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E-section Screening Room by Sue Todd-Filler Special Products Associate Editor
Remember when you were a kid, sitting around a fire at summer camp with your friends and listening to each other tell ghost stories?
Remember how each tale always began with a normal, even mundane situation, then, almost at the end, suddenly twisted into something completely different, something eerie and strange? And how, when you thought back to the beginning of the story, you realized the truth was hinted at all along?
These same feelings are evoked by "The Forbidden Closet," an independent film produced and directed by Cuyahoga Falls natives Steve Pallotta arid' Gary Kiser, who appear in the movie as several different characters as well.
Pallotta and Kiser, 1977 graduates of Cuyahoga Falls High School who now live in Copley and Massillon, respectively, chose nearby locations for their endeavor, including the historic Five Oaks mansion in Massillon, Portage Lakes and spots throughout the Akron and Copley areas. Many of the actors were supplied by Cleveland talent agent Ray Szuch; others were drafted from the ranks of Pallotta's and Kiser's families and friends, along with their cars, homes and any thing else the two producers/directors could think of.
The result of this yearlong effort was the subject of an advance screening at Akron's Highland Theater Sunday night. The movie, preceded by an older Pallotta featurette called "Boogie Man," was attended by Pallotta and Kiser along with several of the movie's stars, Cleveland TV hosts Big Chuck and Little John, members of the local media and approximately 700 guests of all of the above.
Pallotta said Monday the film, -shot with an 8mm digital camcorder and edited on a home computer, will be submitted to a broker in Los Angeles for review and possible distribution.
"The Forbidden Closet" follows in the stylistic footsteps of "The Twilight Zone" and Tales from the Crypt" (but without the copious gore of the latter), with an introduction leading into four separate spooky tales: "A Game of Cards," "One Fool in the Grave," "The Boy Next Door," and "Lake Evermore."
In the introduction, Kiser and Pallotta play two common sense-challenged buddies whose car breaks down, forcing them to — you guessed it search for a telephone in a nearby house that, while probably very attractive by day in real life, looks like something out of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in the film.
The two friends creep through the house, vainly seeking a phone or an occupant, finally stumbling upon the titular closet and the tales of woe hidden inside.
At this point the audience encountered the first instance of a recurring problem: sound quality. Whether it was due to the camera used to film the movie or the speaker setup Sunday evening, a significant portion of the dialogue was difficult, if not impossible, to understand. While the voiceover narration was discernible with an effort, voices of a pair of scientists in the first of the four tales and answering machine recordings in the third were too unclear to follow, at least for me.
This, however, was the only glaring flaw in an otherwise enjoyable film.
In "A Game of Cards," the audience spies on two couples (Kim Hendrickson, Thomas Riddle, Christie Spears and Michael Spears) having their customary card game until one of the party begins to feel like they've done it all before. Eventually, viewers discover the game isn't the innocent little evening between friends it seems to be.
The second tale, "One Fool in the Grave," follows a father (Shorty Young) and son (Dow Thomas) from a somewhat backward family as they search for buried treasure in 'a grave yard. The tenuous relationship between the two disintegrates into betrayal and revenge after they find what they are seeking.
The title character of "The Boy Next Door" isn't exactly a boy; he's a frustrated voyeur • (Terry Giancaterino) who gets more than he bargained for after he trades his father's wedding ring to a pawnbroker in exchange for a video camera with infrared night vision to help him spy on a neighbor (Tawny Miller) who keeps turning out her bedroom light at inopportune moments.
The first and third of these three installments are the best, adding a dash of irony to their suspense, but they pale beside the fourth and final tale, "Lake Evermore."
This last (and longest) story follows a young, married couple (Kim Hendrickson, Rick Montgomery) on a journey to inspect a summer cottage inherited by the wife, Evie,. upon the death of her aunt. Evie immediately finds her place in the sleepy little town where she spent much of her childhood, while hubby Mike, a type-A business-minded builder, waffles between a new 3 appreciation of country living and the urge to erect condos along the lakeshore.
Several eccentric towns people (Bruce Ramsey, Chuck Cavanaugh, Jerry Spears, Frank Wallis and Wilma Swan) attempt to show Mike the meaning of the saying, "if it aint broke, don't fix it," but to no avail. What happens next will delight anyone who has less than favorable feelings about real estate development in a small town.
"Lake Evermore" begins with the style and look of a BBC comedy (never a bad thing in my book), gradually morphing into a picture combining elements of science fiction, Hitchcockian suspense and Greek tragedy.
All four of the tales have solid concepts at their core, enthusiastic casts and excellent locations and sets. "Lake Evermore," however, stands head and shoulders above the rest, with sympathetic characters, surprising special effects and a poignancy and depth to the storyline lacking in the other three.
It also has what seemed to be the audience's favorite cameo, a brief, wordless appearance by Don Morgan, supplier of the antique Studebakers seen around town in the fourth installment. Morgan drew one of the biggest laughs of the evening when he cruised past Montgomery in one of the vintage autos just after Montgomery's character set in motion a series of events that would change Lake Evermore forever. Morgan glared at the builder like a pit bull who just lost his dinner to the stranger but is too well trained to attack probably.
All of the stories leave a few questions unanswered perhaps least disturbing in "Lake Evermore," due to an ending that renders answers more or less unnecessary. But I left the theater feeling as if the narrator (the house? The closet? a ghost?) was cheating me out of something. I wanted more.
Specifically, I wanted two movies. An expanded version of "Lake Evermore" could easily stand on its own, with a little more character development and a lot more answers to questions I won't ask here in case you see this film after its as yet-undetermined release. The hole left in "The Forbidden Closet" by the promotion of "Lake Evermore" to a full length feature easily could be filled by flushing out the other three tails in the same manner, but on a smaller scale.
So, I'm greedy.
The bottom line: "The Forbidden Closet" an impressive effort for two hometown film makers, makes for an enjoyable evening. But, while the movie takes it's audience along a fun, suspenseful ride, it's just not enough of a good thing. |
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