Customer Reviews

The St. Francisville Experiment

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

You have to love a good ghost story to enjoy "The St. Francisville Experiment," a rehash of the immensely popular "Blair Witch Project" which came out the year before in 1999. Both films are pseudo documentaries filmed by annoying youngsters who set out to crack the mystery of ominous old legends. In both cases, the kids start their respective expeditions confident and self-assured, hand-held cameras jerking about while they spout wisecracks at the nearest shadows. Eventually, the kids end up terrified, surrounded by supernatural forces they could never have imagined.

I consider "The Blair Witch Project" to be a modern-day horror classic, well acted and perfectly executed. It frightened me, and I enjoyed the fact that the monsters could never quite be seen. The filmmakers caught lightning in a bottle, and when they released its fiercely mediocre sequel a couple of years later, it was apparent the magic was gone.

There is some magic in "The St. Francisville Experiment," but it is still inferior to "The Blair Witch Project" in almost every way. The acting is forced, the locale at a supposed haunted house in Louisiana is only slightly eerie, and the conclusion is never believable. And yet there's a scene, when a ghostly specter makes an appearance, that will definitely give you the creeps. It's all fun, and perhaps the young at heart will get a kick out of this carnival ride.

Four kids, including a filmmaker, historian, psychic and the obligatory "team leader," decide to spend the night in a haunted house. Prior to the big bash, the history of the house is documented. Somehow, and none too convincingly, they connect the house's history with the infamous New Orleans' legend of Madame LaLaurie. An 1830s Creole socialite who lived in the French Quarter, her house supposedly burned down and discovered within was a torture chamber where she conducted hideous experiments on slaves. She fled New Orleans in the middle of the night and, according to this film, eventually holed up in the secluded St. Francisville home.

The Madame LaLaurie legend, the Grand Guignol of New Orleans ghost stories, has never been convincingly proven, though it has been recited for over 100 years. I actually enjoyed the fact that "The St. Francisville Experiment" attempted to connect its story with this most famous of urban legends. The tale is as creepy as the set-up for "The Blair Witch Project," and unlike the latter film, the legend is at least partially based on fact.

The kids arrive in the middle of the night, enter the house and begin exploring its interior. The house is certainly authentic, but it's apparent that at least someone arrives on a regular basis to dust and clean its interior. But never mind. Closets are explored, a seance is conducted and a chair flies across the attic - and it all works for the most part. My problem at this point is the growing fear of the actors. Their hyperventilating terror is never convincing and it is abundantly clear they are mimicking the very good performances from "The Blair Witch Project." Additional secrets are discovered, including hidden chambers, but I realized I could have just as well bought a ticket to a Halloween funhouse for the same scares.

The beauty of "The Blair Witch Project" was that during its frantic running time, there was never a moment of doubt. Certainly the documentary was fabricated, but it was always convincing. I was never convinced by "The St. Francisville Experiment." Had the filmmakers spent a bit more time with their idea, they could have struck a nerve. There is always something unsettling about an old abandoned house, similar to what was seen during the final moments of "The Blair Witch Project." But the house used in this film, even with its hidden chambers and old furniture, looks like a display at the local museum.

It took a great amount of skill and imagination to pull off "The Blair Witch Project." There were so many missteps that could have been taken. None were. "The St. Francisville Experiment" lumbers around and makes these very mistakes. We see chains falling, chairs flying and ghosts hovering within mirrors. I liked the ghost, but the film leaves little to the imagination, and thus its authenticity is compromised. For a low budget flick such as this, that is a mistake.

I've read some of the reviews of this film (good and bad) and I cannot believe the people who wrote the bad reviews actually thought it was supposed to be real. Did you really think the Blair Witch Project was real as well? These are MOVIES!
If you accept BLAIR WITCH and ST. FRANCISVILLE for what their producers intended; Cheaply made, scripted movies pretending to be documentaries, then you'll begin to see the fun in them.
And St. Francisville was a fun film. There were actually some very good (and frightful) moments. The chair flying across the room, for one. The people who are upset that B.W. and ST. Francisville are "obvious fakes" are probably confused as to why The Beatles allowed Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to perform on one of their albums.

C'mon all you snobs out there! Where is your IMAGINATION? Of course this is a BWP ripoff...but so what? It was entertaining, and it had a couple moments that were so eerie, so creepy as to induce goosebumps. yes, the end is a bit of a letdown, but the initial chills were fun. If you can watch this little piece of atmosphere alone, in a dark room, without getting that feeling--you know...that cold dread of fear at the base of the spine...as it slowly moves upward, the hair on your arms stands up, the skin begins to crawl, the heart beats a bit harder, now there is definately a creeping,cold chill...like dead fingers brushing at the base of your skull washing over you and your no longer sure that you WANT to see whats in the attic, or in that closet...or what might be hidden, behind those old clothes, in that hole in the wall,--at least once...well, my friend, you are officially jaded. too bad for you!

