Sunday 10 May 2015

Review - The dead files - House of mirrors

Amy Allen and Steve DiShiavi are on the road to Independence, Oregon, in search of a haunting once again.
We all know the drill by now (don't we?), Amy does her walkthrough at night, filmed by husband Matt who is in turn filmed by another crew (?!) while Steve's realm is the day: interviewing occupants and digging into the history. We then spend the ep. going back and forth between the two, putting the puzzle (sometimes very conveniently) together until the finale with the householders where a creepy picture is presented and Amy's inscrutable cure is prescribed.Along the way we are entertained by the many faces of Amy Allen.


Here we go!
Steve, car, talking at the camera. he tells us how a couple living in a farmhouse are being terrorised by activity and think their relationship may fall apart without their help.
Amy is now telling us how there are tricksters on the property who create illusions and mess with people, but not in a "haha, got your nose" kind of way, more in a "you go crazy now" sort of fashion. They can also enter people's dreams.

Steve meets Terry at the kitchen table. He admits to hearing voices, seeing full bodied apparitions and even being chased by something in the house which he shares with partner Bobby and sometimes grandson Ashton. Terry is worried that it is affecting his grandson and feels utterly helpless.

"What the Hell?" is usually what we hear from Amy when she enters a location. This time is no different. She's seeing a person yelling in the lounge, it's someone who lives there, and now she is sensing a telepath in the home but HOLD THE PHONE there is the creepiest looking dead plant growing across the ceiling in this room and no one is mentioning it, OK, moving on...this telepath is making things appear.
"OH boy", no we're in the bedroom and meeting the 'tricksters'. They are apparently manipulating the occupants fears and anxieties.

Terry has just told Steve about the women's voices he hears in the kitchen and is describing the figures he's seen at the end of his bed, which are human shaped but smaller.

Come on Amy, time for a crazy face and yes! there it is. She describes the trickster beings as small black humanoids who are quite enjoying all the havoc they are causing.

Steve is now interviewing partner Bobby in the house. He describes the small black figures that both Amy and Terry have talked about, Grandson Ashton also tells Steve about things coming out of the closet  with red eyes and a tall man in the bathroom.
Right, time for Steve to do some history on the home and here's what we know: a prison superintendent lived on the land with his mother in the nineteenth century, he was blamed for a third of his prisoners escaping. His mother then died and was buried there.
Secondly, a deadly feud between neighbours in 1889 happened close by. Now we also find out that the house was moved to its current location from another farm property, so we head out there. Of course, there was a suspicious hanging and deaths there too. Feeling the urge to move anyone?

A sketch is done so it must be time to gather everyone for the reveal. We start the story outside and gradually ramp up the terror and it's not long before we're getting the close up reaction shots and furtive glances all round. We continue to go through the history until we get to the telepathy part, it's Terry, big reveal. It's not really explained but moving on to the tricksters now. Close ups for everyone! Amy crazy face comes out to play and there's tears. But we're not done, let's pull out the sketch: It's the tricksters standing around the bed. hang in there guys there's more, they have a leader.
There's that line "and for that I'm going to hand it over to Amy." Cringe.

Plan of Attack
First off, a physical medium needs to talk to the leader, but at the same time a shaman needs to come in and deal with the tricksters, setting up a wide perimeter around the house.
The guys have to write a journal every week and burn it.
Oh What? that's it? No African Wildebeest tamer? ok, seems easy enough.
Then there's the text at the end of the show that tells us they are still looking for a shaman and a medium and the activity still continues. So what then? Come in, stir it all up, terrify the occupants and then leave?
Seems odd that Amy can't at least hook them up with who they need to perform these things.
Also, most importantly, she neglected to tell them they need someone to come in and do an exorcism on that dead thing creeping across the ceiling, taking over their home which was by far the creepiest thing about the whole episode.


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