Review: “American Poltergeist” (2015 Thriller) Also Known as The House of Lizzie Borden
It was in August 4, 1892 when a girl named Lizzie Borden murdered her parents in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. A hundred years later, another murder took place in the same house, and on the 4th of August 2014, another tragic incident would happen among the group of friends who stayed in the beautiful yet haunted house for the fall semester. What they expected to be a relaxing and fun staycation turned into a deadly nightmare.
Taryn (Ashley Green Elizabeth) felt there was something weird in the house during their 2nd night when she heard loud noises and then found the locked door to the basement suddenly open. There she saw Niki (her brother’s girlfriend) holding an ax and she thought the latter was just sleepwalking but shockingly, she also briefly saw 2 dead bodies lying on the floor. Despite the things she heard and saw, Taryn decided to shrug off any idea of horror when her brother Michael (Luke Brandon Field) wouldn’t believe her wicked stories. However, Taryn’s suspicions became more intense when her friend Jenna (Jaime Sarchet) had her own ghostly sightings too, plus she found some photos and newspaper clippings on the basement during their 3rd day, which helped her find out the truth about her own history as a child.
It turned out Taryn is the daughter of the late Lizzie Borden, who was believed to be possessed with a demon, causing her to murder her parents hundreds of years back. Taryn was abandoned by her father after the murder and was brought to the adoption agency where she was then adopted by her current parents. Dianna (present owner of the house who’s also actually the second wife of Taryn’s late biological father John Borden), on the other hand, was being used by the demon to lure the last living Borden (Taryn) in the haunted house.
On Day 4, August 4 2014, the group was about to celebrate the 21st birthday of Niki (Nikole Howell), Michael’s girlfriend, but then Taryn was determined to leave. She tried using her car and the rest of her friends’ cars but all wouldn’t start for some odd reason. So, they all got stuck there until 5 more friends joined them for the party at night – something that greatly pleased Dianna (Donna Spangler) who had evil plans.
In the middle of the night, the possessed Diana woke up starting to kill the people in the house one by one. She was accompanied by the ghost of Lizzie Borden, and in the end, only Taryn and Michael and Scott (Jacob Renken), their religious friend, were left battling the murderous duo. They started exorcising the demon out from the body of Dianna in the basement when the suspicious officer Alvarez (Nicholas Talone) came and stopped Scott in the middle of his exorcism. In the morning, Taryn found her male friend shooting himself in the head (after officer Alvarez’s coaxing). There she was confronted by officer Alvarez how Lizzie Borden’s house has been punishing him for years now for bringing the infant Taryn to the adoption agency in 1992. He also said that everyone in the house “died so she could be home”.
“American Poltergeist” ended with Taryn being the new recipient of the house’s demon.
This 2015 thriller by Mike Rutkowski is full of screams and shocking movements. All these are paired with a perfect background music that will really give chills to the audience. The fact that it’s also based from a true American urban legend (also known as “The House of Lizzie Borden”) makes the film even more exciting and scarily realistic.