AMERICAN POLTERGEIST: THE CURSE OF LILITH RATCHET **** USA 2018 Dir: Eddie Lengyel. 104 mins
Lilith Ratchet
Knows all about hatchets,
But will she seek you out?
You could go crazy with dark terror if you buy this shocking, haunting and twisted little number from Fright Teck Pictures that’s backed up by an ominous and deeply dark musical score by Timothy D.Smith and professional writing and direction by Eddie Lengyel which all add up to make this film a winner in the killing stakes.
Lilith Ratchet, played in silent and deadly fashion by Crissy Kolarik, was a 19th century country wife who was driven by jealousy and hatred to the murder of her adulterous husband and betrayed by two farmhands into pursuing dark witchcraft as a means of revenge resulting in her own grisly demise and the dark birth of her poltergeist who seeks out all who lose a deadly cursed game of hot potato with her shrunken head that is guarded by a creepy curio shopkeeper played well by Daniel Remark III.
There is a great sense of suspense and thick dark fear throughout the whole movie as a group of naive all-American friends agree to play the game at the behest of the egoist anti-hero of the piece Hunter Perry (Rob Jaeger) who ends up the winner which means he has to face his deepest fears in order to shrug off this violent and persistent poltergeist or they will never be free of the curse.
Death and despair abound and the blood runs free as Lilith’s victims fall like human dominoes as she relentlessly hunts them out from wherever they try to run to in a set that has very atmospheric lighting and some good shots that all add to the overall terror and shock factor.
The plot is a simple but very effective one that made me jump a few times and still want to follow it to it’s twisted finale.
It’s well worth a view, but remember not to lose your heads will you thrillseekers?
Review by Nathan Sandiford
