Mirror Terror
Bruce Von Stiers
Suspense films often rely on plot elements that have been done before. Some fare better than others when setting a scene, building the suspense, and then revealing something dangerous or horrific.
One film that I recently viewed fits into that better category. It is a film titled Rorrim. The film deals with a family who have just moved into a new house. And the possible dark secrets that the house contains.
Rorrim is what I guess you'd call an extended short film. It has a run-time of forty-three minutes. The production company behind Rorrim was Rainey Day Pictures.
The film was directed by Tim Newkirk. While he is mostly known for his acting, Newkirk has also been behind the camera before.
Many of the scenes were filmed in and around McKinney, Texas, including a café scene. The other scenes were filmed in Dallas and Flower Mound, Texas.
Michael Gorham co-wrote the screenplay with Kara Rainer. The screenplay was accepted into competition for the 2013 Beverly Hills Film Festival. It was the first screenplay written by them. Before Rorrim, Gorham had worked on other films.Both of them held producer's credit for the film along with Tim Newkirk, Sandra Bunch and Cindy Baczkowski.
Besides being seen in a multiple of film shorts, Kara Rainer has been in films such as Glow, Seven Hill City and Maybe Shower. Rainer stars in this film as Rachel.
Daniel Morton plays the husband, Ritchie. He's been in several short films along with television series such as The Division and The Good Guys.
The daughter, Ivy, is played by Zion Szot. Her credits include the film Lentil Soup.
She's played a hooker and a doctor. In this film, Becky Jane Romaine plays the neighbor, Opal. Other cast members are Kate Mullen as Rachel's friend, Iris, and Tim Newkirk as Martin, the former mayor and former owner of Rachel and Richie's house. Olivia Sabini plays Olivia. Additional cast members included Stephanie Anuwe, Pablo Delgado, Stacey Sierra, Jeffrey S. Parkerson and Timi Salay Grogan.
Christopher Kingsley with the Director of Photography. First Assistant Director was Jonathan Graham. The second Assistant Director was Alexandra Consolino.
Music way by Brandon Maas and Chad Cox. Songs for the film were composed by Slater , Gabriel Faure and Kara Rainer.
The film opens as Rachel, Richie and Ivy are moving into their new house. Rachel discovers a music box in a carton with other items, apparently left by the house's previous owner. Rachel also finds a hand mirror. But what significance is there to those items?
From a neighbor Rachel learns that the former mayor had owned the house before them and that his wife, Olivia, had apparently left him years ago. But a chance find makes Rachel wonder about that. Certain events like doors opening on their own and chimes sounding with no wind begin to happen.
The film takes advantage of some tried and true suspense moments such as shadows showing in mirrors and a ghostly woman standing behind and out of sight of the characters. There are a couple of scenes with the daughter Ivy that were pretty suspenseful.
All during the film, white roses are focused upon. There is a white rose garden near the front fence of the house. And the mayor tells Rachel that those were his wife's favorite. But is there more to the white roses than just pretty flowers?
Is Rachel just imaging things like Rickie accused her of, or was there really something sinister about their new home?
While there isn't a suspenseful moment at every turn in this film, Rorrim has a lot of them. The characters seemed real enough, although they weren't as fully realized as I would have liked. But then again, this wasn't a feature length film, so none of the characters were given a complete buildup. The main focus of the film seemed to be on Rachel as she goes from simple curiosity to apprehension and finally to full blown fear.
I enjoyed watching Rorrim. It had a good mixture of suspense and implied supernatural occurrences. I had things figured out fairly early on, but I am a big fan of suspense films and books.
At this time, Rorrim is being shown at several film festivals. It should be released sometime soon to the general public.
To learn more about Rorrim, visit the Rainey Day Pictures film page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RaineyDayPictures/
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© 2019 Bruce E Von Stiers