Banshee Chapter (sometimes referred to as The Banshee Chapter) is a 2013 horror film and the directorial debut of Blair Erickson, who also provided the screenplay.The movie had its first screening at the Fantasy Filmfest on August 22, 2013 and released on video on demand on Dec 12 of the same year. It stars Ted Levine, Katia Winter and Michael McMillian. The film is loosely based on the H. P. Lovecraft short story From Beyond and the 1986 film of the same name.
Supposedly inspired by actual documents detailing clandestine CIA experiments, Banshee Chapter follows a resourceful young journalist (Katia Winter) who enlists the aid of a disgraced counterculture writer (Ted Levine) in locating her missing friend (Michael McMillan), who vanished without a trace after ingesting a mysterious, military-grade chemical. Drawn into a top-secret government research laboratory, she soon discovers the powers-that-be have a very good reason for concealing their findings…
“Bolstered by very strong work from Ms. Winter (if you don’t like this character, the film is sorta sunk from the outset) and some truly enjoyable support from character actor extraordinaire Ted Levine (as the reclusive author turned reluctant sidekick on Anna’s quest for the horrible truth), Banshee Chapter doesn’t actually have anything to do with banshees (sorry, banshee fans) but as a smart, clever, and diverting little mash-up of numerous sci-fi and horror tropes, it’s certainly worth a look.” Scott Weinberg, FEAR Net
“The film falls flat at many key scenes but not because of the acting or the direction. The bane in this film’s side is often the script and/or the production design. I often say that the weakness of many films these days lie in the lack of interesting or memorable dialogue. The characters aren’t fleshed out enough for us to want to take the journey with them. In the end, Banshee Chapter is just a series of dark scenes and pseudo psycho-babble with allusions to greater ideas… and films.” Christopher Jiminez, Shock Till You Drop
“A solidly unsettling little picture with good performances from veteran Levine as a fleshed-out Ken Kesey-cum-Philip Dick-cum-Robert Anton Wilson character and Winter as the driven, unusual heroine. It does have a lot of the usual found footage wandering, but stages its scary moments very well – with one great jump moment.” Kim Newman, Screen Daily
