100 Ghost Street: The Return of Richard Speck

100 Ghost Street: The Return of Richard Speck

2012

Horror

Rated: R

Running Time: 84 minutes

Starring: Jennifer Robyn Jacobs, Tony Besson, Jackie Moore, Hayley Derryberry, Mike Holley, Chance Harlem Jr.,

Directed By: Martin Andersen

Rating: 2 out of 10

Outline

A paranormal crew investigates the site of a mass killing spree.

Review

When it comes to found footage films it seems everyone has a vision. It just seems that the vision is always the same. A paranormal investigating crew travels to the site of a vicious killing spree. The ghost of infamous serial killer Richard Speck apparently roams the halls of an abandoned building, and it is up to this group to catch evidence of it.

This film doesn’t really deserve my review time but here we go. The film starts off and we see the crew heading to the abandoned building to set up for the night. With the headquarters set up in the main room and all the cameras and lights are ready to go, the film then gets under way. It is important to note that they have locked themselves in the building for the night. There are so many problems with this film I am not sure which to start with. The crew walks around the building and encounters odd noises and objects that move on their own accord. They are a trained crew so it hardly fazes them. As the night progresses, the strange occurrences increase in frequency and in scariness (To them, not the viewer.) When the first actual physical assault occurs, the crew just shrugs it off even though the girl has been beaten quite badly and is in shock. Believable, am I right?

Richard Speck, when alive, was a man of sadistic appetites and he was a sexual predator. His ghost for some reason is no different. When he comes for the crew, he isn’t scary but he is a whole lot rapey. This ghost is the Pepe Le Pew mixed with Ben Roethlisberger, of ghosts. I am not sure why they needed rape in this movie, but Speck is here to rape any lady that is caught alone in this film. He also announces his presence by either sounding like an insect or sounding like a young kid, so the viewer always knows when an attack is about to happen. It takes all the frights away from the movie.

 The stupidity of this movie is not limited to the ghost though. The crew sticks random appendages into creepy holes like it is a stall wall at a truck stop bathroom. A girl changes her shirt for no reason in the middle of all the carnage (Of course she is not wearing a bra.) The ghost has a physical need for sex, and yet he cannot be harmed. Cell phones don’t work but no one thought to bring a walkie-talkie. The director is the douchiest looking guy on the planet, and acts like no one would when people are getting attacked. The crew keeps making the dumbest possible decisions imaginable. I am forgetting stuff but I am sure you get the idea by now. Couple all that with the fact that the pay off kills are not that impressive, and this was just a waste of my time.

The acting is all over the map but mostly it is awful. The lead stand out in the weak sauce department is actress Jennifer Robyn Jacobs. Her acting when she is scared is so bad that I almost sent her a cheque for acting school. She also looks like the character Gooch from Scrubs mixed with Stana Katic, which was also quite distracting.

Director Martin Andersen should stick to waiting tables or whatever his day job is as this film was unoriginal and uninspired. The camera work was okay, but the characters are so unbelievable in both acting and design that his film is hard to watch. At the end of the day this film is neither scary nor gory enough to work, and the rape angle is appalling.

I cannot recommend this film as it just another found footage film best left in the discount bin at the local Target store.

T Factor + If you like found footage movies then this could score higher on the rating scale.

T Factor – If you like lots of blood and gore in your films then this could score lower on the rating scale.

If you liked this film reel recommendations: Atrocious, Apartment 143.