Solstice

The most recent horror movie that I watched was Solstice, a 2008 movie written and directed by Daniel Myrick (of Blair Witch fame). Add that to the fact that it talks of voo doo in the Louisiana Bayou and has a cast filled with recognizable, decent young actors and I thought it was worth the $2.95 at the used movie store here in town.  Megan (Elisabeth Harnois) and her friends go to spend spring break of their senior year at Megan's parents' house in the Bayou. Her mom is a cultural anthropology professor so they go every year to celebrate the Summer Solstice. This year is marred by the tragedy of the loss of Megan's twin sister, Sophie, who committed suicide over Christmas Break. Megan is already seeing and experiencing things that make her think that her sister's spirit is with them and when a local boy with voo doo knowledge leads them in a ceremony to communicate with the dead, all hell breaks loose. Eventually it is revealed that the spirit is not Sophie, but a little girl that Sophie and Christian (Shawn Ashmore) hit and buried the previous year. Christian is running from the spirit and gets hit by a car, killing him in nicely poetic fashion. Overall, the movie isn't very successful. The voo doo elements seem little more than ancillary as much of the supernatural events are happening before the ceremony that they perform. There is also the obvious red herring in the creepy "neighbor" (played by none other than R. Lee Emery) who adds some creepiness but nothing all too scary. The movie does use flashbacks and the "visions" that Megan has fairly well. Harnois is cast well as the lead. Her emotions, from fear, to anger to sadness all seemed genuine and I believed the ordeal that she was going through. The rest of the cast, however, seemed little more than stock horror movie characters and served almost no purpose except to drink and remind Megan that Sophie wasn't there anymore. Even the little dead voo doo girl is overdone at the end. Throughout the movie she has been little more than a black shadow, sometimes showing glowing white eyes and this worked well, but at the end she appears as the unharmed little girl and then "morphs" into the voo doo creature while making some screeching noise. I think though that the moment for me that sealed the deal and put this movie in the unsuccessful category was the dream within a dream sequence. For me, that is just something that shouldn't be done in horror. It plays with the audience too much and diminishes the trust I have in the movie from that point forward. Add in that it contained the movie's only legitimate jump scare and it was a sinking point for me for sure. Despite being oversold on the souther voo doo elements and lacking strong supporting characters,  I would say Solstice  was worth my $2.95.