Not bad, not bad at all..
Family Secret (2009)
Directed By: Geno McGahee (Rise of the Scarecrows)
The Prologue
We’ll today we are dipping into some indie territory with the film, Family Secret. A film that is a bit of a throwback to the old school “who done it” style of film making. Of course this being a horror film you can bet you get some gore and some creepy stuff tossed in as well. The press release for this film states that it was the directors intend to bring back some “shock to the audience”. And in a few areas I’d say he might have succeeded with that. It’s a bit of a mystery and if it makes you feel better about checking it, you probably won’t be able to guess any of the plot twists before the movie decides to let them out of the bag.
The Movie
Geno, a hopeful reporter for his local newspaper, has been away from his family for some time now. However, after the death of his grandmother (who he doesn’t even like) he joins the rest of his family at the funeral for a very unpleasant reunion of sorts. Geno, who is already having weird dreams about his recently deceased grandmother, gets caught up in a mess when he goes to report on a double murder following the funeral and learns that it’s his own family member that was one of the victims. It gets worse when even more members of his family start getting killed soon after. Is the grandma really dead? Is there something else going on? Could it be Geno?? Well, I’ll tell you this much, the production might not be that high but it at least has a good story.
I found the plot of Family Secret to be an enjoyable one, and one that left you guessing as to just what the “family secret” was and just what the hell was going on during the film. So for the writing alone I’d have to give the movie a couple of kudos right off the bat. While the production values and acting (some folks are better than others) is pretty much what you’d expect from a indie film of this nature, I think the plot and gore were very well done and makes it a film that might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for a certain audience who can appreciate the work that went into this, they will get a few kicks from it. I admit, I myself got a few kicks from it and I’m picky.
Now of course this films does find it’s self ridden with a few weird/odd things. I have no clue how old the lead actor playing Geno ( Forris Day Jr.) is, but during one scene we see him confronted by his father, and well..I’d bet if they aren’t the same age then Geno may actually be older than the man playing his Dad. Geno also has gray in his hair while his father doesn’t for the record. While that might sound like nitpicking, it’s a bit hard to stay in the story for the time this is going on due to the fact you can’t wrap your head around the idea that this man could possibly be old enough to be Geno’s father. Also, I must mention that I felt the ending got just a tad bit dragged out. It does pack some surprises however so we may be able to give it a pass on that one.
I’d say you might enjoy this if you give it a try. Now of course if you are one of those people that just have to have a higher production value to be able to sit through a film you won’t see much to your liking here, but I do stick by my story that the film at least holds an interesting plot. Some actors are way better than others, but if you are keeping score the lower end actors aren’t really on the screen that much. Plus if you like horror films with some gore and a nice plot twist then you should at least feel right at home with Family Secret. It might not blow you away, but it is at least very watchable.
The Conclusion
If you want to check out this by Geno McGahee then check out the web-site for Tempe DVD where you can get this film and also if you want to see even more about this movie go clicking around the Facebook page for the film. What the film might lack in some areas, I say it more than makes up for it in heart, and you can at least tell the people in the movie care. Can’t beat that in the year 2011.
The Rating (5.5/10)
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