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[The Jailhouse]
Plot:Small town, the American dream. A blue-collar family living the idyllic rural lifestyle. Nothing is out of place save for the lacking white picket fence - and the old JAIL that occupies the 2nd floor of their century-old home. Seth Delray knew the possibilities before he moved his wife and two kids into the old jailhouse, but the Sheriff assured him that it would take an act of God to put that place back into service. Times were tight, and it was just too good of a deal to refuse. That is, until the county jail caught fire. The Sheriff's hands were tied and he had to put displaced inmates anywhere he could find iron bars with a locking door. The Delray house was his only option.
For Seth the worst wasn't the criminals locked like animals in the soiled cages above his living room. It was the mortal fear in his children's eyes, it was the piercing cold looks from his wife. It was that deep, dark creeping recognition that something had happened there, something terrible, something that would grip his soul with hundred year old hands squeezing hate from unknown depths. No longer did the birds sing upon the morning lit branches beyond the barred windows of the old jailhouse. No one could know the confinement of such a place and the horror it brings...the bleak hopelessness of one without freedom...the inescapable iron bars of guilt and regret into which revenge imprisons a man's mind.
Cast:Ken Aguilar,
Siri Baruc,
Darren Dalton,
Brody Docar,
Bill George,
C. Thomas Howell,
Tommy Lindsey,
Phillip Troy Linger,
Brandon Luck,
Bryan Mahoney,
Lindsey McKeon,
Keith Minor,
Sahr Ngaujah,
Billy Paluck,
Vayda Paluck,
Nate Panning,
Raymond Scott Parks,
Mark Darby Robinson,
David Schifter,
Raymond Shepard,
Steven St. Gelais,
Rey Valentin,
Madison Weidberg.
My Thoughts:Nice try, not quite a cigar.
Review:"The Jailhouse" is the next film in the line of indie horror pictures where some place with a bad history makes for bad vibes for a group of people who just so happen to be there. Thomas C. Howell stars in the film as a family man who is forced to live beneath a jail, a jail which is abandoned. Temporary residence until his family's new home is built.
Kind of like how here in New York, people live above a dry cleaners or bowling alley. The county jail was housing the criminals at first, but then it caught fire and burned down. So...the inmates had to be moved into the abandoned jail which sits above Seth's (Howell) place. But the jail has had some tragic event take place within it's cells and bars many years ago, and the question is...will history repeat itself, and if so....who will suffer because of it?
This film atleast makes an attempt at some character development, with Howell's character as the concerned family man who is worried for himself and his family, that he has to live beneath a jail holding criminals. And it also gets a good grade for developing the characters of the criminals themselves, who maybe save for one or two of them, aren't hardcore evil, murderous people.
Lindsey McKeon even makes an appearance in the film as the lone female inmate, who ends up in jail when her boyfriend gets busted for drug possession, and she ends up going down instead of him. Apparently even in rural America, the cops can't seem to get their stuff together when arresting the real guilty party. At any rate, the films biggest problem is how predictable it is. We got flashes every now and then of this "jailhouse incident" from way back when.
Which pretty much is nothing but an inmate fight scenario, that then gets turned around on a rogue prison guard, and ends fatally. But the big problem is....none of this is scary! I like my ghost/supernatural movies to be scary! This movie doesn't do any of the things films like this normally do. No creepy people appearing out of thin air, no deformed demons or angry spirits, hell...we don't even get the obligatory ghost singing bible songs scene that almost every supernatural horror movies throws us.
The picture has no spice, no life, it just goes dramatic heavily, and lacks an edge, darkness, or scare factor to it. And when a movie about hauntings, or supernatural on-goings doesn't deliver on the supernatural part, well, what you end up with instead is an episode of "Prison Break", not a horror movie. C. Thomas Howell gives a good performance as Seth, and McKeon as Maddy does quite well. Along with Ngaujah and Darby Robinson as Cash and Pablo respectively.
But in a movie like this, the viewer wants scares. If not good ones, atleast cheap thrills. And if not cheap thrills, atleast some manufactured scares. Take Anthony C. Ferrante's "BOO" for example. A film which had a budget about similar to "The Jailhouse", but also brought the scares and ghostly actions to the table, big time. "The Jailhouse" does none of those things, and breaks down into a possession story.
See...Thomas Howell's character soon begins to become afflicted with the spirit of this rogue prison guard, who in reality, is just a redneck prick who abuses his authority. Not really a badass to be feared or anything. Wydell from "The Devil's Rejects" he most certainly is not. So the movies main conflict is waiting for this evil prison guard to fully possess Seth, so Seth can then go kill off the prisoners upstairs. The film however reaches act three, and plays out a little differently than expected, and that's when it begins to show some signs of life.
But then...the ending comes, and smacks you in the face. And leaves you shaking your head in great disappointment. The ending is a complete and utter failure, and falls into the category of those really bad gotcha endings. I won't give it away, but if you've seen "Ripper:Letters From Within", the sequel to "Ripper:Letter From Hell", and hated that BS ending, you'll really hate this films BS ending.
Overall, "The Jailhouse" is a spook movie without the spookiness, or the scares, or anything of any real terror or horror-related relevance. I think I've finally found an indie ghost movie set inside a prison, that was worse than "The Furnace".
Positives:The characters were decently developed, good guys, and bad guys. A Lindsay McKeon sighting was an intriguing turn of events here. Thomas Howell gives a good performance.
Negatives:The story is just not scary, the twists don't work, and overall entertainment value is heavily lacking.
Overall:One and a half out of four stars.
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