For Sale By Exorcist (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | She flips haunted houses! - video Dailymotion

Film Brain

Film Brain reviews this horror mockumentary about a realtor exorcist who busts ghosts and flips houses - he's sold on the concept, but isn't buying the execution.

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00:00You've heard of flipping houses, but what about haunted houses?

00:03That's the premise of the mockumentary, For Sale by Exorcist.

00:07Emily Classen plays Susan Price, a realtor and exorcist who specialises in

00:11busting ghosts and demons from properties and selling them.

00:14But Susan discovers that finding her own ideal home can be hell.

00:18Executive produced by Eduardo Sanchez of the Blair Witch Project,

00:22For Sale by Exorcist is the directorial debut of Melissa Lamatina,

00:26and her husband Chris co-wrote the script.

00:28He's best known for the WNF Halloween special.

00:31Both Melissa and Chris also co-star as a bickering couple,

00:34whose marriage is being complicated by a succubus,

00:37where she repeatedly punches him in the crotch.

00:40Luckily, things seem much rosier in real life.

00:43The tried and tested mockumentary setup turns the very tight budget

00:47and the rough-and-ready approach into an asset,

00:49although I do wish there was a bit more atmosphere and style,

00:51given the supernatural premise.

00:53The accent here is very much towards comedy, with the horror downplayed,

00:57going far more for spooky than ever being scary,

01:00and evokes something more like The Office than, say, Beetlejuice.

01:04Emily Classen's very game-in-the-lead role dropping lots of southern fried wisdom,

01:08but I think the main issue is that the cast are very aware they're in a comedy,

01:12and I felt they were mugging and overplaying the humour.

01:15Maybe this is down to personal preference,

01:17but I think a much more straight-faced and deadpan approach

01:20in the tradition of The Addams Family or Ghostbusters

01:23would have fit better with the mockumentary style.

01:26Those movies played their eccentric characters against normal people for jokes,

01:29but this film surrounds its realtor existence with similarly kooky characters,

01:33which makes it seem like overlong sketch comedy.

01:36I really love the concept of For Sale by Exist,

01:39as it's a great setup of all those horror movies

01:41where realtors forget to disclose the burial ground in the basement,

01:45but I didn't do very much exorcising in my funny bone.

For Sale By Exorcist (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | She flips haunted houses!

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