When Lily loses her sister due to a car accident, she seeks solace from a local spiritualist. Unfortunately, Lily gets more than she bargained for when the restless spirit of a murder victim "latches" onto her and starts to show herself more and more. Realising that the spirit is actually trying to show her the path to who killed her, Lily becomes involved in a shocking mystery that will lead her face to face with a brutal serial killer who seems to like making puppets of his victims.After watching Casadega, I so wanted to like it and give a pretty good rating, but unfortunately I can't because, well, it's just a pretty boring movie really and I'm being generous enough with my 3-star rating.It doesn't grip you; it doesn't really scare you; and it doesn't have that much of a riveting story. Don't get me wrong - there are a few good moments in the movie but these are ultimately very few and far between.I sometimes look forward to a low-budget movie like this as they can sometimes be better than some of the usual predictable Hollywood serial killer movies. Unfortunately, this is no better THAN the usual predictable Hollywood horror/serial killer movies.The killer's setting was a bit too Hostel-like with the workshop, his overall's and mask, which I didn't really mind, but the menacing effect this look had in Hostel gets lost with him wearing his little pink dress underneath the overalls.Also the deaf character of Lily done a fantastic job of knowing what some people were saying to her, even when she wasn't even looking at them or their lips.All in all, Casadega is a very mediocre serial killer horror and I guess as long as you go into it not expecting much then you should be fine. Just don't be surprised if you feel a bit bored when watching it.

I was not prepared for how awesome of a little indie thriller this one turned out to be. When I pulled it up and saw that the hot guy from True Blood and the awesome chick that played Dwight's one-night stand on The Office were in it, I figured it couldn't be all that bad. Wow, it was like way better than I could have ever expected. The script, dialog, direction and special effects were excellent. And I loved the chemistry between Lily and Mike. The character depth was so solid and realistic. This is seriously a diamond in the rough type film. I highly recommend that you see this movie if you're a fan of the thriller and/or horror genre.Please like me on Facebook! We love getting suggestions and warnings on everything horror: http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Heart-Horror/338327476286206

"Dread", Anthony DiBlasi's first movie is among my favorites, so I was quite thrilled seeing his second movie being ready. I was a little bummed when seeing it basically is a restless ghost story but hats of to the writing. They really made this word by incorporating several Slasher and Giallo influences (pretty obvious from the Italian influenced poster artwork) and writing a stone solid script."Cassadaga" deals with a deaf girl who loses her beloved little sister in a car crash and heads of for an off-time in a psychic community (the title-giving Cassadaga) to clear her head. After a séance gone wrong she is haunted by visions of a ghost-zombie-girl who won't leave her alone before she clears the story of her death. So up to here this is some really worn out story material but the girls deafness is incorporated in a pretty creative way and the lead character works perfect. Also the story of the nice guy falling for he after she gives his daughter painting lessons is kind of different with him being torn between a girl seeing ghosts and having regular breakdowns and fighting to keep custody for his daughter. Now when the killer is introduced it gets pretty messy since "Gepetto" is obsessed with puppets and tries to build human marionettes by severing limbs and reattaching them to the living dolls in a pretty bizarre way.The movie manages to serve you some disturbing imagery, staying close to the basic ghost story and yet throwing you curve balls from the beginning on and mixing things up in a puzzling thriller-type of way that keeps you guessing all the time. With all that "Cassadaga" manages to be a creative and kind of different ghost movie that will also satisfy the gore hounds. The whole movie has a pretty romantic feel with the girls relationships to her sister and the nice guy and I think they went a little heavy on the music which along with some wooden acting was the weakest point in the movie and often came across rather cheesy. But besides these flaws its still a really solid movie and among the few better horror movies of last year.Like in "Dread" DiBlasi manages to tell interesting and different stories with a strong focus on the story telling and right amount of sledgehammer to the head. I'll definitely be looking out for his future movies.

This is a movie where I wasn't sure I'd like it; the name sounded like it might be a foreign film and the poster seems somewhat disconnected from the feel of the movie (at least, I think so).I gave it a try anyways, and I'm glad I did. It had its flaws, definitely, for me mostly in that it could have been longer; more build- up and getting some of the smaller plot lines tied up neater would have easily pushed this movie to a higher vote. I can see why not to do it, though, as it's already longer than the standard 90 minutes.To its credit though, I was scared enough to jump a couple of times and I was touched when I was supposed to be - which is more than many horror flicks can do these days.All in all, I came away with the feeling that it was well worth my time so I definitely recommend checking it out at least once.