“The Paranormal” is a 3-D Experience Without the Glasses!
Kyle Jennings is a struggling pro-paranormal scientist unable to convince the department head for more research funding without repetitive, physical evidence. Jennings’ paranormal hypothesis is put the test when an old movie theater in Englewood, Ohio spikes to the cycles the eager researcher has previously recorded. Accompanying his fact-finding examination of theater is the department head with her own theories to explain the phenomenon. With the assistance of two theater employees, they experience unexplainable occurrences of movie reels coming alive and playing themselves, unlockable doors mysteriously locked, and a ghostly apparition lurking in the attic, all surrounding an old nitrite film reel with immense paranormal energy. The foursome find themselves trapped inside a theater with the film reel causing rifts into another dimension through every reel change and splice of a cheap zombie movie. Before movie zombies step into their reality from off the screen, Kyle must journey to the other side and stop them simply by locking an unlocked door but that’s easier said than done when every act Kyle does in film changes the narrative significant and not in their favor.
Every once and awhile you’ll come across an obscure, independent made film that just knocks your socks off in all categories. Todd Norris’s “The Paranormal” is one of those very films. Norris writes-and-directs the 1998 film alongside cowriter C. Wayne Owens, marking their first and only collaboration together. Norris went on to do be an accomplished short film editor and cinematographer, working on select cheeky horror full-length features such as “Cadavella” and “Bonnie & Clyde vs. Dracula.” “The Paranormal” is the debut film of Todd Norris, filmed in the America Midwest, Kansas City, Mirssouri to be specific. Riding the device of being a mise en abyme, or more loosely described as a meta-film, “The Paranormal” has a novel concept that makes this film something special.
Norris not only writes and directs, the then late 20s filmmaker also starred as the lead character, a pro-paranormal scientist named Kyle Jennings who, from the opening, introductory scenes, struggles with validating his department and research that is seen as nothing more than a joke, or is even suggested to be a pseudoscience amongst cross-departmental peers at an undisclosed shared university. As an actor, Norris never flinches from his nerdy-confident persona, dressed down to seem like a normal man with an equally dressed down obsession toward his research. The approach and reaction of rejection is a very real-world view and response to being denied opportunity, but he’s given the chance once an unexplained occurrence in Englewood has a striking coincidence to his theorized research on paranormal activity. Jennings is challenged by theoretical physics and science department chair head Cass Charbonneau (Lisa Winegar) who has this underlying want to believe, in a stoic, scientist indifference type way but can’t swallow the truth that something might more unexplainable out there. We don’t really get a satisfying character arc with her character as she never really displays the change of heart or update from her rigid persona to welcome Jennings into the university scientific community. Does he finally get accepted? We don’t know. Audry Crabtree and Gina Tarantino respectively play theater owner as well as Jennings’s love interest Lynne Meredith and projectionist Johnnie, providing additional strong female roles unafraid to face the supernatural front alongside Winegar. The cast rounds out with Jennings’s colleagues and zombie movie characters with C. Wayne Owens, Carol Koehler, Brain Stubler, Jeffrey Sisson, and Davide Baldin who either support a broad pro-paranormal acceptance as we see with C. Wayne Owens moving persuasive speech to convince a reluctant Jennings to investigate Englewood and to support parts in a narrative that changes with every decisive action to keep movie zombies from entering reality.
For a SOV film, “The Paranormal” is a case study for what to do right during principal and post photography. Editing and special effects on tape can be cumbersome and clumsy, but Norris makes it look easy with effective sleight of hand tricks and use of multiple video tape recordings to provide overlapping effects that turned out quite well and was quite effective. Couple that technical success with a fascinating, movie-within-a-movie storyline, there’s little to dislike about this indie feature with a big budget heart. Horror fantasy becomes reality as supernatural forces bring the movie to life, an idea that germinated before Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1994 action thriller “The Last Action Hero.” While Schwarnegger’s narrative crossed realities in a bigger, more explosive way, “The Paranormal” teases the threat with brief windows of opportunity that could potentially send fleshing eating zombies into the real world. Every time I thought the story would falter under its own narrative weight, Norris surprises me with continuous persistence in making the sequences work. The only downside to “The Paranormal” is the mystical reel that generated the supernatural rift. The nitrite-filmed reel didn’t receive much of a backstory on how and why it causes the in-movie movie “Z is for Zombie” to be the chosen destructor of the Englewood Theater inhabitants and, potentially, the world. There’s a flash of a woman apparition that in conjunction with the reel’s unyielding power that, too, isn’t explained. These inexplicable elements leave plot holes in a what is otherwise a near flawless picture.
Visual Vengeance continues to drop SOV gold right into our hands. “The Paranormal” is not only a fantastic meta-horror but now it has sex appeal with profound physical qualities. The single disc, Blu-ray set comes AVC encoded with 1080p high-definition resolution, encoded on a BD50. The original tape elements were scanned with director supervision and the quality of the tape retained for its original aesthetic, complete with tracking lines and a distorted, warm coloring amongst the analog anomalies associated with tape. There’s clearly no hard-edge definition or textural allowance so you can get the feeling that you’re watching magnetic tape just as the media gods intended, exhibited in the full frame 1.33:1 with pillar boxes. The English LPCM stereo cleanly discerns dialogue, soundtrack, and certain action aspects without the presence of sidetracking distortion, and that’s saying something for an innate original audio recording, but there’s noticeable subtle electrical interference in it’s not so robust reproduction of audio. The A/V should come at no surprise as Visual Vengeance continues to be upfront with their releases with a precautionary statement before every feature regarding the commercial and inferior equipment used to make these types of films. Optional English subtitles are available. Special features are aplenty, as usual with Visual Vengeance, with a Todd Norris feature-length commentary, a second commentary with Norris and composer Paul Roberts, various cast and crew interviews produced by Norris a video interview between Norris and Lisa Winegar and subject interviews with Jeffrey Sisson and Davide Baldin, an interview session between Todd Sheets and Todd Norris as The Two Todds of Kansas City SOV filmmaking, “The Paranormal” channel 5 TV airing, blooper reel, deleted scenes, original script excerpts, a storyboard gallery, short films “The Closed, “I…,” “Night of the Growling,” and “Parallax,” and trailers for other Visual Vengeance at home releases. The clear Amaray Blu-ray case comes with a limited-edition O-ring for the first pressing with art by graphic artist Uncle Frank. The original sleeve art is done by The Dude and inside is a mini poster by Giorgio Credaro. Three graphic artists given the chance to shine on one release is pretty neat. There’s also the original VHS cover on the reverse side of the sleeve. Inserts alongside the mini-folded poster include an faux advert for faux movie “Z is for Zombie,” a Ghost Finder for viewing entities (think a slim-downed Viewfinder but can’t see through it), and the usual retro VHS sticker sheet. The 70-minute feature is unrated and is region free.
Last Rites: Acting, special effects, and the meta concept are all what makes “The Paranormal” a solid film of immersive fantasy becoming an on the verge of a zombie apocalyptic reality.
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