Visual Vengeance: The Paranormal (1998) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Visual Vengeance

Visual Vengeance continues to pick up steam as the new frontrunner of unearthing and rereleasing SOV (shot-on-video) films on Blu-ray disc in deluxe trinket-heavy special limited editions and their latest find, Todd Sheets’ contemporary Todd Norris’ 1998 supernatural movie-theater set horror flick The Paranormal is one of the company’s best acquisitions since The Abomination.  Shot and set in the historic Kansas City Englewood Theater which is chock full of Old Hollywood movie memorabilia including but not limited to exquisitely framed posters and antiquated concession stands, the debut film of Todd Norris was considered for some time to be a lost SOV film.  Barely given a distribution plan before being rescued by Visual Vengeance, it represents a videotape movie not only with a head on its shoulders but a genuine love for the magic of the movies including notions of cinema as a portal to other dimensions that would make Jean Cocteau or David Lynch blush. 

 
In the beloved Englewood Theater whose marquee is proudly displayed throughout the film, some kind of poltergeist activity is afoot with lights turning on by themselves or ghostly apparitions starting the 35mm projectors on their own.  Enter paranormal investigator Kyle Jennings (the director himself Todd Norris) a nerdy college kid who is laughed off by Professor Gumangan (Nenita Gumangan) but summoned by the theater to see what’s going on.  

After bringing in surveillance video equipment and reuniting with an old high school friend working as one of the projectionists at the theater, the terror ignites when they find themselves trapped inside the theater Demons style and discover a portal appears on the movie screen allowing monsters from the film Z is for Zombie to actively spill over into the auditorium threatening the safety of the Professor and the projectionists.  Eventually a search in the basement of the theater leads to the discovery of a cursed supernatural film reel which may hold the key to preventing the portal from unleashing unknown horrors into our universe.

 
Co-written by C. Wayne Owens and exceedingly well shot and blocked for a video feature by cinematographers Kurt Branstetter and Edward Stencel with most of the production work, editing and sound completed by Todd Norris himself, The Paranormal is surprisingly really good for what it is.  A scrappy yet astute little number with colorful lighting, innovative visual effects including a sneaky cribbing of the Alien xenomorph scream that was more charming than cringey, a scene where 35mm film stock turns into a tentacled The Evil Dead styled monster and just a hint of Cocteau’s Orpheus permeating the whole thing, what could’ve been a tedious lo-fi SOV slog is a sharp and taut, lean mean indie.  Pushing the envelope and expectations of what people think of when it comes to the SOV picture, The Paranormal soars past expectations large and small into the stratosphere.  Rarely do little video numbers or pickups from Visual Vengeance get it so awesomely right!

 
Presented on Blu-ray disc in a new director-supervised transfer of the original tape elements, sometimes the audio or video can be spotty but overall it is clean and dialogue is audible.  In addition to the director commentary, there’s a running commentary with the film’s composer Paul Andrew Roberts who also conjures up an overqualified score for this scrappy little indie.  Just for fun, there’s a video interview pairing up The Two Todds aka Todd Norris and Todd Sheets.  There’s at least four short films by Norris leading up to his feature film debut in the extras, deleted scenes, a blooper reel and even video of the Channel 5 airing bumpers.  As always, Visual Vengeance goes above and beyond the call of duty providing a VHS sticker set, a set of paranormal glasses and a folded mini-poster.  For those new and/or unaccustomed to the world of SOV films or Visual Vengeance, this might be their best new acquisition yet, surpassing my first of theirs The Abomination despite the lo-fi heights that one reached.

--Andrew Kotwicki