Editor’s Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on November 7, 2014, and we’re proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
There’s a pleasingly old-fashioned vibe to Jessabelle, this week’s release from the Blumhouse scream machine, that elevates it somewhat above the usual run of youth-appeal frightfests that strain to be hip.
Although it was directed by Kevin Greutert, who made his bones as an editor and then a director on the Saw franchise, Jessabelle is less in-your-face and aims for a more steady build of tension. While it suffers from storytelling hiccups, particularly in its home stretch, it has more honest chills and atmosphere than the wider-released Annabelle and Ouija combined, and that’s certainly worth something in this filmgoing season.
Jessabelle opens with its eponymous heroine (played by Sarah Snook) heading into such a bright future that you know it can’t last long. Sure enough, a very unfortunate accident lands her in a wheelchair and back in her family home in the deep woods of Louisiana, living with her often drunk ne’er-do-well father Leon (David Andrews). Her mother is long gone, having died when Jessabelle was a baby, but Mom comes back into her life via a cache of videotapes Jessabelle uncovers in the house. In a horror scene rife with handheld digital vérité, it’s kind of charming to see one in which the literal found footage is on old-fashioned, comparatively clunky VHS tapes.
Jessabelle, however, is not charmed when she sees the messages that Kate (Joelle Clark) recorded for her before she was born. Via Tarot-card readings that clearly don’t go the way Kate hoped and other eerie suggestions, it becomes clear there was and still is something haunting that house, and Jessabelle starts experiencing it first-hand. Although chairbound—an easy but effective gambit to make her more vulnerable—she embarks on an investigation to uncover the local dark secrets, over Leon’s strenuous objections and with the help of Preston (13 Sins’ Mark Webber), her former high-school sweetheart.
The relationship between these two is one of the pleasingly understated elements of Jessabelle, as the two clearly still have feelings for each other but don’t fall into an inevitable rekindling of their romance. Preston, in fact, is married and clearly struggling a bit with fidelity when Jessabelle re-enters his life, especially when things get especially scary at her place and he takes her back to his home for safe keeping—which his wife (Larisa Oleynik—TV’s Alex Mack all grown up) is understandably perturbed about. Scripter Robert Ben Garant’s dodging of easy melodrama here is commendable, as is his sympathetic portrait of working-class Southerners in general. Heck, it’s nice to see a movie set in the region in which all involved actually have the appropriate accents.
Perhaps that’s not a surprise considering that Garant is Tennessee-born, though it is unusual to see him tackle a serious horror script (he also wrote Blumhouse’s upcoming The Veil) when he’s much better known for Reno 911!, the Night at the Museum films and other comedy capers with writing partner Thomas Lennon. Last year they collaborated on Hell Baby, a spoof of the Southern Gothic conventions that the played-straight Jessabelle doesn’t entirely avoid. Given the location, it’s not giving anything away to note that voodoo plays a part in Jessabelle’s plight, with the familiar trappings and an element of racial conflict that the movie incorporates without truly engaging. The biggest disappointment is the ending, which ties up all the story threads with a flurry of hasty, flashback-enhanced exposition, though it does conclude with a wicked little punchline.
Jessabelle is at its best when Greutert and cinematographer Michael Fimognari are taking advantage of Jade Healy’s evocative production design and the natural eeriness of the North Carolina locations, and building a creeping aura of dread. The filmmakers also made a smart choice with their lead: Snook, an Australian actress who’s completely credible as a bayou baby, keeps us concerned for her without pushing too hard for sympathy. If the buildup is more satisfying than the payoff, Jessabelle remains a creditable attempt to do something a little different and down-to-Earth on the paranormal scene.
