Banshee Chapter (2013)

Banshee Chapter (2013)
Directed by Blair Erickson
Written by Blair Erickson and Daniel J. Healy

Image from http://www.movieinsider.com/m9385/the-banshee-chapter/

Banshee Chapter is a film about a young female journalist looking for her missing best friend who has got himself caught up in a horrific CIA experiment.

After college, best friends Anne and James sadly drifted apart. Anne went on her journey to become a journalist, while James began research on a book about MKUltra. He had received a sample of the drug from his friends in Colorado, and decided to partake in it on tape. Another friend of James' recorded his trip. Unfortunately James wasn't hallucinating what was happening to him. After ingesting the drug, the radio tuned into a strange station playing was sounded like ice cream truck music overlaid with a young girl talking gibberish. Then a silhouette appeared in the window and something happened...
When James' friend comes around he notices James is missing. He runs about the property frantically looking for his friend and eventually finds him out back. But it's not really James. A look-alike with dark eyes and some red liquid escaping its mouth confronts the friend. Next thing the friend knows he's being pinned for James' disappearance, but shortly after his interrogation he disappears himself.
Anne see's this as an opportunity for an amazing story and to find James. Her first research is reviewing the friend's tape. She then tracks down a man who may be able to identify what that weird radio broadcast is. An older gentleman at an electronic repair shop says yes, he has heard this before. And Anne's best bet of hearing it again is out at a particular lonely stretch of highway late at night. But when she goes there and hears what she's been searching for, something beyond the comfort of her car prompts her to make a quick getaway.
At the officer her boss, Olivia, has another tape for Anne. It's a tape from the MKUltra experiments showing living subjects being injected with liquid extracted from the brain of a dead patient. The tape then goes blank for the last half. It is sent away to see of what was originally recorded in that black space can be extracted, and in the mean time Anne sets out to find author Thomas Blackburn.
She got the tip to see Blackburn after she told a coworker James had got the drug from his 'friends in Colorado', and a coworker remarked "Like the book title?"
The book Friends in Colorado is then presented to Anne. It is written by Thomas Blackburn so Anne believes he is actually the one who supplied James with the substance.
Blackburn, not talking with journalists anymore, is greeted in a bar by Anne, under the alias of Sarah, a big Blackburn fan. Blackburn invites her back to his place, where she meets Callie. Callie is mixing up some MKUltra for them to enjoy, and Blackburn gives some to Sarah in a shot glass, before going to his liquor cabinet to get them another drink. While his back is turned Sarah chucks the MKUltra, then gladly takes the new drink from Blackburn. Slyly he confronts her about her true identity saying he knew it from the get-go. And that he actually put the drug in her drink, not in the shot she threw away...
Angered, Anne retreats to the bedroom upstairs where Callie is sitting. Callie is looking wide-eyes out the window claiming something is coming for them, something is close, something can see her and she doesn't like it. Weirded out Anne goes back downstairs to hear that ice cream truck recording and something banging on the door to get in. Blackburn, Callie and Anne hole up in the bedroom while the thing tries to break through the bedroom door. The place goes dark and the door opens. Blackburn and Anne are knocked out, and when they come to Callie is gone. The two of them get the hell out of there.
When they stop to regain composure the radio tunes into that noise again, and Blackburn starts to convulse. His eyes roll back and his orifices bleed. Anne guns it out of their until they're out of reach of the signa;.
With their nerves returning Anne insists they go to Callie's house to make sure she's ok. Perhaps they all just hallucinated all of this.
Blackburn directs her to the house she had been squatting in. He waits in the car, still a mess from the earlier incident, but gives Anne a walkie talkie to stay in touch.
As Anne approaches the front door of the house, it looks like someone's been here... She heads to the basement where Blackburn says she makes her concoctions, and he finds formulas for the MKUltra, as well as security camera feeds from around Callie's house. She sees Callie's form enter between the time at Blackburn's and now. Then the figure goes to the basement, and walks into a shadowed corner just minutes before Anne arrives. And she never sees her leave... Paranoid, Anne approaches the stairs by the corner slowly, having grabbed what papers she could. Halfway up the stairs a hand grabs her, and in a panic Anne flees back to the car. The the two drive.
Blackburn explains that the MKUltra drug isn't really for a regular trip. He theorizes it's a chemical catalyst that makes your mind a receiver for something. And that something hones into your location once you've ingested the drug. Your can tell it's near from the radio, and when it gets you, you're gone, but your body remains. It wears you.
Fearing for them, Anne points out to where she thinks it all originated from based on the papers from Callie's house, and suggests they burn it to hell. Blackburn tells her she doesn't have to. She can just walk away. Because he didn't actually give her the drug.
He had lied to her like she lied to him. But this doesn't make Anne feel safer, because James' friend went missing too. They finally resolve to go the origin and destroy it.
They arrive at what looks like a bunker with a broadcast antenna on top. Inside the rooms that were in the experiment tape are all around them. Finally they find one room with a tank and some sort of giant computer hooked up to it that's still running. The tank has one window. Anne crouches to peer inside and pale face presses against it. Then the radio signal begins. Blackburn begins to fit, and before he is taken by the signal, he shoots himself. Anne flees down the hall in fright, to be confronted by a strange humanoid figure. Wearing James' clothes.
She runs back to the room, locks the door and douses the place in gasoline from the car. The thing is coming for her at the door but she manages to set the gas alight before she's taken too.
Soon afterwards Anne finds herself at a police station. It looks similar to the one James' friend was held at for interrogation at the beginning. Her boss arrives and is glad she's safe, but advises against her story. They'll call her crazy. But Anne doesn't know what else to say. Olivia mentions to her that the company was able to extract the buried footage on the tape, but says the content isn't important right now. She wants to know is Anne is sure she didn't have any of the drug. She says yes, but then the intercom starts plating the ominous ice cream truck music again. Frantically Anne screams for the police to let her out of the investigation room, and when she turns around she finds Olivia at her neck, black eyes and bleeding from the mouth like James from the tape.

