THE CHARNEL HOUSE (2016)

Studio:       Freestyle Digital Media
Director:    Craig Moss
Writer:       Chad Israel, Emanuel Isler
Producer:  Sandra Siegal, Mark B. Johnson
Stars:     Callum Blue, Nadine Velazquez, Makenzie Moss, Erik LaRay Harvey, Danielle Lauder, Andy Favreau, Kate Linder, Neil Thackaberry, Alden Tab

Review Score:

---

Summary:

Residents of a high-tech loft are haunted by the building’s history as a serial killer’s slaughterhouse.

---

Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

1983 – Police surround the Fairmont Meat Co. in Cleveland, Ohio where serial killer Thomas Schect has been using the slaughterhouse as a front to hide his victims’ body parts. In the building’s clock tower, Thomas’s son Rupert has a vision of his father embracing him and jumping out the window, killing them both. In reality, Thomas comes up to embrace his son and jumps, but the boy is not in his arms. When police talk to Rupert on the ground afterward, the boy looks up at the clock tower and sees a mirror image of himself looking back.

Present Day – Alex and Charlotte Reaves renovate the building into the Fairmont Lofts: high-tech housing units built with infrared scanners that adapt to a resident’s biorhythms and function on voice activation. New tenants include Blaine Cornish, Jackson Davies, Emily Turner, and Devin Pyles.

Blaine regularly voices his displeasure at gentrifying the old slaughterhouse. Jackson is a professional hockey player. He and Emily take a mutual romantic interest in one another. Devin’s father used to work at the slaughterhouse. Believing that his father may have been one of Thomas Schect’s victims, Devin is now researching the building’s history to uncover what happened to Rupert after police closed the slaughterhouse.

Alex experiences headaches that occasionally lead to unconsciousness while inside the building. He and his wife’s daughter Mia begins following and speaking to a vision of Rupert that only she can see.

During the night, Blaine is woken by slaughterhouse images suddenly broadcast on his TV. Blaine tries leaving the building but finds the front doors locked. Blaine goes into the basement where he is confronted by visions of slaughterhouse workers who supernaturally strangle him with a chain.

After discovering Mia speaks to Rupert and finding more physical clues in the clock tower, Devin tells Charlotte about the building’s history. Charlotte angrily confronts Alex over him not telling her about the slaughterhouse murders.

An old newspaper photo shows Devin that there were two Ruperts at the building when the police came in 1983. Meanwhile, Alex continues to be haunted by slaughterhouse imagery, including a vision of Thomas Schect forcing Rupert to butcher an animal.

After returning home from a date with Jackson, Emily’s hair gets caught in her garbage disposal. Emily pulls herself free, but smashes her head on the kitchen counter and dies.

Alex begins speaking to an invisible presence and acting as if possessed. He also starts behaving strangely toward Mia. Jackson comes over to collect his dog Butch from Mia and finds Alex brandishing a knife. Mia follows a vision of Rupert while Jackson tries calming Alex.

Having seen her own vision of Rupert in the clock tower, Charlotte goes to tell Devin about it. Devin tells Charlotte his theory that before Thomas Schect killed himself, Rupert had a vision of his father trying to kill him too. Having glimpsed his own death, Rupert’s soul split into a doppelganger just in time to save itself. Rupert thus survived, but his doppelganger spirit stayed behind and now needs to reunite with his body so he can die like he was supposed to. Rupert’s spirit and the building now work to stop anyone who might prevent that from happening. Devin eventually concludes that Alex is Rupert and doesn’t realize it because his body transformed after the slaughterhouse ordeal.

Alex kills Jackson and sets off to find Mia. Devin and Charlotte also search separately for the little girl.

Charlotte finds Jackson’s body in his apartment. Devin finds Blaine’s body in the basement. Devin also sees a vision on a television that shows Thomas Schect compelling Rupert to kill Devin’s captive father.

Charlotte confronts Alex. Devin comes to Charlotte’s rescue, allowing her to continue searching for Mia. However, Alex stabs Devin and chases after his wife.

Charlotte and Mia reunite in the clock tower. Alex enters and grabs Mia. Alex throws the little girl through the clock face window as Charlotte screams.

