Saturday, November 12, 2005

TV REVIEW: A Haunting: "Echoes from the Grave"

Viewing last night's episode of A Haunting on The Discovery Channel, I noticed that it commenced with a black screen and a card reminding viewers that the events depicted in the upcoming episode were "based on eyewitness accounts."

And then, when I listened to the opening narration again, the one about "real evil" existing in this world, I considered the opening narrations of The Twilight Zone, One Step Beyond, even Tales from the Darkside. Pondering these comparisons, I suddenly realized that A Haunting - though it presents as a documentary - is actually the latest in a long and noble line of TV horror anthologies.

Only here's the rub: this series utilizes the prevailing styles popular today rather than the rather staid-seeming approach of yesteryear. In other words, A Haunting manipulates the "real" or "true story" approach of the Blair Witch Project, coupled with the currently in-vogue documentary format we've enjoyed in mainstream theatrical hits such as Fahrenheit 9/11, Supersize Me! and March of the Penguins. I can hardly get angry at A Haunting for claiming to be "based" on true stories. Why? Well, uhm, Last House on the Left, The Amityville Horror, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and even The Legend of Boggy Creek all exploited the very same technique. It's a good, fast way of scaring an audience. Most recently, I guess it was The Exorcism of Emily Rose that brought the "true story" card out of mothballs.

But make no mistake, this is a TV program that is designed to scare the pants off you; and to my delight, it works more often than it doesn't. A Haunting is edited and constructed with a tip of the hat to (and a thorough understanding of..) at least the last fifty years of horror cinema history. And that means you've got your P.O.V. subjective shots (from the viewpoint of the spook!), you've got your high-angle shots (which mean doom and entrapment), and you even have the classic "Stay Awake!" shot (wherein a character - after suffering a nightmare - bolts up in bed, sweating profusely...). It's all here, combined and vetted in expert fashion to create an experience that I suppose you might believe is true...if you're gullible. But for me, the show is enjoyable because it's scary and well produced.

Watching "Echoes from the Grave" I realized how infrquently TV is really scary these days. And more to the point, how infrequently stylistic editing techniques are deployed on a TV series to make one so. Night Stalker is sometimes scary. Supernatural every now and then. But so far (and I've only watched three episodes...), A Haunting manages to be scary more often than not.

"Echoes from the Grave" tells the story of Ron and Nancy Stallings in the year 1965. They believe they've found the perfect house, a historic home built in 1920 near Baltimore. But when they move in with their six children, things start to go wrong. A faucet spigot opens by itself. Heavy footsteps are heard in the hallways at night. Nancy's cousin Bill, an attorney, feels an "overwhelming sense of dread" when he tries to walk to the second floor. A priest comes to bless the house, but inconveniently forgets to bless the porch (D'oh!). The ghostly presence(s) continue to raise a ruckus, spurring Nancy to call on the services of renowned paranormal investigator Hans Holzer (from Austria) and his "trans-medium." Perhaps the most disturbing information comes from a notation Bill sees at the Hall of Records: every previous family living in that house has seen a loved one die there before escaping...

My favorite moment on A Haunting this week was that little scare sequence set on the front porch. An innocuous-seeming red-and-white tricycle starts driving around - back and forth - by itself, and the moment is guaranteed to make you shiver. And then - my god - there was that totally insane closing montage. The episode's editor deserves some kind of bonus for the apoplectic burst of nutty, frenetic cutting here. The set-up is that Ron and Nancy (Hey, Ron and Nancy? What kind of joke is that?) have finally sold their house and are ready to leave, when Nancy forgets something important in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Of course, she goes back into the house alone, and the place terrorizes her with two or so minutes of unremitting terror. Faucets turn on and off. Windows lock and unlock. Doors slam and open. A chair races across the floor of its own volition. This was a crazy, inspired, nearly Raimi-esque moment of horror and I really dug it. Again, I'm not going to say I believe in any of this stuff, only that it is vetted exceptionally well by the production company.

