Banshee Chapter (2013)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Instant Favorite.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The first ten minutes are extremely interesting and sets the stage for what should have been a one of a kind classic. Unfortunately, it's all down hill from there. As a huge fan of Found Footage, I don't like the addition of scenes not recorded by the camera which supposedly filmed the footage. If you're somewhat familiar with MK Ultra and the drug DMT, you'll probably be letdown and frustrated by the direction they take. There's some jump scares and very little thinking required so as an average horror movie, it succeeds.

I would like to clarify one thing: Despite being listed as one, this film is not a Found-Footage horror movie. Okay, it SORTA is, considering everything is filmed via camcorder, but the main character never notes that anybody is filming her, nor do any of the other characters seem to notice or care. I honestly thought this film was going to be really dumb going in...but i was sort of surprised...it wasn't a total waste of time. However i have one big complaint....THERE WERE WAY TOO MANY JUMP SCARES! There were 15 (yes, i counted) jump scares by the time this thing was over, and some of them come in packs! So in Conclusion, if you're interested, you might wanna take a look. If you're not interested, stay the hell away.

A movie about government-sanctioned experiments with psychotropic drugs, and the effects they had on the victims, could be interesting. If the actual events were fictionalized into something with supernatural elements, that also could work, as could a movie that exploited a presumed otherworldly origin for short-wave "numbers stations." As other reviewers have noted, however, Banshee's film-makers seem to have taken a jumble of such plot elements that might have worked on their own, and thrown them together in a way that just comes across as messy. Although the acting is competent, the characters lack any sense of motivation, and they do not appear to be changed in any way by the bizarre events that involve them. By the end of the movie everything is as it was at the start, so we might as well not have bothered with any of it.Not the worst movie I've seen, by any means, but not particularly engaging. After the first thirty minutes I wanted it to stop.

The title "Banshee Chapter" intrigued me, though the poster gave away the jump scares. (I saw this on Amazon, I can imagine it was better in the theatre and in 3D.) The MK-Ultra hook grabbed me, because I remember when the CIA documents were released via the Freedom of Information Act and President Clinton actually apologized to the country. However, it was when I saw the term "numbers stations" I knew I had to see this movie.Shortwave radio has been a fascination of mine since childhood. Having ham radio enthusiasts for parents means you get a few old radios to "play" with. The shortwave frequencies fascinated me endlessly because you could hear the cosmos, using radio astronomy you could hear pulsars, quasars, supernovas ... pretty cool, right? I'd listen for rhythms in the chaos, moving the dial the slightest of notches.Then I found the "numbers stations." And this is why I give this movie 9/10. That's only -1 for everything other reviewers complain about. Numbers stations are real, and they are quite spooky when you find them. The station used prominently in this movie is REAL, you can find it for yourself. I had listened to that station so often, for so many years, I'd had so many dreams and nightmares about it, that it made the movie feel very, very real to me. I'm pretty sure the film makers were counting on some audience members' familiarity with shortwave numbers stations, or with mind-altering drugs, to give it a boost.I recommend this movie to all my friends, *after* I play them a few numbers stations ... they say the movie is horrifying, truly scary. Great use of real facts, events and real news clips in an otherwise standard horror flick. Google "CONET Swedish Rhapsody" before watching and listen for a real scary treat at 2:48 in the recording, then watch Banshee Chapter.