[100 Feet]
Plot:A young woman named Marnie Watson, is granted early release from her prison sentence for manslaughter (killing her husband a violent NYC cop in self defense) on condition she wear an electronic ankle bracelet and remain within her home, effectively under house arrest, for the remainder of her sentence.

Her late husband's partner keeps tabs on her from a patrol car parked across the street, hoping she'll violate probation and he can send her back to prison. But the 100-foot radius her ankle bracelet allows isn't the worst of her problems. Her dead husband now a malevolent ghost is still in the house, where he died intent on savage revenge.

Cast:Famke Janssen, Michael Pare, Bobby Cannavale, Ed Westwick, John Fallon.

My Thoughts:Smart, performance driven chiller.

Review:As a subgenre, the supernatural horror film is not really up to snuff on new ideas. Generally, it sticks to the typical script. There's a clueless person or persons, a pissed off ghost who when he or she was alive, had been wronged in some way...and now is taking it out on everyone, and there's a place where all of this madness is set to unfold. The characters are usually total idiots who can't act or think straight to save their lives, and the ghost usually has it's way with them, slicing and dicing it's way through the cast one by one until someone smartens up in act three and says..."hey, wait a minute...I have an idea!". And then the film ends with the ghost not being dead in most instances, and thus the sequel is born.

"100 Feet", a film directed by Eric Red...is nothing like that. In fact, it smashes the A-typical ghost film in the mouth, before kicking it out onto the street. It does all of this with grace and a great use of scenery as well. And then to top it all off, it uses it's star female lead Famkee Janssen...to carry along a very interesting story. Janssen plays Marnie Wilson, a woman released from prison after doing 752 days (roughly 2 years) for killing her NYPD officer husband. It was in self defense, as he was the abusive type.

Although his partner Shanks (Cannavale), still doesn't believe that Marnie had just cause to kill him, and when Shanks escorts Marnie back to her and her husbands apartment, to serve out the finale year of her sentence under house arrest...he lets her know how he feels with quite a shitty attitude. With her ankle bracelet now attached, and Shanks watching her apartment like a hawk, it seems nothing can go wrong for Marnie. And to put the memory of her abusive husband out of her head, she paints over a dried-in bloodstain left on the wall after she killed him two years ago. But one thing she doesn't realize, is that her husband isn't the type to go quietly.

He's been waiting, watching, and hoping that Marnie would return. And now that she has...he's gonna finish what he started, by finishing her. Marnie could run, but the ankle-bracelet she's wearing ensures that she can't go more than 100 Feet from her apartment...or end up back in prison. So how can she fight what she can't see?? Especially when running isn't an option? "100 Feet" is proof positive of what can happen when a new unique spin is put on the typical ghost story. The films premise alone make it an interesting creation, and watching it play out in a gothic brownstone New York apartment just adds to the somber mood and dark tone that the movie tries and does it's best to convey throughout.

Famke Janssen carries the film extremely well, and watching her carry a horror picture for the first time since "Deep Rising" back in the 90's, was a 90 minutes plus very well spent. She also does a wonderful New York accent, making her character fit in even better with the scenery of the movie, which is set in Brooklyn New York originally. Michael Pare plays Mikey, the pissed off dead NYPD cop/ex-husband who doesn't strike too early at Marnie, but eventually lets her know that he's there with her.

This comes in one of the films best and most intense scenes, and lets just say that there's alot of breakage after it's all over. Janssen's character in the film is an interesting character study. She's strong, and tough...yet also has a gentle and loving side to her as well. Showing that while she's done two years of hard time, she's still managed to retain most if not all of her sanity and human traits throughout it all. Even after returning home to the scene of the crime, and to the hard fact that after the murder, albeit in self-defense...that her neighbors have turned against her, Marnie still takes it all in stride.

But her sanity soon slowly begins to unravel once she discovers that her dead abusive husband is haunting their apartment. And the thing to like about the whole scenario is that ehr character comes to grips with, and understands this fact very quickly. Which is a great thing because her survival depends on it, but also for us the viewer....it makes the film easier to tolerate. The last thing we need from a supernatural horror film is a female lead in denial that her house is haunted. We get that enoguh already, and it's annoying as hell.

Watching the character go through the motions of questioning her own sanity, her friends questioning it, and then questions from others. It was nice to see a female character accept her circumstances for once, and then transition quickly into figuring out how she's gonna solve her problem before it's too late. The ghost doesn't make too many appearances in the film, as we only get to see the spectre mostly near the end of the picture...but those times where he does pop up and show his face to go on the attack, are some of the most suspenseful and intense moments "100 Feet" has to offer.

Red does an excellent job of setting up the moments to be a shock and a surprise. Coming out of nowhere and left field in most cases, instead of telegraphing when and where he's gonna appear...thus boring the audience into submission. "100 Feet" creates this twisted and chilling story which concludes in very strong fashion, playing out in a slightly predictable fashion...but still making the conclusion of it all fun, suspenseful, and overall entertaining. "100 Feet" is a very good ghost film that does alot of new things to keep the viewer guessing and intrigued, and is very well led by one Famke Janssen, who is the perfect mix of beauty, common sense, brains, and strength that a horror film female lead should be.

Positives:Great story, Famke was excellent in the leading female role, lots of suspense and thrills moments, nice use of the gothic apartment setting in many of the films scenes.

Negatives:Nothing major.

Overall:Four stars.





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