brooklyn</i> 1995 film directed by Wes Craven

Vampire in Brooklyn is a 1995 American vampire comedy horror film directed by Wes Craven. It stars Eddie Murphy, who produced and wrote with his brothers Vernon Lynch and Charles Q. Murphy. The film co-stars Angela Bassett, Allen Payne, Kadeem Hardison, John Witherspoon, Zakes Mokae, and Joanna Cassidy. Murphy also plays an alcoholic preacher, Pauly, and a foul-mouthed Italian-American mobster, Guido, respectively.

In Arkansas folklore, the Fouke Monster, also known as the Boggy Creek Monster and the Swamp Stalker, is purported to be an ape-like creature, similar to descriptions of Bigfoot, that was allegedly sighted in the rural town of Fouke, Arkansas during the early 1970s. The creature was alleged to have attacked a local family. It has since become a part of Arkansas folklore. It has also influenced local culture in Fouke, with some businesses capitalizing on the local lore. Stories of the creature influenced the 1972 docudrama horror film The Legend of Boggy Creek, which became the 11th highest-grossing film of 1972 and is today considered to be a cult classic.

<i>Unrest</i> (2006 film) 2006 American film

Unrest is an independent horror film directed by Jason Todd Ipson and starring Corri English, Scot Davis, Joshua Alba, Jay Jablonski, Marisa Petroro and Derrick O'Connor. It was shown at the horror film festival 8 Films To Die For during the 2006 fall season.

Six Flags Mall was a shopping mall that opened in August 1970 in Arlington, Texas. Arlington's first enclosed shopping center, it was named after the nearby Six Flags Over Texas theme park. When it opened, it was the largest shopping center in Tarrant County and the area's first regional shopping facility. A new owner acquired roughly one-third of the mall in December 2012 and announced plans to redevelop it as a Hispanic-oriented shopping mall called "Plaza Central" and, after resolving legal issues, reopened in October 2014, but closed again in February 2016. Demolition began in summer of 2016, but was slowed by a lawsuit filed by Cinemark. Two separate two-alarm fires occurred on February 6 and March 2 during demolition. The site was rebuilt as industrial space to accommodate suppliers to the GM auto assembly plant.

<i>The Blair Witch Project</i> 1999 horror film by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez

The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. It is a fictional story of three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard—who hike into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland, in 1994 to film a documentary about a local myth known as the Blair Witch. The three disappear, but their equipment and footage are discovered a year later. The purportedly "found footage" is the movie the viewer sees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Eastwood</span> American actor (born 1986)

Scott Eastwood is an American actor. The son of actor and filmmaker Clint Eastwood, he has starred in several of his father's films, including Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Gran Torino (2008), Invictus (2009), and Trouble with the Curve (2012), as well as Texas Chainsaw (2013), Fury (2014), The Longest Ride (2015), Suicide Squad (2016), Snowden (2016), The Fate of the Furious (2017), Pacific Rim Uprising (2018), The Outpost (2020), Wrath of Man (2021) and Fast X (2023).

<i>Re-Kill</i> 2015 American film

Re-Kill is 2015 American horror film directed by Valeri Milev and written by Michael Hurst. It stars Scott Adkins, Bruce Payne, and Daniella Alonso as members of paramilitary group tasked with hunting down and destroying zombies after an outbreak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesca Eastwood</span> American television personality

Francesca Ruth Fisher-Eastwood is an American actress, socialite, and television personality. She garnered attention starring with her family on the E! reality series Mrs. Eastwood & Company (2012). She is best known for her roles in films such as Jersey Boys (2014), Final Girl (2015), Outlaws and Angels (2016), M.F.A., The Vault, and Old (2021). Eastwood also made several guest appearances on television shows such as Heroes Reborn (2015), Fargo, and Twin Peaks: The Return.

<i>Jug Face</i> 2013 American film

Jug Face is a 2013 American horror film written and directed by Chad Crawford Kinkle and starring Sean Bridgers, Lauren Ashley Carter, Larry Fessenden, Sean Young and Daniel Manche. The story follows a teen (Carter), who is pregnant with her brother's child and tries to escape from a backwoods community, only to discover that she must sacrifice herself to a creature in a pit.

