Halloween 2018 #8: We Are Still Here **1/2 (2015)

We Are Still Here is a for the most part engaging haunted house movie set in New York circa 1970s. MIddle aged couple Paul and Anne Sacchetti have relocated to a country house after the death of their son. Still grieving over their loss, they also discover their house has a dark history connected to the history of the nearby small town in rural New York. There's much that works in the film: the acting, music, and sense of place are all excellent. It's just the story moves along in a predictable pattern that inevitably ends in a gore fest. Modern horror movies, often low budget ones, treat story as secondary, examples being House of the Devil, The Monster, and It Comes At Night They are all about atmosphere. In We Are Still Here the images resonant: the basement, the bar, the stereo, the Scotch bottle, and the vintage Dodge Dart. As an added plus, character actor Larry Fessenden in a supporting role does a dead on Shining era Jack Nicholson in look and tone, a stoner who befriends Paul and Anne.