The Exorcism of Karen Walker [DVD]

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The movie follows a man called Mitch and as he moves into the home of his deceased spiritualist uncle and starts looking into a possible supernatural explanation for his sister Karen's long term mental illness. There's an old spirit medium whose performance practically screams 'we couldn’t afford Lin Shaye', and Mitch's pregnant wife Diane, who appears appears have undergone multiple botched plastic surgeries. The audience is bombarded with exposition with all the grace of a lumbering cow. The acting is weak across the board, with Mitch's mother being particularly terrible and Karen really hamming it up towards the end. The rest did what they could with a bad script. It’s a nuts-and-bolts tale which basically consists of character A delivers vast chunks of exposition; character B listens. Then B talks for a while and A listens. It’s not wrong, but cinema is obviously a visual medium and more ’show’ less ’tell’ would have helped the film enormously. With help from local psychic Ada (Rula Lenska) he sets about trying to free Karen from the evil inside her… but the evil has other ideas.

Let's start with some positives. The story is actually pretty captivating and the acting is surprisingly good for an amateur production like this. But... it's so, sooo slow! I counted up the minutes and here is my breakdown:Working with local clairvoyant Ada (Rula Lenska), Mitch is thrust into battle with a terrifying demonic presence. Facing insurmountable odds, he must uncover the truth buried within the house and find the key – an old camera designed for Kirlian photography (the practice of capturing a subject’s ‘aura’) – that may save his sister’s life…

In a bid to heal the wounds of the past, Mitch brings Karen home but soon discovers that her condition is the result of an evil force that has possessed her for most of her life. Steven Dolton … Uncle Alexander – Hellriser; The Curse of Robert; KillerSaurus; Nocturnal Activity; Zombie Undead

Its clearly made on a shoestring but its well directed and the special effects are impressive. The jump scares we have come to expect from this genre are few and far between but when they come they are definitely effective.

THE EXORCISM OF KAREN WALKER is the first film to fully explore the concept of Kirlian photography – a process of photographing a person’s ‘aura’. V domě, který zdědil, objeví vybavení na takzvané kirliánské focení a všechno začne nasvědčovat tomu, že jeho sestru posedl ďábel. I have (somewhere) a photo of my mom from the 80s that was taken with an aura-reading camera. I think she got it at a booth in the mall - going to the mall in the 80s was awesome. Provenance aside, though, it's the most beautiful photo - she's surrounded by a dazzling aura of gold and white and looks like an angel. The aura photos in this movie are kind of crappy looking, especially compared to the mall one that my mom got. But mitch was probably using the dang camera wrong anyway. I hate mitch!Mitch (Shane Taylor) and Diane (Janine Nerissa Sothcott) inherit a spooky old house and discover kirlian photography equipment in the basement. This leads to Mitch having his sister Karen (Denise Moreno) released from the local mental hospital after learning that she may be possessed. The film takes place in a world of few people, features barely any establishing shots, and could easily be adapted for a stage play. It’s well lit, the score is great, but punters wanting plenty of scares could be disappointed. Mitch Walker and his pregnant wife Denise look to start a new life in the home he has inherited from his late uncle; a decision resented by his mother, who is convinced that no good can come from a house that harbours such a dark history. I’m guessing London is doubling for the US as psychic Rula Lenska charges in dollars, though she might be just a very savvy businesswoman catering for international clients. The movie takes time setting up its story with lengthy scenes and word-perfect dialogue. Everything has a slightly drawn-out feel, and could have done with some snappier editing.

One of the strengths of the movie is that it doesn't rely on cheap jump scares or gore to create scares. Instead, it focuses on building tension and creating an unsettling atmosphere, which makes the horror all the more effective. The exorcism scene is particularly well-done, and it is sure to give viewers goosebumps.What sets the film apart from the usual horror fodder though is the performances. Shane Taylor is utterly convincing as Mitch and holds the whole thing together with his conviction and subtle underplaying. Denise Moreno as the titular Karen is unsettling in the extreme and its great to see Rula Lenska pulling out all the stops in a career-best performance. This biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately. After these 70 minutes of dialogue (60 of which completely devoid of horror) the film finally gets to the big showdown exorcism scene. The climax, as it were. And even this 10 minute sequence is broken up by not one, but two lengthy dialogue sequences! According to my calculations,… I don’t believe there has ever been a horror story brought to the screen that revolves around Kirlian photography, so what we have is a truly unique concept, and one that I’ve wanted to turn into a movie for years. No, it’s not a Hallowe’en edition of Will and Grace featuring Megan Mullally’s namesake alter ego, but a British chiller which centres on the eponymous young woman and her spiritual problems.