This is a well done ghost/haunted house story. Lots of atmosphere and tension, could have used more subtlty for realism, but oh well. The ending is fun, albeit a tad cheezy, and a nice little capper for the story. For those of you who were angry at the BWP for not showing you the MONSTA (which i can't understand, by the way. GOD that movie scared the hell out of me!!!), well...don't blink or you'll miss it, cuz there is a gin-yu-wine RAH RAH MONSTA in this old house. Don't see this if you NEED for it all to be REAL (you know who you are)...it aint, but it has an "almost there" quality to it. See this if you want to watch a fun, genuinely freaky movie that delivers some real spoooooky chills.

All in all, nicely done. Could have taken a couple lessons in subtlty for full creep-out effect, but certainly could have been worse!

Let me say first that All in all, i felt scared once, when the movie wouldnt eject out of my VCR, (thank god for quick thinking and a bat ).

The only reason i rented this cheeeesy movie was because my friend hyped me up about it saying , " the scariest movie i have ever seen! Better than the blair witch!" now i saw the blair witch w/this particular friend and i must say it freaked me out, so to hear him say this about the movie got me thinkin. If it was possible to get the time i wasted back after watching this movie, i would. The actors who are supposedly "real people" are fake and boring. The 4 characters are 1 physcic named Madison, 1 history major Ryan (girl), 1 team leader chicken Paul and 1 goofy cameraman Tim. While watching the first 15 min you get a feeling of the Blair witch w/ many interviews w/ local people and directors and what not. The house if supposedly haunted by a women in the 1800's who mutilated many of her salves. She then escaped a mob and then supposedly hid in the st. francisville house where she did even more gruesome acts. It sounded like a pretty intersting plot i must say.

At the time the gang reaches the house you have about 55 minutes left. I couldnt understand what they could do for 55 min when the first 15 min felt like 1 hour. The group gets in, the only way out if the front door. the windows and the rest of the doors are locked tight. They make camp in the front living room. and start a HOUSE WARMING party. they pray to the house, " we come in peace, and are protected by the white light." If i ever hear a person say WHITE LIGHT again i might die. After this they go throught rooms where every closet has a sound, but only have cats jumpin out of them. FINALLY! in the last 10 minutes do they split up, go to different areas and start to get their butts whipped by a ghost.

Based on an intriguing premise, the filmmakers hired four bad actors to spend the night in a haunted house, which in actuality is a very nice home somebody obviously left for the weekend so the film could be fabricated. A legitimate ghost hunter was brought in to make things even more authentic.

But, alas, nothing does happen in the house, so a bunch of dumb, cheap and non-scary sight gags (no pun intended) had to be created to fill in the gaps. The result is a cross between "The Real World" (with participants only half as intelligent -- now that's saying something) and a day in the worst amusement park haunted house ever.

The success of "The Blair Witch Project" in 1999 virtually assured a few other people would rush out, with video cameras firmly in hand, in an attempt to ride a similar wave to fame and fortune. Who can blame them? The two guys who made "Blair Witch" laughed all the way to the bank, I think, although I don't know how much they made off the film. I suspect the people responsible for "The St. Francisville Experiment" didn't necessarily laugh as much as they chuckled faintly to the nearest money lending institution. You see, this film is a blatant rip-off of "The Blair Witch Project," right down to real people playing themselves as the characters, an ancient ghostly presence haunting a location (in this case a house), and the final "horrific" denouement as the characters encounter something definitely not of this world. The best thing about "Blair Witch" wasn't the film itself but the absolutely chilling pseudo-documentary that aired on the Sci-Fi Channel before the film arrived in theaters. "The St. Francisville Experiment" tries something similar by telling us the history of who supposedly haunts the house.

According to the slightly interesting introductory segment, the spirit of Madame LaLaurie has been causing quite a stir. Who is Madame LaLaurie? Some lady who tortured slaves back in the nineteenth century before disappearing after a fire exposed her nefarious crimes to society. Yeah, that Madame LaLaurie. The movie fills us in on all the gory details just so we know the ghost of this infernal creature could cause a lot of nasty problems for those sticking their noses where they don't belong. Then we get on to the movie, as four annoying dimwits set off to investigate a house supposedly haunted by this spirit--or something like that. The characters include a psychically sensitive woman named Madison Charap, the team leader Paul Cason, "videographer" Tim Thompson, and a female historian named Ryan Larson. All of these young people go trooping into this house with a bunch of food, cameras, and other necessary equipment to capture their experiences. They also go in at night since we all know ghosts will never, ever come out during daylight. Locked inside for the night, the team must wander around the house and record their impressions. They don't get started right away because they have to spend a lot of time mooning around in the first room they enter.

