⭐️⭐️⭐️
Turner Clay is back and opens up about his wife passing away from a rare form of cancer months after the birth of their second child. He’s been back to the spooky cabin a handful of times, hoping that creepy-ass phone might ring and he’ll get the chance to hear his wife’s voice again. Alas, it’s not to be. A mysterious package is dropped off at his house one night (all caught by his security camera) and upon reading the note attached, he discovers a couple was hearing sounds coming from a keyboard up in their attic which quickly lead to magnetic letters being arranged into words on their fridge. It turns out the keyboard used to belong to his wife and the family returns it to him after discovering the receipt for the item in the box and watching Turner’s movies. Turner calls bullshit and thinks it’s just someone trying to get a little fame. Bumps in the night forces our guy to begin looking into what or who may be haunting his home. Phantom piano notes get him hopeful that his lost loved one ain’t as gone as believed and that would be a relief considering how whatever it is seems to be creeping around his kids in the middle of the night. After talking to the woman who dropped the keyboard off, he starts seeing a connection to his prior investigations into the Lightfoot house and it’s infamous specter. He ends up buying the place he’s spent so many restless nights at and the paranormal shit hits the spooky fan. The tension of the previous outings is mostly absent but would have felt kinda out of place considering the subject matter. It’s a sweet way to say goodbye to a loved one even if it may be the final nail in the coffin for any dope who believed these things were rooted in truth.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Thanks to a paranormal assist, Turner has figured out the serial killer’s cipher from the previous entry. The authorities uncovered the remains of the first victim but also came across a map buried in a bottle. He comes back to Florida to answer some questions and hopefully get a look at the map, but he gets nowhere with his request. He decides instead of finding a hotel, he’ll spend the night at the familiar Lightfoot place and head out in the morning. Of course, a bad storm hits and the power goes out and the spooky shit starts rolling. He survives the night and heads home, a month passes and the cops reach out to Turner for some help. It appears the map they found in the bottle may be another puzzle and it may be the key to offer some closure to the families of the girls who are still missing. He gets deputized so the police can let him view the evidence and the hunt is on. Of course, this brings him back to the Florida rental and 2:47 phantom phone calls, aggressive knocking and the hallway that scares the bejesus out of him. Intrigue and creepiness make for some fine viewing and probably the best addition of the series. Perfectly sets up for the next piece without feeling like a cheat... ya can’t say that about too many things.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Turner is back and he’s reluctantly returning to the Lightfoot house after a helpful police officer lets him take a look at the letter James Lightfoot (aka The Lightfoot Killer and no relation to Gordon) had left behind following his suicide. The letter is a cipher which supposedly reveals the final resting place of his first victim. So back to the Florida property and back to getting freaked out by all the spooky shit that horrifies the fuck out of him. He captures some unsettling footage (a bit more disturbing than the stuff he’s caught in the past) and starts thinking his inexperience in the unknown may have him playing with fire. There’s a few cinematic flourishes rolled into the prelude but they’re fortunately kept far from the “investigation” to keep things nice and creepy. Terri makes a welcome appearance, there’s a modified Speak & Spell for spectral communication, a close encounter with a... well, it may be a phantom blow-up doll and Turner’s personal life begins to fall apart thanks to his obsession.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Facing skepticism from friends and family and with the Blackwell house off limits, Turner turns to a new location to continue his quest for proof of the supernatural. Plagued by dreams of a missing girl named Sarah Baker (he connects these odd dreams to his experiences at the Blackwell house), Turner begins to dig. Turns out Sarah Baker was a victim in the “Lightfoot Serial Case” which left nearly 20 women dead. An isolated house in Florida served as the killing grounds decades ago and is still (somehow) serving as a rental property even after all the awfulness. Turner books himself some time at the place and things gradually get spooky. Phantom phone calls and knocks start things off, Turner hits the bourbon, the knocks grow in force and frequency, Turner gets spooked but toughs it out in hopes of figuring out some kind of purpose for the strange journey he’s been on. Turner is his usual likable self and the history at the house is a little more disturbing (what with the mutilation, violation and cannibalism of the victims) than the Blackwell backstory. This one does a fine job of towing that documentary/found footage line and Turner’s reaction to the “night 3” shenanigans may be one of the most realistic actions I’ve ever seen in a ghost film.
