THE GHOSTS OF EDENDALE (2003)

The California Gold Rush never ended. Evocative yarns of dead 'old Los Angeles' spreading its clammy presence into 'new Los Angeles' are as old as the Hollywood hills, spawning non-supernatural noirs (CHINATOWN), geriatric gothics (SUNSET BOULEVARD, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, etc.), bewitching nightmares (the THRILLER episode "A Wig for Miss DeVore," MULHOLLAND DRIVE), and at least one bonafide literary classic, Nathaniel West's "The Day of the Locust." There's ghosts and 'bad fuggums' (to quote Captain Beefheart) in them thar hills, and they're forever hungry to reclaim lost glories, withered beauty, and squandered youth. 'They' feed on irrational dreams of untapped riches, elevating celebrity, and virtual immortality that draws generation after generation to Tinseltown like incendiary moths to the flame. And like moths, the intimate apocalypses that most often result provide the brief, fleeting spectacle of lives, loves, and dreams gone up in spirals of smoke. Building on the accomplishments of his debut feature THE MONEY GAME (aka THE GAME, 1994) and his collaborative work with Lance Weiler on the pioneer digital feature THE LAST BROADCAST (1998), writer-director-editor Stefan Avalos crafts his own spin on this archetype with the eerie, unsettling THE GHOSTS OF EDENDALE. Basing his latest feature on uncanny personal experience -- GHOSTS is set in Avalos' adopted L.A. neighborhood, filmed in his own home -- and working hand-in-hand with producer Marianne Connor (IMPRESSIONS OF JORDAN, TIME 'TIL LIGHT) and a most capable cast and production team, Avalos once again embraces digital technology to mount a chilling gem which taps an almost-palpably suffocating sense of dread. We first meet Kevin (Stephen Wastell, THE MONEY GAME and THE MINER'S MASSACRE) and Rachel (Paula Ficara, CHUPACABRA and A LIST) as they move into their 'dream house' in old Hollywood's historic Edendale, the bedrock of the movie capital's silent-era beginnings. Their plan is to tap the promised wellsprings, writing and selling screenplays to carve out a new life for themselves, far from a fleetingly-sketched troubled past in the East. Kevin cottons immediately to the place, intrigued by its history and happy to find all their neighbors (including Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, the masterminds behind the documentaries THE HAMSTER FACTOR AND OTHER TALES OF TWELVE MONKEYS and LOST IN LA MANCHA) share his interests in working on and in the movies. Rachel, however, is almost immediately confronted with a 'second sight' of Edendale's underbelly, and it is her swelling fear which shapes our own experience. True to its chosen genre, Avalos walks a narrative tightrope between madness and the atavistic fear of the dead reawakening -- is all that we see on the screen a genuine eruption of evil forces at work, or evidence of Rachel's slow spiral into insanity? -- and he leads us by the hand to the end of that wire with assurance and skill. There are a number of quiet but very real jolts (none more jarring than the first, which I won't betray here), but GHOSTS is shaped above all by an exquisitely realized sense of being cast adrift in a consumptive, all-devouring environment that others seem to thrive upon, and the fearful realization that one might not escape intact -- if at all. The steady slide from the inviting patio-parties and steamy hot tubs of sunny L.A. into the tangible malignancy of the avaricious rooms, homes, and streets is lovingly detailed by cinematographer/videographer Lukas Ettlin, whose work is cannily 'corrupted' by Scott Hale's palette of visual effects, in which flesh can quiver into rot with the subtle shift of an eyebrow or deepening of a shadow. Vincent Gillioz's score is the black icing on the cake, smooth, slippery, and insidious. While the catalyst of GHOSTS is venerable indeed -- tales entangling possessive spirits, 'magick' and madness date back to the Hebrew 'dybbuk,' the contemporary template arguably established with Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw" and H.P. Lovecraft's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" -- the fresh orientation Avalos brings to GHOSTS is deceptively pragmatic, easing into a parable that charts the black heart of the contemporary fringe-Hollywood scene. As the couple settle into their new home, cozily sharing their creative work space with chair backs practically touching, the widening rift between them is defined in part by the deadening writer's block one suffers while the other savors a rush of productivity. Jealousy flares, fueling Rachel's growing distress and certainty that something is terribly amiss. The steady tapping of the keyboard becomes as violative as the overt manifestations of demonic children, sentient woodwork, and fleeting specters, and the absurdity of the coveted muse ("channeling" a by-the-numbers script for a western as old as, well, Tom Mix) embodies GHOSTS OF EDENDALE's malignant forces at work. In stark contrast to the repetitive rant-manuscript of Jack Nicholson's aspiring author in Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING, Kevin's script is -- damn it! -- praised and embraced by the unseen powers-that-be, optioned, and quickly opens doors that remain frustratingly out-of-reach to others... including Rachel. Surely, the productive partner must be possessed: what else could explain the unnatural ability to create in a conceptually-bankrupt, culturally-impoverished city where "properly-channeled" (read: recycled) creativity is the coin of the realm? Whatever possesses Avalos and Connor and their partners in crime, let's hope we see more manifestations of their creative chemistry -- and soon. - Stephen R. Bissette (c) 2003 Stephen Bissette has written film reviews for Video Watchdog, Fangoria, and Gorezone as well as contributed to numerous books on the horror genre. He is an award-winning author (Aliens: Tribe), cartoonist (Swamp Thing), and editor/publisher (Taboo).

To view the trailer and learn more about the movie, visit the website at www.ghostsofedendale.com. For press kit, e-mail Marianne Connor at marianne@ghostsofedendale.com.