A woman torments her wheelchair-bound daughter from beyond the grave with VHS tapes in this voodoo-themed supernatural thriller. Written by Robert Ben Garant and directed by Kevin Greutert, Jessabelle (2014) keeps you guessing until the end, but an engaging mystery and attractive lead isn't enough to save this mediocre horror film from Blumhouse Productions.Tragedy strikes pregnant Jessabelle "Jessie" Laurent (Sarah Snook) when her fiancé Mark is killed in a car accident, which also causes her to miscarry and become paralyzed from the waist down. Now wheelchair-bound, she returns home to Louisiana to live with her father, Leon (David Andrews). For some reason Leon has kept her mother, Kate's (Joelle Carter) old bedroom sealed and reopens it for Jessie. Neither Jessie nor their housekeeper seem to think this is odd.Jessie, who believes her mother died of a brain tumor, discovers tapes her mother recorded as a message for her eighteenth birthday. This instigates several disturbing encounters with a dark-haired phantom (Amber Stevens West). Leon tries to destroy the tapes but ends up burning to death. At his funeral, Jessie reunites with her childhood sweetheart, Preston Sanders (Mark Webber).Together, Jessie and Preston investigate the strange events and their connection to a local voodoo church. They discover a baby's skeleton buried in the bayou with the same name and birth date as Jessie. The local sheriff (Chris Ellis) discovers the child's origin too late to save Jessie, who is attacked by the ghost of Kate and a voodoo priest named Moses (Vaughn Wilson). I won't spoil the ending, but it's a crazy plot twist that might have been interesting if it was developed a bit more.Sarah Snook is an Australian actress mostly known for appearing nude in the infamous film Sleeping Beauty (2011). She graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts and performs admirably in Jessabelle, albeit with a sloppy Southern drawl. She spends most of the movie wearing low-cut dresses aimed at cornering the teenage boys who have never used the Internet to watch porn demographic. I'll give her character credit for not taking whatever inheritance her dad left and getting on the first bus out of town after watching him inexplicably burn to death in a shed.There aren't many films set in the Louisiana bayou and even less featuring voodoo. That's what originally drew me to this film, and I wish it would have more fully explored the subject. Jessie never attempts to understand her mother's dalliance with the dark arts until the last moment. It would have been more interesting if she tried to learn something about voodoo and combat whatever dark spirit was tormenting her. But Jessabelle's fast pace doesn't give the characters, or the audience, much time for reflection.The film grabs you and races toward its conclusion, not giving you time to stop and ask questions like: why wouldn't Jessie's dad get rid of his wife's clothes and personal belongings after 18 years? Why would Jessie's dad make her stay in Kate's old bedroom, where she could discover the video tapes, instead of her childhood room? Why does the ghost of an infant look like a grown woman? Why did Kate have a wheelchair, when she committed suicide and wasn't actually sick? Why does Jessie take a bath fully clothed?Okay, the PG-13 rating answers that question.Critics and audiences panned Jessabelle (25% and 31% on Rotten Tomatoes), but I didn't think it was nearly as bad as more recent horror films like The Hatred (2017) and Annabelle: Creation (2017). It has creepy atmosphere, a mystery that keeps you guessing, and a strong lead, but it just doesn't take any risks. Jessabelle would have been much better off with an R-rating and a director who wasn't afraid to get creative or push the envelope.

I enjoyed Jessabelle. If you are partial to a sweaty, swampy, bayou ghost story then it's likely that you will enjoy yourself with the movie as well. The story benefits from unraveling slowly and leaving some mystery about what's really happening until the very end. After a terrible accident leaves her reliant on a wheelchair, a woman is forced to move back to her family home in the Louisiana swamp with her estranged father. She finds that there are more than just emotional ghosts waiting for her in that lonely house. As far as modern horror goes, this isn't an overly violent or gory film. There are a few jump scares sprinkled throughout, but most of the time Jessabelle relies on building discomfort and unease through glimpses of figures that shouldn't be there, ominous sounds, and unnatural events among the oppressive bayou gloom. That makes it more unnerving when moments of extreme violence do come. The end of the movie was a highlight for me, especially since many horror movies tend to fall apart in the last act. The closing events actually make sense within the context of the story and bring closure. The only real problem I had with the movie was that the resolution was fairly similar to another movie in the genre. That didn't ruin Jessabelle by any means, but the ending was so familiar that I won't mention the name of the other movie that I'm thinking of because anyone who has seen it will instantly have a fairly accurate idea of how Jessabelle concludes.I recommend Jessabelle to anyone with an affinity for this type of horror - where atmosphere, mystery, and story take the lead over lots of action and mayhem.