Viewed as a spooky anthology about haunted houses, A Haunting is a lot of fun, but I do wonder how the creators of this show can possibly maintain this pace(!) and adhere to a fairly limited format over time. The story structure is a familiar one to fans of haunted house movies, and I'm not sure how to overcome that. Let me diagram the outline: There's the honeymoon stage, wherein a happy couple buys a "fixer upper" that they shouldn't be able to afford. Then there's the uncertainty stage, wherein the family moves into the haunted house and begins to experience feelings of apprehension, nightmares and a general sense of wariness. Then there's the recognition stage, where the occult is acknowledged and steps are taken to get help (either moving, conducting research at the Hall of Records, or bringing in an expert like the Warrens or Holzer). Finally, the beleaguered family achieves a sense of safety after escaping from the house, in the Let's-All-Take-A-Deep Breath Stage.

The Haunting
is a young show, so repetition isn't a factor at all yet, and hopefully the writers will mix it up a little bit, given the above-noted ironclad structure. How about beginning a show with the departure from the house? How about other haunted venues (mausoleums, cars, boats, I dunno...). How about conflicting eyewitness reports? And a dramatization of the same happening from both perspectives? We'll watch over the course of the next dozen weeks or so and see if A Haunting maintains this crazy momentum and visual style, along with story originality...

22 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:57 AM

    AMEN TO THAT! Haha. This show is very realistic, which makes it engadgeing, however it's simply a fake show. Thankyou John for finally confirming my opinion!

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  2. "Digging up some history on this, were the real Ron & Nancy avid ghost hunters?" .....
    ....(From the Maryland Committee for Psychical Research, experts Ron and Nancy Stallings, Kevin Mack, Sarah Estep and medium Cathy Bradford, of New York, joined to investigate the many sightings at Point Lookout. Advising the group was Hans Holzer, a professor at the New York Institute of Technology who has written 60 books on the paranormal and who produced the 1976-'77 NBC series In Search Of.)
    (Nancy Stallings claimed to possess highly developed psychic skills. Typically, ghosts ran to not from her. While the ghosts were trying to get their messages across to Nancy, Ron would snap their pictures. One of the many photos Ron took at the lighthouse showed what appeared to be a headless man in a Confederate uniform leaning against the wall in the green front bedroom. The camera had seen him, but none of the people there at the time had.)
    (http://www.bayweekly.com/year00/issue8_42/lead8_42.html)...........
    "So this is her book on the experience?".....
    (Show Me One Soul: A True Haunting (Hardcover)
    by Nancy L. Stallings) (http://www.amazon.com/Show-Me-One-Soul-).......
    (Haunting/dp/1561673161/ref=sr_11_1/102-7558776-3452104?ie=UTF8).........
    ......"The Real Hanz?"........
    (Interview With Dr. Hans Holzer http://seancasteel.phantombookshop.com/holzer.htm)......
    ......."Hmmmm,....?!?"

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    1. Anonymous4:51 PM

      they were not Ghost hunters until after they moved out of the evergreen house, My father, Ron Stallings did not believe in ghost until ten years of living with them in the Evergreen house.

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  3. Anonymous9:26 PM

    Had friends who worked on the show. For the most part, it's a scripted series; almost all of the stories were written by the producers. Most of the interviewees (the ones who appear in silhouette) are actors. Others were pulled off Craigslist. Notice how NO evidence is presented, no photos, recordings, movies, etc, nothing. Good production values though. But the stories aren't true.

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    1. Anonymous4:55 PM

      The Echoes from the grave was not scripted, it was based on my mothers book of the real life experiences we had living in the house in Baltimore. the interviews were real answers to questions that were asked of my Parents and Brother. so you need to get your facts straight, because I know our story is very much real.

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    2. Anonymous3:14 PM

      Yes all is true and they did have photos with ghosts. We knew these people well. We were there when photos captured things not there. None of these stories were made up by producers. Get the book. You will get a better idea of what went on in that house.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous1:42 PM

    I believe in ghosts. Don't critisize me because I do, I have the right to believe. But, I like 'A Haunting'!