Image from http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-latest/the-banshee-chapter/5059526.article

So this movie really freaked me out. Yes is is low budget, but the film handled that well. It felt like the crew said "We only have this much money and time, so let's make a top notch film on a tiny budget by really focusing the money where is needs to go."
Within the first ten minutes I jumped around twice. I don't usually get phased by horror movies, but this one did it.
I don't understand why ratings aren't higher for this film on IMDB. I'd recommend to a horror fan who also likes to think a little. To top it off, it's one of those films based on other stories, like how Devil's Pass is based on the real hikers who went missing in the same area so long ago.
I didn't know this going in, but the MKUltra experiments were a real thing and may very well still be. Like it says in the movie, the experiments were intended to figure out a recipe for mind control. Tons of people, an unknown number, were used as test subjects without knowing. Perhaps it's still happening now too. I'm not a huge conspiracy theorist, but we've seen what the US government does to it's own citizens and the rest of the world with or without their knowing and/or approval, so I really unfortunately don't see this film as far fetched.
It is disheartening to know there are people within high ranks of the government that can literally go whatever kind of experiments they want on knowing or unknowing test subjects and get away with whatever the consequences to the subjects are. And that taxes go to fund things like this...
We can hope this isn't continuing in the USA, but...
Anyway, good thinking film. I'd also like to add I've only watched through this once so far, but the interrogation room from the beginning with James' friend and the one from the end with Anne looked similar to me. This prompts me to believe that the police knew on some level what was going on, and perhaps they were being controlled themselves by some successful version of MKUltra, so they purposefully stuck Anne in a room with a receiver in order to take care of their problem.
Also worthy of note, this isn't a typically blockbuster with love stories and such going on. Yes, Anne considers the possibility that maybe her and James should have been something. But they don't live happily ever after. There's no sex, or nudity to keep attention. Just a good story without those stupid movie crutches.
And finally, the end of the credits don't play some catch pop song. Instead the last thing you hear is the broadcast. And it is eerie...