Following a car accident, a woman returning to her family home in Louisiana finds a deadly supernatural presence in the house guided by revenge on the family and tries to stop the events from continuing.This was quite the entertaining and somewhat chilling supernatural effort. One of the main elements at work here is the fact that this one really manages to work out a series of chilling and insanely creepy moments here which play along with the supernatural tones in the story quite well. The initial reaction here to finding the tapes left behind in secret and the way he flips out after finding her with them makes for a nice start here, and with the rather chilling house at play where this just simply screams to be filled with the residual effects of a haunting makes for a great time here with the beginnings of the supernatural torments against her. These here are quite fun, with the pounding footsteps running throughout the house and seeming to sound like they're about ready to run into her only to have the revelation of being left along the entire time but being understandably uncomfortable with the situation, while the supernatural attack on the father to ensure the legacy is still around by preventing him from burning the evidence left behind makes for a truly chilling and cruel sequence that comes off nicely. Likewise, other supernatural incidents from the bathtub encounter where she gets pulled underwater by a strange ghostly being, their trek out into the bayou to investigate the strange lights in the night where they find the infants' coffin and the remnants of the voodoo ceremony are quite enjoyable while setting the stage for the final half where it starts getting much more involved with the ghost coming out to haunt them in more graphic , gruesome manners including the strong attack in the car out on the front-yard and the later scene in the bedroom where the ghostly intentions are made clear from the ghosts coming along to dole out their intentions from the very start. Since their mystery investigations into the history of the tapes and her connection to the area manage to make these actions clear, their chilling revelation is played out nicely and given a truly dark outcome that's deeply satisfying. As well, the creepy revelations that come from this one are really enjoyable which make for quite a fun time here with the whole mystery over whether she's a twin or not and how her mother's deteriorating health made it possible to solve what's going on here as this one is far better than expected with the haunting storyline which is where this gets a lot right. Along with the creepy-looking ghost on display, these here hold this up quite nicely over the few minor flaws. The biggest problem here is the fact that there's so much grand supernatural action here that's even spread out over several days that there's no real logical reason why they stay in the house for as long as they do here. this is spread out over a while too so there's no good excuse for staying there after the type of action portrayed here does take a more obvious route to its haunting than what should be considered skeptical about its origins. As well, there's a bit of a slow build here to get to the scares with the first half being the recuperations and her trying to reconnect with her dad which tends to make the first half a little slow getting going, but it's not that detrimental and doesn't hold off the positives all that much.Rated PG-13: Violence, Language, mild disturbing themes of child violence and scenes of ceremonial animal sacrifice.

***EDIT (2015-11-04)Wow, 0 out of 2 found this helpful...? Really...? GEEZ, are my reviews THAT bad, seriously... How very sad... Hey, PLEASE feel free to send me ANY suggestions at all about whatever you think I can do to improve, and I will be happy to try harder to do better...*** END EDITThis is VERY Old-School Horror. So, right up front some people who are used to and prefer more 'Modern' or intense Horror films will almost invariably NOT like this movie or will find it 'Slow' or 'Boring' as some have mentioned in their Review Summaries here.BUT... The film is indeed VERY well made, expertly put together, and most entertaining, *** IF *** you are the kind of person who likes this kind of Horror movie. It is first and foremost a Ghost Story / Voodoo film, with the emphasis on the Ghost Story part. Many here have either positively or negatively compared it to 'SKELETON KEY', which is somewhat true. Except that that movie is primarily a Voodoo film. If you liked it, then you may very well like this one (especially if you also like Ghost Stories :) It is almost entirely constructed out of a heavy, suspenseful mood that I personally found to be quite gripping, tangible, and visceral.The commentary is really enjoyable and I highly recommend listening to it if you do end up liking the film. The ones behind it, the director, writer, and others responsible for the creative processes in this movie clearly had a lot of fun making it. And, I really got the impression that although they both have done MUCH bigger projects, they still really put their hearts and a lot of work into making this one.Usually, the performances in these low budget Horror films can be quite insulting and excruciatingly bad at times (please see my review of the recent 'HONEYMOON' - GEEZ, the acting in that one was truly AWFUl compared to this one) But here, I feel that all the actors and actresses in this one are quite good, and more importantly, BELIEVABLE, which is usually what I find sorely missing in most Horror films today.But, I should make a very important point for any who may be interested in checking this film out. I really think that in order to be able to enjoy it fully, you probably should be the kind of person who is very impressionable with an active imagination, so that all the subtle and not-so-subtle atmospheric and creative touches of the film will have the greatest impact. Needless to say, I am such an impressionable Wussy, that this one definitely drew me in and smacked me around a little...So, IF you are the kind of person who cannot EASILY suspend disbelief and get sucked into a good Ghost Story or Voodoo based film, then you may likely just find this one to be kind of 'Slow' and 'Boring' like some others here have said. Especially if you like your Horror films to be more 'In your face' or with heavier doses of violence or gore.Remember, MOST PG-13 Horror films usually are not very good. So, in my lowly and wretched opinion, I honestly feel a lot of thought and work went into this movie to create a genuinely spooky and effective atmosphere. So, if you like this type of a slow-burn, atmospheric, moody Ghost Story with some Voodoo overtones, I think that there is a good chance that you might really enjoy it...