While visiting runaway sister Venus (Jaidyn Triplett), Jazmin Price (Samantha Russell) decides to take her sister to TV Pagoda’s screening room if she still feels disturbed by the expository tour around her hometown and the sinister folklore of their family. It’s anthology time, folks, as it always excites me, and this one concerns both the LGBTQ+ community and people of color so I was waiting for writer-director Parker Brennon’s take on the portmanteau pic.
I am very sorry to say, and very annoyed, that Hauntology not only fails to have a go at reinventing the subgenre but seems to have some quite dry understanding of the magic ingredients that make the format shine. The template is there: framing device four different timelines with four main stories (and one extra story time at the end for the sisters) and a sliver of fan-pleasing casting with Nancy Loomis, Naomi Grossman, and Samantha Robinson. The problem is, however, is that the deviation often happens in the most crucial moments of the film and is simply astonishingly unremarkable.
The idea of a town and a family in its midst haunted by ghosts is interesting as is the concept of the outcasts coming back home to seek revenge, but each one of them is so over-exploited that all the viewers are left with what was the purpose of every single story at the end except for everyone who was not white and straight had it rough in history and now do as well. It’s a commendable message, but it doesn’t hit the way it is intended because the content is practically always very dull.
It feels like the individual segments could have used a secondary rewrite. There is always some kernel of a good idea but it’s never developed past a few lines and there’s a sense of needing to finish which is so vague that more than once during the film I was puzzled when the camera focused back to the sisters going towards their next stop during their journey. When the audience is saying, “Oh! Is that the way it has ended?”, the piece cannot be said to have met its objectives in terms of providing memorable, or even adequate closure. The short form is ideal for a big concluding punch and it gives me no pleasure to say that Hauntology never comes close to providing that nastiest of teas.
At least the first vignette, Witchcraft Becomes Her, displays the self-effacing appeal of the ever-pleasant Grossman in what may easily pass as a duel of more formidable dark forces, and her trusty and ever-confident witch sidekick who has just welcomed the new Julian (Ace Rosas, then Zoey Luna), but the metaphor for trans acceptance is positioned so low in the mix that I wished for the portrayal to be more in-your-face as opposed to that of a demon whose nuisance value is so ease as to make me expect a late in the day return that never came.
The Day Mabel Came Out Of The Grave is up next, the third one, and it tells the story of another decaying relationship between a couple Iris and Jade in which the latter gets attracted to a cemetery where there is a grave of a Mabel Bishop who all her life was an openly gay woman and was killed by a miserable bigot in the 19th century known to many as The Man In The Hat or was it The Man With The Hat or am I starting to portray Dr. Seuss? In either case, the ghost couldn’t be any paler than his complexion in all spheres being in every sense of the word. At the title’s onset, I was hoping that the design issue Emmanuel Miraglia’s giallo from 1971 emerging The Birthday’s 2nd half would end up being very close to what it was in fact over fruition but it is too steered in the wrong direction, coming back in for a post-resolution piece of business to remind viewers of one of the characters in the movie.
The titling of Paint And Black Lace cannot escape the giallo influence as business and life partners Shane and Owen come to the conclusion that in order to sell the art of a contractor that doesn’t exist, they should without any shame steal her work from the media personality and deceased art world figure May Fellner and sooner or later start noticing their employees getting killed by a figure with a black glove. There are one or two advantages of this which are some bloodthirsty action and a humorous interplay between the characters which does bring out the enjoyment I was looking for in other parts and also has the evergreen Samantha Robinson in her usual self.
The last act revolves around a reporter Madeline Ishii (Lindsey McDowell) reaching Old Dark Cashel House and being interrupted by the previous redneck racist in the hat who complains about her phone. This uses the opportunity to provide a decent although quite predictable jump scare but then the events were not meant for that story as all the events earlier were just the prequel or introduction to the real last story where Mad Man has to be defeated before he reaches Venus bringing a nice circular feel to the beginning.
From my perspective, Hauntology could have been a great opportunity to grab a particular audience who would otherwise be unreceptive towards watching LGBTQ content. I appreciate the choice to tone things down to an extent; however, in doing so, I left with a sense of a film that, at least for myself, was somewhat hesitant to praise variety. For the record, it is not the first time I recommend watching it and making your own conclusions, for sure, the best part about this is that there are things to be appreciated. I just wish there was more to this that I could aggressively support.
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