We
might have our misgivings, but the NSA and Department of Homeland Security will
assure us their data collection is strictly for our protection. Therefore, a
contractor is put in a rather tough spot when he uncovers a threat that is not
national security related. Its apparent supernatural nature makes it even more
awkward. That poor specialist is in for an eyeful in Matthew Solomon’s Chatter (trailer here), which screens
during the 2016 Philip K. Dick Film Festival in New York.
Is
it possible malevolent spirits can travel through skype? Just watch the opening
prologue featuring old school Battlestar
Galactica’s Richard Hatch. He will not be returning, nor will his on-screen
daughter. David and Laura Cole be the next to learn this lesson. He has
returned to Los Angeles to restart his film composing career, in the hopes she can
soon join him from London. Being apart, they share a little “sexy time” via
webcam, thereby attracting Martin Takagi’s clandestine interest. However, he
periodically sees strange shapes and the like behind the musician that trouble
him.
Plagued
by eerie sobbing noises and a general sense of unease, David Cole gets little
sleep and his disposition suffers. Soon his email files start to go astray and
his skype connects at odd hours of the night. Belatedly, he learns his
apartment has had a revolving door for tenants and a reputation for being
haunted by a young girl’s spirit. As first, Laura Cole fears he is losing it,
but she eventually starts to experience the same ghostly phenomenon. Then the entity
really starts to get nasty, which greatly alarms Takagi. However, the director
clearly implies he should keep a lid on it.
There
have already been a number of skype-surveillance found footage horror films,
like Ratter and Joe Swanberg’s
installment of the original V/H/S,
but Solomon develops a fresh take on the sub-sub-genre. Chatter is certainly informed by the NSA’s controversial data
recording and collection programs (the agency and DHS are ironically thanked in
the acknowledgements), but the film is not stridently political. In terms of
tone, it is more in the tradition of Blumhouse’s supernatural horror than
contemporary cyberpunk, but that is not a bad thing.
If
you did not already know it is Hatch in the opening sequence, you would
probably not recognize him. Regardless, he and Alison Haislip hook us in pretty
much from the start. Sarena Khan’s presence really commands the [split] screen
as Laura Cole. Conversely, Brady Smith’s whiny demeanor gets tiresome, but the
role reversal of victimized husband and doubting wife further distinguishes Chatter from the genre field.