Entrance is a 2011 American independent film that mixes elements of mumblecore, psychological thrillers, and horror films. It was directed by Dallas Hallam and Patrick Horvath and was written by Hallam, Horvath, Karen Gorham, and Michelle Margolis. Suziey Block stars as a barista who lives a repetitive and anxious life in Los Angeles. When her beloved dog disappears, she decides to give up and move back home, but first she invites all her friends to a going-away party.

<i>Septic Man</i> 2013 Canadian film

Septic Man is a 2013 horror film that was directed by Jesse Thomas Cook. The film had its world premiere at the Austin Fantastic Fest on September 19, 2013, where actor Jason David Brown won "Best Actor" in the Horror Features category. In the film Brown stars as a sewage worker who ends up transforming into a hideous mutant by way of toxic sewage.

<i>Ejecta</i> (film) 2014 Canadian film

Ejecta is a 2014 Canadian science fiction horror film directed by Chad Archibald and Matt Wiele. The film's script was written by Tony Burgess and stars Julian Richings as a man that has experienced an extraterrestrial encounter. Ejecta had its world premiere on August 3, 2014 at Fantasia Festival and Canadian film rights were purchased by Anchor Bay Canada.

<i>Dead Rising: Watchtower</i> 2015 American action zombie film by Zach Lipovsky

Dead Rising: Watchtower is a 2015 American action zombie film directed by Zach Lipovsky, produced by Tomas Harlan and Tim Carter, and written by Tim Carter. The film stars Jesse Metcalfe, Dennis Haysbert, Virginia Madsen, Meghan Ory, Keegan Connor Tracy, and Rob Riggle. It is based on the video game of the same name. Principal photography began on September 30, 2014, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Legendary Pictures produced the picture as its first digital film through its Legendary Digital Media division and it was released on Crackle on March 27, 2015.

<i>Be My Cat: A Film for Anne</i> 2015 English-language Romanian found footage horror feature film directed by Adrian Țofei

Be My Cat: A Film for Anne is a 2015 Romanian found footage psychological horror feature film directed, produced, written by, and starring Adrian Țofei, about an aspiring filmmaker who goes to extremes to convince actress Anne Hathaway to star in his film. It is the first entry in Adrian Țofei's planned indie trilogy which includes We Put the World to Sleep and Pure. It is also Adrian Țofei's first film and Romania's first found footage horror movie.

References

  1. Sedensky, Ian (March 13, 2013). "Shadow People (2012)". Culture Crypt. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
  2. Kemp, Stuart (May 25, 2012). "Cannes 2012: 'Shadow People' Picked Up by Anchor Bay for North America, the U.K, New Zealand". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved May 3, 2020.
  3. Turek, Ryan (January 22, 2013). "Anchor Bay Sets Release Date for Shadow People Starring Walking Dead's Dallas Roberts". ComingSoon.net . Retrieved May 3, 2020.
  4. Molgaard, Matt (March 27, 2013). "'Shadow People 2013 Review'". Best Horror Movies . Retrieved November 30, 2013.
  5. Maine, David (March 19, 2013). "'Shadow People', a Low Budget Creeper, Is Low on Effects, High on Atmospherics". PopMatters . Retrieved November 30, 2013.
  6. Miller, Mark (March 19, 2013). "'AICN HORROR talks about Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome with director of Shadow People, Matthew Arnold! Plus a review of the film!'". Ain't It Cool News .
  7. McHargue, Brad (March 17, 2013). "Shadow People (Blu-ray / DVD)". Dread Central . Retrieved December 1, 2013.
  8. Torfe, Pat (March 24, 2013). "[BD Review] 'Shadow People' Flickers Between Creepy and Confusing". Bloody Disgusting . Retrieved December 1, 2013.
  9. Marcum, Thomas (March 14, 2013). "'Shadow People Movie Review'". Crypto Crew .