Shadow People [Blu-ray]

Blu-ray Review: "Shadow People"
Rarely do I come across anything in my viewing of horror movies that makes me jumpy or paranoid after turning the TV off. Most times I enjoy the film and then go on about my business with no worries. However, every once in a while a true gem of fear comes along and leaves its imprint on me as I shut off all the lights in the house and head to bed. Matthew Arnold's "Shadow People" had me searching the walls and windows for ghastly spots of unexplained darkness after watching it.

Participants in an experimental sleep study in the 1970s report seeing strange shadowy figures. They and several hundred other individuals die in their sleep soon after. The phenomenon was given the name SUNDS, which stands for "Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome." Doctors wouldn't talk about the shadows.

In the present, failing radio talk show host Charlie Crowe begins receiving calls from a teenager claiming shadowy intruders are coming for him. At first, Charlie believes the...

True and scary
I thought this was going to be just another independent horror film with bad acting and cheap special effects. Even at the beginning when the "true story" introduction came out I thought "here we go one of those stupid Blare Witch knock offs" (not that I liked Blare Witch). It is not a "Found Footage film" it is a movie with real life footage seamlessly inserted throughout the film and this also made it different than most true story films. I also believe this makes the film better because you are getting to see the real people instead of having to wait till the end like many other true event movies and from the beginning it was interesting. As the movie went on, the mix between real footage and the movie footage that was very well done, the film captivated me. Watching this at home by myself one evening I can't recall another independent film literally at times sending chills throughout my body. I am not a person that is easily scared but I found myself looking around the room even...

One of the most unique horror films I've seen in years
If you've seen one independent horror film, you probably think you've seen them all. The genre is typically defined by a set of rigid features: wooden acting commensurate with your typical community college theatre production, shaky camerawork and cinematography which barely serves to convey the narrative in only its most rudimentary sense, and a plot with more holes than O.J. Simpson's alibi.

Shadow People, however, is not your typical indie horror flick. Dallas Roberts (The Walking Dead) does an exceptional job of playing Charlie Crowe, a small-town talk radio host who gets caught up in the mystery of the shadow people after a late-night call from a disturbed listener. His exploration into the phenomenon makes the film as much mystery or suspense thriller as pure horror and is spliced together with documentary footage. The resulting mode of storytelling is both effective and novel, making suspension of disbelief (a major problem with most horror films) that much...

Click to Editorial Reviews