Battle for Terra

Battle for Terra (2007)
Directed by Aristomenis Tsirbas

Giddy. Image from http://www.aceshowbiz.com/still/00003527/terra11.html

In an alien village of towering mushroom trees lives a girl and her father. These aliens don't have legs and fly. They propel with a swimming motion and are kind of leaf shaped. Although they can fly they use other flying contraptions equatable to motorcycles or cars to get places faster or move more people.
It's another peaceful day in this town when the sun is eclypsed. Dozens of tiny lights rain from the sky and turn out to be invading fighter ships. They're capturing the native people to run tests on and who knows what else. The girl, Mala, is distressed to see her father get abducted. Unable to tolorate losing her only other parent Mala tried to get abducted to get reunited.
None of the ships take her so she decided to take them. In her flying machine she manages to take down a ship. After it's crashes she finds the pilot unconscious and losing oxygen. Back at her home the pilot, Jim's rover unit tells Mala how she can create oxygen so he doesn't die. Giddy is able to teach her English, and Mala follows the instructing, driven by the hope that this human will be able to get her to her father.
Once concious Jim says he needs to get to his ship. If Mala helps him get to his ship, he'll take her to her dad. Mala eagerly agrees.
When they return the site of the crash the ship is gone! Giddy's sensors indicate it's been dragged off to a part of Mala's planet, Terra, where no one goes. They follow Giddy and end up at the ruins of an old civilization, and to Mala's surprise there are people there! One of her people's ships lands and the group follows it to get in. However once inside they're surrounded. With Jim's ship in sight, he takes Mala hostage in order to get to it. The three get inside and take off.
Jim approaches his home ship and docks. Mala is instructed by Jim to stay in his ship and wait for him. He has to be debriefed and scanned then he'll be back. Jim is greeted by his best friend who was worried Jim died, then drilled for information about the natives by higher-ups.
During all this Mala grows impatient. She's brought her respirator so she'll be able to filter the oxygen, and she grabs a laser gun from the cockpit that she'd seen Jim use.
Snooping around the ship eventually leads her to a holding chamber. Whether her people are dead inside or not is unclear. Her father in the connecting room is still alive, but very very weak. Mala attemps to push his stretcher out and make it back to Jim's ship but her father and her are tailed by two men. Not wanting anything bad to become of his daughter, Mala's father grabs the gun, throws her back in the room with her people and shuts the door on her. He shoots wildly at the men and the room, eventually breaching something resulting in all of them getting sucked into something and dying. Mala, heartbroken in the next room, sees all this through the glass. She collapses on the floor and is taken prisoner.
Jim tried to convince his supervisor, Hemmer, that the people are peaceful and they need to think of a way to get more oxygen for the humans without destroying the Terrans. Hemmer disagrees. He's taken over the government and the home ship. He demands that the terraformer be sent to the planet as soon as possible. It'll take a week for the planet to get converted to breathable oxygen, and as it is the ship only has two months of oxygen left. Hemmer begins to worry where Jim's loyalties lie.
On the other side of a one way mirror Jim sees Mala calling for help. She's in a room full of breathable air for her. Jim's best friend is then thrown in and begins to suffocate. Hemmer explains to him he has two options. He can press the red button and the room will fill with oxygen, saving his friend but killing Mala. Or he can let him die and show where his new allegiance lies.
Unable to kill his friend Jim presses the button. Mala begins to choke on the oxygen. Not wanting Mala to die either, Jim quietly orders Giddy to save her. Giddy breaks the glass and leads Mala to Jim's ship. Once inside they make a break for it back to Terra.
Back home Mala is asked to tell all she knows about the humans' plans. She tried also to get Giddy to explain, but he's unsure if his first allegiance lies with her or with Earth Force. Because Jim has ordered her protection, Giddy finalizes on helping Mala.
The Elders of Terra also reveal that in the ruins where Jim's ship had been held is a secret army base, in case of invasions like this. The Elders had once been at war, but because of the near total destruction the survivors started new lives teaching nothing of hate or war. However the past is now coming in handy.
The flying machines they have at this base are much more sophisticated than the ones ever other Terran uses. They actually stand a chance against Earth Force.
Hemmer launches the attack the the fighter ships on both sides take flight. Things look promising until Hemmer calls for backup.
The terraformer hits Terra's surface and begins producing oxygen. The residents of a nearby village being to suffocate. Seeing all these innocent civilians choking, Jim decides he can't go through with supporting the humans. Knowing he'll get closer than anyone else, human or Terran, to the terraformer before being suspected he becomes a martyr.
Rockets go straight through the machine, killing Hemmer. Mala sadly watches as Jim's ship explodes. The battle is over. But at a great cost on both sides.
The home ship still in space, Mala feels terrible for all the humans that have nothing to do but wait to die. The Elders assure her, there is always an alternative.
Some time later, Mala and her best friend, Senn, are racing through the clouds. They're approaching a large dome. It's a small part of her planet where the humans are able to terraform. The species can intermingle on Terra now with their respirators.
In the middle of the dome a large statue is under construction.
It's Jim, staring our to the stars.

