Amanda Gusack

Before Paranormal Activity caused such a stir, Amanda Gusack directed the indie ghost story In Memorium, which is only now receiving its dues. Gusack more recently directed the higher-budget horror/thriller The Betrayed, which stars Melissa George and is available on DVD.

Gusack's haunting-caught-on-home-video film is one of our favorite examples of women directing awesome new horror movies, and we'd love to point out that if you like Paranormal Activity, you'll love In Memorium. On July 27, Dennis Wade was diagnosed with terminal cancer. On September 25th, he began to document his illness. On September 27th...the cameras recorded something else. Check out these three clips from In Memorium...

Directed and Written by Amanda Gusack
Featuring Melissa George, Oded Fehr, Alice Krige, Christian Campbell, Donald Adams, and Scott Heindl

In Memorium, Amanda Gusack’s previous horror film, was a well-shot and amazing venture into psychological horror. Her much bigger budgeted follow up, The Betrayed, is a thriller starring Melissa George which is unfortunately less touching and novel than In Memorium. Starting out with a Saw-like situation in which mom Jamie wakes up after a car accident to find herself locked in a dungeon-y basement room somewhere, Jamie is then forced by her captors to answer a series of questions about her husband to which she doesn’t know the answers, or her and her son Michael will be killed...

Written and Directed by Amanda Gusack
Featuring Erik McDowell, Johanna Watts, Levi Powell, Mary Porster
2005, 73 minutes
www.inmemoriumthemovie.com

Whenever I see a new film that utilizes a story-within-a-story to use black and white, low quality, or documentary-style camera work, (Making a film within a film, The Collingswood Story, The Last Broadcast, The Blair Witch Project)) I think 'Uh Oh'. There have been some really bad examples of this kind of purposeful bad-camera usage in recent years, and it can turn out badly for everyone. Oftentimes, the movie-within-a-movie is exactly that; an excuse to not light things properly, to not execute proper camera usage, and to cover up flaws in budget restrictions by chalking it up to part of the storyline. There are some exceptions to this where this type of filmmaking style really does work, as in The Blair Witch Project, Razor Eaters, and now, thankfully, I can add In Memorium to the 'good'list. This review contains mild spoilers. The filmmaker requests that you read with caution...