Nice, well-balanced and articulate review of Sker House…
Monthly Archives: March 2016
Film Review – The Atticus institute (2015)
From the producers of the Conjuring and Annabelle, comes a new addition to the recent fad of possession movies. Scientists involved in a 1970’s research project looking into ESP and related phenomena stumble across Judith (played by Rya Kihlstedt, of Deep Impact fame) whose abilities far transcend anything they have encountered before. They gleefully set about testing her and documenting the results, but it doesn’t take long for them to realise that rather than someone displaying impressive feats of telekinesis, what they are really dealing with is a severe case of demonic possession. The entity makes its presence known in a variety of subtle and non-subtle ways and soon, the military come knocking in an attempt to harness and eventually weaponise the demon’s power. Predictably, that’s when things get really out of hand. Sometimes, guns and bullets just aren’t enough.
Written and directed by Chris Sparling, writer of the 2010 underground (sorry, couldn’t resist) smash hit Buried, the Atticus Institute unfolds through a series of interviews-to-camera interspersed with segments of laboratory footage, giving it a gritty and decidedly intense feel. The result is terrifyingly realistic, and Sparling works the tension impeccably as it builds to an horrific climax. Poor Judith spends the vast majority of the film strapped in a chair squirming around and speaking in tongues, whilst being shouted at and receiving electric shock therapy. By the end you actually end up feeling a bit sorry for her/it and begin questioning who the victim really is in all this. As any news report will tell you, this is kind of unrestrained overkill is typically what happens when western governments come up against an enemy they don’t fully understand.
Though this is one of the few possession movies that doesn’t claim to be based on a actual events, I have a sneaking suspicion the genesis of the story is based on the US government’s Stargate Project and it’s derivatives, operations set up in the 1970’s to investigate psychic phenomena in response to muted Soviet projects of a similar ilk. One of the main focuses of the Stargate Project was remote viewing, something of obvious military significance, which is alluded to several times in the Atticus Institute. Though the Stargate Project was (allegedly) closed down in 1995 amid claims that it wasn’t effective enough to make it viable, the bulk of the data that was collected has never been made available to the public, so who knows what evidence might be gathering dust in a vault somewhere?
The original version of this review is featured in the Morpheus Tales supplement, available HERE:
Here is my interview with Christian Saunders
Check out my recent interview with the lovely Fiona McVie here:
Name Christian Saunders.
I use the name C.M. Saunders when I write fiction.
Age 41.
Though I’m lucky enough to look younger, so I often lie about it. Don’t tell anybody.
Where are you from
I live in London now, but I grew up in a little ex-coal mining village called New Tredegar in the South Wales valleys.
A little about your self `ie your education Family life etc
I always had a passion for writing. It was probably the one thing I was good at when I was in school, but I didn’t pursue it until I was much older and had spent nine years working in a local factory learning the nuts and bolts of lfe. I wrote as a hobby in my spare time, and eventually started getting some success. From there, things snowballed. I went to university as a mature student, taught English in China for…
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Sker House is out TODAY!
The result of over five years work, my new novel Sker House drops today!
It’s a contemporary ghost story with a distinctly Welsh flavour, featuring some great artwork by Stoker Award-nominee Greg Chapman.
Dale and Lucy are two students with a fascination in the supernatural. One weekend, they travel to Sker House, South Wales, a private residence with a macabre history which has recently been converted into a seaside inn. They plan to write an article for their university magazine about a supposed haunting, but when they arrive, they meet a landlord who seems to have a lot to hide. Soon, it becomes apparent that all is not well at Sker House. An air of oppression hangs over it, while misery, tragedy and ill-fortune are commonplace. Gradually, it becomes clear that the true depth of the mystery goes far beyond a mere historical haunting. This is a place where bad things happen, and evil lurks.
Little by little Dale and Lucy fall under Sker’s dark spell, and as they begin to unravel the mysteries of the past, they realize that nothing stays buried forever.
Welcome to Sker House, a place where past and present collide.
The book is already picking up some rave reviews, one of which, from the Horror cabin, you can read HERE
Sker House is available exclusively on Amazon:
cmsaunders 