Similar to Rupert’s experience, it turns out Mia was only having a premonition of her own death. Charlotte and Mia reunite in the clock tower in reality. Alex enters, but he is confronted by a vision of Rupert. Alex embraces Rupert and jumps through the clock face window. Rupert disappears into Alex as Alex hits the ground and dies.

Devin is taken to an ambulance in the aftermath. As Charlotte escorts Mia out of the building, Mia looks back up at the clock tower and sees another version of her looking back.

---

Review:

“The Charnel House” earns a special kiss of the fingertips for being set in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.  Although the city is never referenced aloud in dialogue, it does appear in text here and there.  Cleveland is underrepresented in films in general, particularly horror, so it’s always nice to see its Midwestern skyline in backgrounds instead of the usual L.A., New York, or other big city setting.  With that, I have officially exhausted the list of compliments to be paid to the movie.

Bad things happened at the Fairmont Meat Co. in 1983.  Serial killer Thomas Schect used the slaughterhouse as a front for storing victims’ body parts and with police closing in for the capture, Thomas took his own life by jumping from the brick building’s poorly-CGI’ed clock tower.  Thomas tried taking his young son Rupert with him.  But a strange premonition seemingly split Rupert’s spirit from his body and somehow saved his life that fatefully fatal day.

Flash forward to the “present day.”  Much like Jeffrey Dahmer’s apartment or Sharon Tate’s house, you’d think the site of gruesome and presumably highly publicized killings would become a macabre Mecca for mass murder and true crime enthusiasts.  Apparently not for the Fairmont.  Impossibly, one half of the husband and wife architect team responsible for gentrifying the industrial space into state-of-the-art lofts has no idea what went on there in 1983.  She will of course find out about it firsthand when the building’s horrible history comes alive in ways that even the world’s worst Kreskin could predict provided s/he has seen just one movie about a cursed/haunted/possessed building before.

Fairmont Lofts mastermind Alex Reaves makes such a fuss about the building’s advanced infrared sensors adapting and responding to a resident’s biorhythms, it initially seems like “The Charnel House” might be a timely cautionary tale for the Alexa age concerning what can happen when automated environments don’t care for their commands.  Nah.  The intriguing possibilities of a high-tech house haunting its tenants are limited mostly to locking an occasional door or flashing static on TV screens.

The Fairmont Lofts aren’t all that cutting edge anyway, seeing as how everyone has to sound out all five syllables of “voice activation” before every single command.  How is having to say, “voice activation, television: turn off this movie” preferable to simply pressing a button?

For all of the hubbub surrounding the building’s reopening, which includes a wine-catered plaque dedication, Fairmont Lofts seemingly boasts only four residents.  Two of them are an attractive single woman whose Facetime conversation with a gossipy aunt paints her as romance crazy and a handsome pro hockey player looking to move past a fizzled relationship.  (Do you think these two will hook up?)  Another is a man whose father worked at the old slaughterhouse and went missing under mysterious circumstances.  (Do you think he has another motive for being at the Fairmont?)  The fourth is a man vehemently against repurposing a building better left vacant in his eyes, yet he lives there anyway.  He has some loose connection to the property’s management or something, though that is the least critical aspect of the story that doesn’t fully connect.

SMALL SPOILER

Making the least sense of all is the core plot point of the building’s troubles being related to a doppelganger whose spirit split from its body to save itself from dying.  Now its ultimate goal is to reunite with its corporeal half so it can… die as originally intended?  If that’s what has to happen, why bother preventing death in the first place?

END SPOILER

“The Charnel House” isn’t the least bit original, but that isn’t the main issue.  “The Charnel House” isn’t the least bit creepy either, and since it doesn’t go anywhere unique, its slow scenes aren’t worth the wait.

A little girl can see and speak to a ghost yet no one believes her.  Someone creeps slowly around a dark cellar asking “hello?” out loud.  Backstory is filled in by newspaper clipping research.  Lump on the TV movie look with grimace-inducing green screen effects and even those not tired of the tropes will find “The Charnel House” milquetoast.

An improbable twist plus an improbable premise equals an improbable chance of this film finding an appreciative audience.  Hey, at least it takes place in Cleveland.

Review Score:  40

---