- Directed by Ted Geoghegan
- Written by Ted Geoghegan
- Stars Anne Ramsay, Ron E. Rains, Jeremy Holm
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f5UBLdnKjc
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was interesting as it plays out in real time, and mostly just in one room. The acting is excellent, the script was interesting, and there are some horror elements for sure. But the ending left us unsatisfied. There should have been more there.
Spoilery Synopsis
It’s between Christmas and New Year’s 1945, and the war is over. Bob and Marla Sheridan arrive and meet Major Stanton, whom Bob calls a war criminal. She doesn’t believe he did it. They all go into Lt. Col. Clive “Hock” Hockstatter’s place, and the Major welcomes them all. Major Paul DiFranco is already there, and has been drinking all day.
Marla works at the Pentagon now. Clive mentions how Marla used to interrogate prisoners for information. “America’s finest interrogator,” he says. They’re all there because Clive’s wife Susan has died, and he’s all alone for the holidays. Archie complains that the press is calling him a war criminal, but the others all say it’ll blow over. Bob, Marla’s husband, is the only real outsider and he’s obviously uncomfortable.
They all drink a toast to dead-Susie. Clive says he’s been doing a lot of reading in the six weeks since she committed suicide. He’s been reading up on the supernatural– ghosts and so forth. He’s not saying he believes any of it, but he does want them to humor him by having a seance. Paul thinks it’s silly, and Bob doesn’t think it’s a good idea either.
Clive gives a long speech about death and what happens. Eventually, everyone agrees to go ahead with the seance. He has Susan’s bloody handkerchief, and that creates some alarm in his guests. They all hold hands, and Clive calls for the spirits. There’s a beating at the closet door. Clive warns that they can’t break the circle before they end the seance.
Paul thinks it’s a silly trick and says as much. Susan’s locket comes to life and “points” at each of them. Clive tells the spirits “Force your way into our world with all your might.” He then pukes up a big white glob that turns into a visible ghost and they hear Susan’s voice.
Things get weird, and Clive and Paul break the link. They didn’t finish the seance, so the door is still open– they can try again. “It’s real!” They all believe it now. Clive pulls out a pistol and shoots himself so he can be with Susan.
Suddenly, the closet door breaks open and a woman spills out, all tied up. It’s the German next-door neighbor that Clive took as a prisoner. Paul pulls a pistol on her and demands answers. Susan called Marla last September to come and interrogate Hildegaard; Susan was going crazy even then.
There’s a lot of talk about whether or not Hildegaard is a former Nazi, and now that the war is over, does it even matter? We have a long discussion while Archie and Paul talk about killing Germans and Hildy puts them both in their place.
Archie and Paul suddenly turn on each other. Archie asked Paul to lie for him at the war crimes testimony. Archie killed many children in a kindergarten on Clive’s orders. Marla is appalled, but even Hildy stands up for Archie; these things happen in war.
Archie shoots the door and the windows, but the windows don’t break. Paul still won’t unlock the door. Finally, Marla gives up and says she’ll confirm Hildy’s status as a Nazi or not.
Marla, the interrogator, goes to work with a needle under Hildy’s fingernail. She declares that Hildy isn’t a Nazi, but Paul isn’t convinced. Still, he relents and puts the key into the lock– it disappears. The door eats his key.
Clive’s dead body starts talking. “Somebody is going to kill that Nazi.” There’s a great deal of screaming. Marla comes to the conclusion that the seance never ended, so the “door” to the other side is still open.
They all sit down and hold hands, including dead-Clive. Dead-Clive says the war isn’t really over. They all see Susie’s ghost, and she accuses Hildy of killing her. The ghost says it wasn’t suicide– Hildy murdered her.
Archie begs to get out “Send me to prison; send me to Hell.” The door opens, and it does appear to be Hell on the other side. He closes the door again. Paul attacks Hildy, but Bob grabs the gun and makes him stop. Paul threatens all of them. Clive sits up and demands, “Kill her!”
Paul rushes Bob, who shoots Paul in the head. Then he shoots Hilda. The door unlocks, and he opens the door now opening to the normal-looking hallway. Marla, Archie, and Bob leave and go outside. Archie says he’s going to admit the truth of what he did in the morning.
Commentary
It all takes place in one room, in real time. There’s some supernatural stuff early on, but the bulk of the drama comes with the handful of people in the room arguing.
The acting was excellent, the character drama was really good, the special effects were somewhat minimal but perfectly adequate. It’s all very good, but the ending was very weak. I was expecting some kind of twist or fallout, but that wasn’t it. When the ghosts got what they wanted, they left.
Kevin pointed out afterward that we didn’t really know whether Hildy killed Susan or not. Susan was crazy in life, so maybe she was still delusional after death. We just don’t know. If Bob knew he was going to shoot Hildy, then why shoot Paul, who only wanted to shoot Hildy in the first place?