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The Changing of Ben Moore
Canada 2015
produced by Jason Mills (executive) for Mills Pictures
directed by Jason Mills
starring Umberto Celisano, Corey Beaulieu, Shannen Melissa, Bruce Novakowski, David Lloydy, Therese Martin, Sarah Sidhu, Holly Barkwell, Barry Nerling, Anthony Welch, Greg Russell Tiderington, Sherry Reimer, Gayle Yamamoto
written by Jason Mills, songs by Kiana Passmore, Between Takes, Bryce Raffle, special effects by Simon Mills, visual effects by Trick Box Studios
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Ben (Umberto Celisano) should be really happy with the life he's
living: He shares a big house with his adoptive brother Derick (Corey
Beaulieu) who really cares about him, he has a lovely girlfriend, Sara
(Shannen Melissa), and he even has a dog he utterly adores. Thing is, of
late he isn't eating anymore, he claims he also isn't sleeping anymore,
but he has hour long blackouts, during which he apparently sleepwalks and
scares the shit out of everybody - so much so that Derick decides to go
after him and film him, mainly to later show Ben the footage and convince
him he needs help ... and Derick is also the first who's really freaked
out by Ben when he finds him standing in a trance over the neighbour'd
dead cat. A few days later, a neighbour is found dead, then Ben's dog -
and Ben is found sleepwalking night after night. Eventually, Ben starts
to worry about himself and he starts a video diary and looks at the videos
others did of him for clues, but can't find anything. At the same time,
his behaviour during his sleepwalking spells becomes more and more erratic
and threatening - and then Sara disappears, and all Ben knows he blacked
out during an argument ... Genre regular Greg Russell Tiderington plays
an exorcist ... who really can't help at all here. Now
personally, I'm not too big a fan of the found footage movies, too many of
them use the approach as an excuse to ditch a decent narrative structure,
decent camerawork or decent effects for the sake of so-called realism and
replace the creation of suspense with shaky camerawork. The Changing of
Ben Moore however avoids all these shortcomings, the structure it's
built on is sound and engaging, it's very low on shaky camera and rich on
tension, it uses its found footage approach not just to show everything in
a few long shots, but also to leave things out narratively to build
suspense - and the effects used to turn Ben into a monster by and by are
rather, erm, effective, really. Really worth a look!
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