Mushroom tree village. Image from http://www.transmissionfilms.com.au/index.php/battle-for-terra/

This films was alright. It definitely had a lot of feels towards the end.
The animation is meah. Things are pretty limited. Basically it seemed like in order to have to not worry about a lot of things, like leaves or grass or hair, the settings went where they did. The giant mushroom-topped trees the Terrans live in have a couple giant leaves on them, like maybe a dozen. All the Terrans are bald, and on the home ship it's pretty militant in attitude and dress so everyone is bald or close to it. They're also all in simple tight-ish uniforms so all that fabric secondary moment is not needed. Ect. Ect. I guess I'm just getting at it's a lot easier if all your materials have a shiny texture or matte texture to them. And if they're still or unmoving completely like metals. You don't have to deal with fabric folds then.

Modeling and stuff get's more complex towards the end of the film, when the battle sequences are going on. All of a sudden you have all these spaceships and Terran ships and explosions and blood. So it was nice from an animation standpoint for a change.

Jim's death was interesting. He really did become a martyr for these two races, so they'd find another way. A better way. The spaceships are shaped like plus signs for the humans, and the pilot sits in a bubble in the middle. During the final battle a couple of the wings on Jim's ship get clipped. There's a scene of Jim's ship closing in on the terraformer and Hemmer looking at it through the glass. It's like a cross. And then they both die.

For all the Terrans' weird flying things, they could sure use an astrologer. Not only did the rain catch them by surprise but a giant spaceship that definitely didn't just appear there. Pretty sure it was traveling for a long time. Their music sucks too XD The jam sessions that kept getting inturruprted in the beginning didn't seem like they were going well.

Funny part of the movie is when one of the humans says "It's a trap!" in the end battle. I literally paused it at that point and went to watch Admiral Ackbar say it on youtube.

The voice acting in the film is amazing. It's a lot of screen actors, not voice actors, doing the voices so it's extra impressive. Giddy, played by David Cross (Tim and Eric, Year One, Men in Black), and Evan Rachel Wood (Across the Universe, Thirteen, True Blood) did exceptional work. Also in it was Justin Long, who had been in Alpha and Omega, which I recently talked about on here too.

It was an okay one time watch. The storyline wasn't horrible. Definitely one of those go-green movies. However, it came before most of the ones that people complain about. Avatar was 2009, WALL-E was 2008. Yes there were many before that, and there will be many more. I just think it's something worth keeping in mind as you pass judgement.

This movie was better than Planet 51 by a long shot if that helps you make a decision.

There is also no love interest (except between the Terrans and their love for their home planet) which is nice. A movie without that is sometimes hard to come by in North America.

Mala and Giddy escaping the home ship back to Terra. Image from http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/may/01/battle-terra/


Finally here's some more cool info about the movie. So this feature-length was actually based on a short that was written, directed, and animated by the same director.
Check it out.



In honesty I think I like the short better. Not in terms of quality, but purely story. The American flag with a million stars is genius! Really threatening too.
In terms of technicalities, this short, in my opinion, is great. The score by Matt Messina is awesome. I love how the horns build uneasily. I really do. At first it was abrasive, but it's supposed to be. It's supposed to make you feel uneasy. I'd recommend the short to anyone. If you really love the short then maybe the film is for you.