We Are Still Here

Anne (Barbara Crampton) and Paul Sacchetti (Andrew Sensenig) lost their only son in a car accident. In order to get their lives back on track, the couple moves to a remote country house in New England. But soon, a series of eerie and inexplicable events begin to occur in the house. The couple seeks help from May and Lacob Lewis (Larry Fessenden), a couple who are friends of theirs. The Lewises have been studying mysterious phenomena for years and are supposed to put an end to the haunting. It quickly becomes clear that a vengeful family of ghosts inhabits the house and attacks all newcomers. No help can be expected from the townspeople – the entire village harbors a collective, dark secret... Ted Geoghegan's horror film begins with atmospheric suspense in the best haunted house horror style and establishes an oppressive mood of alienation. The fact that the film veers into the explicit horror genre towards the end will delight fans of the genre, but it is not for the faint of heart. At its premiere at the South by Southwest Festival (SXSW), Geoghegan's debut film impressed film critics above all as an homage to 1970s horror cinema – especially Lucio Fulci's “The House by the Cemetery.” "At first, however, ‘We Are Still Here’ lulls the viewer into a false sense of security, relying here and there on small shock moments that sometimes even fizzle out without effect. [...] At the latest with a séance that gets terribly out of hand, the events take on monstrous proportions, while the staging suddenly becomes much more hectic. Shaky images and relishful overacting convey the panic that now erupts unchecked. [...] The fact that Geoghegan brutally steers the plot in a different direction is certainly commendable, as it allows him to subvert the well-known haunted house rules. On the other hand, the subtly constructed mood of mourning in the first third is suddenly lost. And in the end, one is left with the impression of having seen two different films. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see what the debut director and horror fan tackles next." (Christopher Diekhaus, on: kino-zeit.de)