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  5. Anonymous4:02 PM

    What offends me about this show is the Super Christian bent of the show; more often than not, it ends with the christian church coming to the rescue, and parapsychologists being discounted or bashed. And this is no surprise, since the Executive Producer is a super christian out of Virginia Beach, VA.

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    1. Anonymous5:09 PM

      The only thing that happened in our house on evergreen ave (Echoes of the Grave)when the Catholic Church did a exorcism of the house, is the ghost got 10 times worse. absolutely did not help one bit.

      Scott Stallings

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  6. Anonymous3:26 PM

    Does anyone know the name of the actress who played Nancy Stallings on this show, "Echoes from the Grave"? She looks like someone I knew from college.

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    1. Anonymous7:49 AM

      Lizette Santiago
      http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2245901/filmotype

      Delete
    2. Anonymous8:18 AM

      Wrong one. That actress plays the psychic who comes with Holzer.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous7:33 PM

    The thing that I had a problem with is that When she gave birth in the hospital, the narrator said she gave birth to a son, their first child together. Then when she went home the baby was a girl and the actors said," Say hi to your new sister. And when we get inside you can hold her." lol.

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    1. Anonymous5:30 PM

      That bothered me too. Because I am the real-life son, depicted as the new baby in the show. They did get the pink blanket right though. My parents were expecting me to be a girl, something about the way my mother (Nancy Stallings)was carrying me when she was pregnant. I guess in 1967 that is house the could tell if a baby was going to be a boy or a girl. So all the baby things they had were for a girl, i was born and was a boy, so the only baby blanket they had was pink, so that is what they brought me home in. I drug that blanket around with me until I was 5 ( like Linus) and I still have it in my cedar chest.

      Scott Stallings

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  8. I just saw this story oh You tube, and checked on what Oldmanskates wrote, and they ROn and Nancy Stallings even have a website, and it seems like she knew she was already psychic, even before Hans Holzer told her. The show does need to watch its mistakes, like with the baby going from a son to a daughter as their first baby together. Some of us do pay attention! Anyway, I have never ran into anyone who lived in a haunted house. I have had experiences though, like when my grandmother died, I was around eleven and after she died my father and mother moved us in her house for awhile, and while napping in her house I felt a cool breeze, smelled her perfume, and the feeling was comforting. I knew it was her. For some reason I feel that my gram has always looked out for me, maybe that is why i never had any troublesome experiences. But i do know they exist! Its the demons that cause trouble, look out for them!

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  9. Anonymous8:58 AM

    where is this house at in baltimore?

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    1. Anonymous10:34 PM

      Evergreen ave. East Baltimore off of Hartford rd just south of northern Pkwy. Don't have a house number wish I did

      Delete
    2. Anonymous4:36 PM

      I can tell you the address because, I am the son of Ron and Nancy Stallings and I lived in that house for 7 years, but my family lived there for 10 years. One of my brothers (Allan) appeared on the show. My father passed away shortly after the filming of the show. The house number 3208 evergreen ave.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous11:55 PM

    I read somewhere that the address is 3208 Evergreen Ave. It's in Hamilton between Sefton Ave and Hamilton Ave. The zip code is 21214. I walked down that street as a kid and I was very scared for some reason. I went to Hamilton Jr. High.

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    1. Anonymous5:13 PM

      yes, that is the address, that was a creepy house. what year did you attend Hamilton Jr. High?

      Scott Stallings

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    2. My mom grew up in Hamilton and attended Sefton Elementary. She would tell me stories about how she and her friends would cross the street so as not to walk past a scary house...but she described it as being on the corner of Sefton Avenue and White Avenue. My parents were also friends with Bill C., a lawyer who said he had visited the house and witnessed some strange happenings. Could this be the same house?

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  11. I wonder how new owners have fared in this house. Any word?

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