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Turner is back and after being contacted by a woman who knew Ruth Blackwell (the supposed spirit in the house), he picks his camera back up and gets to digging even deeper into the history of the child-killing Quaker. The elderly woman gives him Ruth’s only possessions, he finds a crappily drawn blueprint of the property and, upon closer inspection, discovers it’s some sort of map with a faded “x” marking an area of importance. He goes digging and unearths an old metal box and brings it home. He opens that shit up and finds it filled with dirt... and human teeth. When he gets a call from Greg (the homeowner of the haunted house) to let him know he plans on selling the place, Turner returns to finish his documentary and spend three more nights in the building before it’s unavailable to him. Shit gets spooky and this time our hero is on his lonesome. Competently done but lacking the subtle eeriness of the original, the sequel is still good... just not as good.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Filmmaker, Turner Clay, challenges himself to prove that ghosts exist after coming across a spooky and (more importantly) convincing video on YouTube. He decides his next venture will be a documentary about his journey into the world of the supernatural. He gets in contact with the guy in the ghost video but the jerk backs out at the last minute after getting a new job. So, with his original road proving to be a dead end, he puts a halt on the documentary. Two years pass and Turner gets back to completing the film when someone sends him some interesting footage. He makes contact with the sender and heads out from his home base in Kentucky to the supposedly haunted house in Pennsylvania to meet up with the homeowner Greg. Greg gives him a tour of the joint and details the locations of paranormal significance. Greg also shows off that his 1930’s-built house has a well in the basement where the crazy wife of the original homeowner supposedly threw the bodies of some neighborhood children. Some time passes by and Turner gets an email. Looks like Greg is heading out of the country on business and invites Turner and his wife, Terri, to stay at the house so he can document just how haunted the place is. It starts off pretty uneventful but, sure-as-shit, the creepiness starts hitting. A little digging proves the basement’s urban legend to be factual and puts a name to the specter. Successfully pulling off the docu-vibes as the minimalistic horror slowly envelopes our protagonist, The Blackwell Ghost is a delightfully creepy found footage (although, it leans a bit more towards mockumentary in that it isn’t really “found”) horror flick. Running just under an hour, it zips by and never feels like it’s cheating the audience.
aka Deadly Harvest
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A journalist and his shitty teenage son investigate that creepy-ass Nebraska town of Gatlin after the grim discovery of over fifty dead folks. With only children surviving and stating they “saw the corn”, folks are left scratching their heads. The surviving couple from the first outing alerted authorities to the cult activity but that just isn’t supplying enough answers. The father and son set up at a bed and breakfast in the neighboring town of Hemmingford run by a bowl-cut-rocking young woman, she’s also supplying shelter for the obviously evil teenage Micah. Danny (aforementioned shitty teen son) befriends Micah, who is possessed by He Who Walks Behind the Rows, and comes under his influence. It helps that super HAWT Lacey is showing Danny some affection. Soon all those kids are up to their old evil ways and the adults of Hemmingford have themselves a secret that ties into the massacre in Gatlin and is also putting a big target on their dumb asses. A Native American professor shows up to fill our hero in on what’s going on but with a level of sarcasm that makes it less offensive than usual. Some poor dude gets his throat slit by a cornstalk, another schmuck gets impaled by one, a justifiably cranky old broad is crushed by her house (of course it tips a hat to Wizard of Oz because it would be offensive if it didn’t), some unfortunate sap hemorrhages out durning Sunday worship thanks to Micah’s whittling and Micah’s remote control skills allow him to take command of an elderly woman’s wheelchair, ruining a game of bingo in the best way possible. There’s unappealing sweaty sex, corn conspiracies, plenty of stupid violence that kicks ass as it brings on fits of giggles and a better grasp of the ridiculous (not to mention a way less serious vibe) than the prior entry, allowing this one to offer way more enjoyment.