Nonetheless, weird stuff starts happening after awhile. Anything you can think of associated with a haunting turns up in this movie. You've got cold spots, voices, noises, bangings, and doors opening and closing. You also get chains falling out of chimneys, bloodstained tools found in a chest in the basement, something sinister wrapped up in a cloth in an armoire, and the famous chair flying across the room. The chair scene alone seems to consume an enormous amount of screen time, as the four researchers must hover around the camera to rewatch the chair moving under its own power, talk about the spiritual implications of such a disturbing incident for what feels like hours, and then must go back up to the attic where the whole thing took place. We even see a bug crawling out of someone's sandwich and a cat jumping out to scare everyone senseless. The conclusion to the film sees all four split up for their own personal encounters with the spirits plaguing this house. Are all of these events related to a sinister spiritual manifestation? Sure they are since this film claims that everything we see is the absolute, irrefutable, uncontested truth. Who are we to argue otherwise? More importantly, who are YOU to argue otherwise?

Very little works in "The St. Francisville Experiment" beyond the nifty chair gag and perhaps selected segments of the ending. Let's begin and end with the four airheads involved in the "experiment." Other viewers are correct in asserting that Madison Charap, she of the white light and other crackpot bunkum, is assuredly the most annoying human being presently living on this mortal coil. Move over, Meg Ryan. Step aside, Britney Spears. Hit the road, Mariah Carey. There's a new sheriff in town and her name is Madison Charap. That grating tone, that constant intonation to surround oneself with white light, that emphasis on feeling what's going on around oneself; these are the things uttered by this raven haired dipstick that had me reaching for a heavy yet easily tossed object. Sadly, none of the other three present a viable alternative to Charap's dithering. Ryan shrieks and screams so much I thought her foot was caught in a bear trap. The two male members of the crew are nothing compared to the two prancing clowns named Larson and Charap. I would like to personally thank the ghosts for tormenting these four yucks. Rest in peace now, spirits; you have done well. Move toward the light!

The most significant liability in "The St. Francisville Experiment" is the performances, but the house itself isn't all that scary. When the young people walked in, I expected a grungy, dingy, spooky atmosphere--and what we see is a fully furnished house replete with furniture, draperies, fully made beds, and a working electrical system. I kept expecting the residents to come in the front door from a night out demanding to know why these people were poking around their abode. Since the whole "film" is supposedly true in every way, it's nice the distributors included a batch of trailers for other real life films like "Crocodile," "Octopus," and "Storm of the Century." We also get a little featurette on how to conduct your own ghost hunting expedition. The only ghosts I will try to exorcize in the near future are the memories of this film.

This is one one the Cheesiest, Silly, Predictable, Cliched,Shock-O-Rama movies to come out in 30 years that actually works. I'm sorry, this movie is tons of fun and contains some real scares that will raise the hairs on your neck. Is it a rip-off of "Blair Witch Project"? Yes! But you know what? It works. It has great scares and would be perfect for a little girls sleepover at Halloween Time. I am a sucker for this type of flick! Boo!

If you like good horror movies, then this is the movie for you. The guys in the movie certainly bring in the comedy and you can't help but laugh at the pyschic. But aside from that, The St. Francisville Experiment definitely keeps you on the edge of your feet and I must admit, I actually did scream on several occasions, and I never do that. Combine what happened while they stayed in the house with the plantation's history and what you have is one heck of a scary movie. I am actually planning on buying it. But this movie is a definite must see!! I wouldn't recommend it if I didn't mean it!

SFE is not groundbreaking. If you are a stuck up little film snot, then this movie probably isn't for you because it's meant to be fun. If you are cynical, pretentious, or only watch "films" and never "movies" (you know who you are), please, show yourself to the door.

Okay, the rest of you? Still there? Good. Let's get down to business.

SFE is a lot like sitting around and telling scary stories during a sleepover. All it is really, is a device that is trying to spook you. Let yourself go and you stand a great chance of being freaked out by this movie. I know I was.

The story is simple. Take "Blair Witch," cut the general plot and characters (plus a few more) and paste the whole deal into a haunted house. Add minimal FX and wash, rinse, repeat.

The best difference between SFE and BWP is that SFE feels like there is some design to the way it was made. It feels produced, but scarier because it wasn't made by some kids in the forest who don't know the first thing about suspense (or in their case, improvisation).

If you're looking for a fun way to kill a friday night, give it a whirl. I think you'll like it.

I bought this thing. As one reviewer said, "It's Awful". There is no excuse for trying to pawn this off as "true"."The Last Broadcast" is an award winner compared to this.1-Four troglodytes with no real experience attempt to cleanse a house of ghosts.2- The house is haunted by a serial murderess from New Orleans who might have fled to St. Francisville.There is also another ghost there whose name is Charles.Actually he is the only one who has any intellegence in the whole movie.3-The four take on an abandoned antebellum house that is completely furnished and immaculately clean.Even the attic has no dust or cobwebs .The house is fully electric and the power is on4-They continue to inform the ghosts that they are protected by divine white light.Also, they love them and want to help them.Of course the ghosts see through this, as they listen to the cursing and other foul language coming out of the four. If you can get through this consider yourself possessed with the virtue of patience.The ghost Charles, we are told, calls 911 to get rid of the four dodos.