VOD Review: Jessabelle (2014)

(aka Family Secrets: Bayou Edition.)
Release Date: November 7th.
Country: USA.
Rating: PG-13.
Written by: Robert Ben Garant.
Directed by: Kevin Greutert.
Starring: Sarah Snook, Joelle Carter, Mark Webber, and David Andrews.

With 2014 rapidly drawing to a close, we find ourselves finally sitting down to watch Jessabelle. Given that the last few movies from Blumhouse Productions that we watched (Mockingbird, Mercy, Ouija) were less than stellar, we went into this one with lowered expectations, expecting more of the same.


The good news is that Jessabelle is probably the best film of the bunch. The bad news is that it's still not that great of a movie.

After surviving a terrible car accident that claims the lives of her fiance and unborn baby, and leaves her wheelchair-bound, sweet ginger Jesse is forced to turn to her estranged father for help. He takes her home to Louisiana to care for her while she recuperates, because she can hardly roll around on her own in the big city.

WE'RE NOT DOUBTING YOU, DARLIN', BUT IT'S A BIG ADJUSTMENT.

While at her father's home, Jesse stays in her mother's old room. Given that her mother died when she was a baby, Jesse is naturally curious about her, so she starts snooping around. She finds a box of old VHS tapes which feature her mother talking to her, and calling her Jessabelle, and saying all kinds of things that make no sense to Jesse, like warning her that there's a presence in the house that wants her gone. When her father discovers this, he flips out and throws her wheelchair in the bayou.

"OH BABY, YOU GONNA DIE."

Soon enough, Jesse starts seeing the eerie visage of a girl creeping around the house, which prompts her to watch another video tape of her mother, in which she warns her again of impending doom. Then she sees more ghosts. From here on out, everything becomes a mystery about who she is, what her mother was up to, and why are all of these ghosts messing with an innocent girl in a wheelchair.

RUN ROLL FOR YOUR LIFE, JESSE!

Jessabelle is one of those movies that plays out like something you'd find on the Lifetime Movie Network; it's very tame, a bit bland and predictable, and in the end, it's not very memorable. That's not to say that we necessarily disliked the movie, because it had its good points, but it's fair to say that we didn't find anything about it to be all that remarkable.

POOR SARAH SNOOK, SUFFERING FOR HER ART...

We take that back; Sarah Snook did a great job with her role in Jessabelle, and the way that she made her character come off as truly likable and sympathetic, is worthy of a remark or two. She gives one hell of a performance as a wheelchair-bound girl whose past is catching up to her in a deadly way, and she was honestly just about the only thing in Jessabelle that kept it interesting for us. She's a good little actress (she was also solid in Predestination), and she'll definitely be one to watch going forward.

DON'T WORRY, SARAH. YOUR CAREER IS NOT IN THAT CASKET.

The big problem with Jessabelle is that its story really never grabbed us. It tries to be a solid Haunted House flick that builds tension from the old tried-and-true "family secrets come to light that could destroy them all" plot, but it never really pulled us in until the third act, when it finally picked up a bit in the action department. The plot moves so slowly though, and gets so over-complicated, that by the time things did pick, it all just felt like it was a case of too little, too late.

IT DID HAVE SOME CREEPY MOMENTS THOUGH...

On the plus side, we have to say that this is a well-made film, especially considering that it had a fairly small budget of only $1 million to work with. The Louisiana Bayou setting provided a gorgeous backdrop for the story, and contributed most of the film's atmosphere.

The cast & crew of this movie put in a valiant effort, and you can see that on-screen, but Jessabelle just didn't have enough kick to it to make us care very much about it, either way. This movie is a perfect example of the term "middle of the road."

WORST GIRL-GIRL SCENE EVER.

Jessabelle is an average little movie that gets a C grade because it's just that; an average movie. In this case, that grade is not a punishment at all, it just means that while Jessabelle was decent enough to be mostly enjoyable, it wasn't anything that we can honestly rave about, or even recommend. At least not wholeheartedly.

You could do worse than to give Jessabelle a rent, because you won't be upset if you do, but you might be better served to wait until it hits Netflix, and see it that way.

C

Jessabelle is available now on VOD, and will be on Blu-ray & DVD from January 13th.

Sarah Snook is a talented actress with a fiery mane, and we're now fans of hers.