Trace
Terror Films
Written and directed by Ryan Brookhart
Starring: Jeremiah Benjamin, Mike Capozzi, Nick Fink
October 2015
Reviewed by Jess Landry
Ten years ago, the boat of Electronic Voice Phenomena (or EVP) movies sailed, and then rightly sunk. Michael Keaton’s venture into the foray, White Noise, was really the only “big” budget release from recent memory, and there’s probably a good reason why we haven’t seen more. Looks like Trace never got the memo.
The movie opens in 1992 Soviet Union, where scientists have been using EVP to communicate with the other side. Of course, they make contact with some bad mojo and, surprise, people die, thus ending their EVP funding (maybe all the resources the USSR allocated into EVP research was the reason the Union collapsed?).
Enter present day Los Angeles where viewers are introduced to disposable characters 1 thru 7; a variable melting pot of young, white people enjoying each others company at one friend’s apartment. The conversation turns towards EVP, and one or two of the group members suggest an impromptu demon summoning. The naysayers say nay, the non-believers roll their eyes, and the easily impressionable cry in the corner, but the merry band of future corpses head downstairs to a recording studio (clearly funded by drug money or prostitution – what kind of just-out-of-college kid can afford a recording studio?) where they invoke a demon called Abigor (which, I know what you’re thinking, sounds like a badass death metal band name…and it is!).
Anyway, Abigor is invoked and everyone heads home. Then, one by one, disposable characters 1 thru 7 are slowly picked off. What adds sand to the demonic buttcrack that the kill list is essentially spelled out – a playback of their EVP session reveals a voice saying the order of everyone’s demise, so there are zero surprises when characters meet their maker. Plus, the sloppy “twist” ending is about as subtle as a clown wearing a reflective vest, and it doesn’t stir more than a yawn when it finally plays out.
So basically, lessons learned from Trace include: guns don’t scare demons; yelling “Please wake up!” over and over to a dead person will not wake them up; and it’s best to leave EVP-themed movies at the bottom of toilet where they belong.
