THE SICKHOUSE

Anna, a university researcher, learns that the old hospital turned archaeological site where she was conducting research is about to be demolished. In the hospital, dating back to the 15th century, spores of plague, probably from the epidemic that struck London in 1600, and various objects belonging to the victims have been found. Anna, eager to discover what lies hidden in the unexplored basements of the building, decides to venture alone into the hospital the night before it is demolished. Some young people, following an accident, also sneak into the building to escape the police. For all of them, it will be a night of survival, as strange presences seem to have been evoked from the past. For once it wasn't a remake or derivative film, for once they had in their hands a story with good potential and a theme – medieval plague – little explored by horror cinema, especially recent, for once reading the back cover of the DVD you could make a smile of satisfaction… well, we still end up with a poorly made film that literally wastes everything it had to offer. You know those boring and incoherent horror films where for 90 minutes nothing happens except seeing a group of people destined for a bad end walking through dilapidated corridors? Something that also wants to be postmodern using an editing and filming style that is cool and clip-like and instead is older than the Lumière brothers. Recent disasters like "Death Tunnel – The Curse" and "The Devil's Chair" come to mind, which says it all, and the straight-to-video destination that has been reserved for the film in question could also hint at the flaws underneath. But what is even more frustrating is the fact that Curtis Radclyffe, author of the subject and director, threw away all the original points that the story offered to venture into territories already trodden many other times and now devoid of all interest. Therefore, if we could expect an incursion into archeo-epidemic territories, a foray through the mephitic methods of contagion that characterize the spread of the "Black Death", we were wrong. Radclyffe could have added a brick to the interesting mosaic that has been building in recent years regarding pandemic or contagion cinema; a genre that since "28 Days Later" has been filling up with many films of good qualitative value, emphasizing the renewed – or perhaps never extinguished – fear of human contact as a carrier of death. But the use of the conditional is a harsh reality, because "The House of Plague" revolves around a nothing that extends for an hour and a half, takes the unfortunate path of contamination with the ghost story making sure that from time to time some blurred and hooded figure appears for the timely jump from the armchair, which then three times out of four does not occur. What is actually interesting is the Black Priest, a plague serial killer doctor who roams the hospital corridors and makes a good impression as a character with a suggestive look and always well-timed entrance. From time to time, Radclyffe also manages to place some scenes that work well individually, such as the long agony of the pregnant girl and the final appearance of the small plague victims; but these are details, almost incidents on the way that do not manage to positively influence the final result. Surely much of the failure of "The House of Plague" is also due to the excessively botched screenplay of the debutant Romla Walker, who especially in the last 15-20 minutes, with the intention of resolving the knots and throwing new mysteries, only manages to create a great confusion that does nothing but show a multitude of narrative holes otherwise easily avoidable. Radclyffe, for his part, directs in an anonymous and unnecessarily agitated manner that throws inside the style of a music video and subjective shots that make a bit of mockumentary (not by chance at the beginning "The Blair Witch Project" is explicitly cited). The only known face in the cast of unknowns is the beautiful and usually good Gina Philips ("Jeepers Creepers"; "Jennifer's Shadow"; "Dark Memories – Terrible Memories"), badly dubbed for the Italian edition, who does everything she can to keep the business. Not recommended.