I know what I said about spoilers; however, this review WILL contain spoilers...you've been warned!
So! I recently watched Jessabelle, which is directed by Kevin Greutert. Clearly this film is completely different from his previous films like Saw VI and Saw 3D: The Final Chapter. Jessabelle opens to the main character Jessie, who is leaving her old apartment to move in with her amazing, loving boyfriend and their future child bubbling in her belly! Unfortunately for Jessie, there's a huge change in plains when she and her boyfriend are in a terrible car crash that instantly kills Jessie's boo, their unborn child, and leaves Jessie in the hospital for two months, temporarily paralyzed. Jessie has no one to turn to but her estranged, backwards, gruffy Daddy, Leon, who still lives in the small Louisiana town she grew up in.
Upon arriving to her Father's house, Leon tells her that she can stay in her dead Mother's old room, which was hidden behind a dusty bookshelf. The spooky stuff starts to happen right away but becomes more intense when Jessie discovers a box of VHS tapes recorded by her mother Kate, who died shortly after giving birth to her. Being that Jessie has nothing else to do since she can't walk, she watches a tape. On the tape, her mother Kate is pregnant with her and the tape seems completely harmless. However, Kate decides to read her unborn daughter's tarot cards...which clearly lets me know that this won't end well! This innocent exercise takes a turn for the worst when Kate states that there is an unwanted presence in the house.
Once Leon catches Jessie watching the second tape, with Kate's much more detailed tarot reading, he completely flips out! He's so angry that he takes the tapes outside to burn them, but somehow he ends up getting burned alive. Moving right along to Leon's funeral, we meet Jessie's high school boyfriend, Preston, who is now married yet still in love with Jessie and willing to do whatever for her. Anyhow, Preston and Jessie explore places on their own; they even dig up a coffin containing the skeleton of a newborn. Even though I gave a lot of spoilers, I'll stop right there!
I thought that Jessabelle had a lot great qualities. For one thing, it was original! It also didn't rely on "jump scares". One major plus about the film was the atmosphere, the swamp and the creepy house were a great touch! I only had two major issues with Jessabelle: ONE, ever notice in horror movies that there's always the mysterious old black person that knows EVERYTHING? Yep. Whelp, in this film, there's that old black person who knows everything! Although there's more than one...still the same! TWO; the ending!
Ugh. Sadly, I was very disappointed in the ending and wish it could have been of a WHAMMY instead of bop!
The film had actual scares and Jessie or Miss Jessabelle if ya nasty, wasn't an idiot! She just couldn't walk so that's the reason why she wasn't running away. Overall, I recommend Jessabelle to all! It's somewhat of a slow-burn psychological horror film with plenty of creativity.
3½ out 5 queen skulls!
Still not sure if you want to check out JESSABELLE? Check out the trailer!
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