Movie Review: ‘CASSADAGA’

[toggle title=”Trailer”][youtube id=”SLZu8hLEz64‎” width=”560″ height=”350″][/toggle]

Another haunted house movie?  Ugh.  Fine.  Wait, it’s not?  It is?  It’s ALSO a serial killer movie?  Great.  That should work out well.

There are some eerie moments, maybe even slightly chilling, to be found in Cassadaga…and that’s about all it’s got going for it.  One could MAYBE give it points for it’s killer Geppetto, who turns his victims into marionettes for some reason or another.  But when what you’re watching has the feel of an “edgy” Lifetime movie, there’s nothing worth your time.  Kelen Coleman plays Lily, who discovers she has medium abilities and tries to communicate with the ghost of her sister to get closure on the guilt she feels.  But of course you can’t just communicate with who you choose as a medium, and suddenly a murdered woman leads Lily to unravel a mystery and discover the sadistic killer responsible.  Full of melodrama, cheap and ineffective jump scares, and a guy who really likes puppets enough to turn people into them.  It’s really, really bland stuff.  Bad?  Not especially.  Bland.

As there’s nothing much to work with, Coleman is stiff and wooden as a lead and seems like she’s sleepwalking through the proceedings.  She’s good, I’ve seen her on The Newsroom and The Mindy Project, this just isn’t the role for her.  You know when you see an actor and see something in them but they’re entirely miscast?  That’s exactly what’s going on here.

This thing is actually really well shot and lit at times which disconnects from the low budget feel and reinforces that old saying about polishing a turd.  I actually kinda liked director Anthony DiBlasi’s 2009 film Dread and thought there might be something good to find here.  Alas, there’s nothing of value to find, don’t waste the effort.