Concluding The Bonnivar Park Disappearances

Concluding the Bonnivar Park Disappearances

Bruce Von Stiers

In the last couple of years, there have been two short horror films released that deal with a specific park in an undisclosed town. The films were The Whisper and The Whisper 2: Natural Connection.

The place in question is Bonnivar Park. It seems like quite a few people are missing after going to that park.

There is a new film relating to the events surrounding Bonnivar Park and the missing people. The title of the film is Whispers. It takes place after the events of the other two films. Whereas the earlier films were short horror films, Whispers is over an hour long and listed as a feature.

The film begins with a live remote newscast at Bonnivar Park. Simon Peterson is the reporter and he talks about two young women, Sophie and Maggie, who had disappeared while at the park. Their families have posted a reward for information about them, but so far nobody has seen the women.

A little later, Simon is walking in the park, video chatting with his friend about all of the strange things going on. And that there are all kinds of theories about the disappearances, from a cult thing to supernatural stuff. Then Simon comes across a tree with a bunch of weird symbols and writing on it. Suddenly Simon is transported to a field just outside a creepy looking abandoned office building. Simon finds Sophie's phone on the floor in the building and then goes searching for her. But he encounters something. Something evil.

The rest of the film is broken up into segments. Each one features a specific character in the film. The segments do overlap a bit as the story moves forward and the characters interact with each other.

There is a segment titled Nick. Apparently, he is the boyfriend that Sophie was on the outs with. Nick is trying to find Sophie and is showing a Missing Person flyer around to people. Maggie's brother Alex thinks maybe Nick has something to do with the disappearances and wants him to fix things.

As this segment moves along, Nick ends up at a creepy building with Alex and another guy. They search for the women there. But Nick ends up encountering something evil. Just like the reporter had, but maybe little bit different.

Then there is a segment called Caine. He is the other guy that ends up at the creepy building with Alex and Nick. He has his own story that ultimately leads him to be with the other two guys at the creepy building.

And there is a segment about Alex. He is a heavy drinker, which plays a little into the storyline. There is a tragic backstory on how he and Maggie came there from Bulgaria. Then when Alex is at the creepy building, some very strange things happen to him.

Then there is a segment called Gwen. She had been Maggie's best friend. But then she stole Maggie's boyfriend. Gwen is worried about what happened to Sophie and Maggie. Doing a bit of research, Gwen learns of a horrific event in the park's past and a supposed curse from a woman named Elara that was laid upon it. Then Gwen makes a discovery that helps tie things together and build to the conclusion of the film.

There are a couple of Easter Egg type of things in the film. One is when Alex is in the building. Somehow this was all an illusion and he was an actor who had a mental break. He was supposed to star in a film, Natural Connection. This was part of the title of the second Whisper film. The second Easter Egg was when Maggie, now supposedly a psychiatrist, mentions having been an actor in a horror film. The plot she describes is from an actual short horror film, Drums.

Miroslav Petkov was Alex. He also directed the film and wrote the screenplay. He has acted in several films and produced the two previous Whisper films.

Simona Rose was Maggie. She co-produced the film with Miroslav Petkov. She has starred in several films including a short horror film I reviewed, Drums, which I mentioned earlier. She also starred in the second Whisper film and was featured in the Bulgarian segment of Onlyfangs.

Nicola Penchev was Nick. He starred in the short drama film, Foliage. Nikol Topalova was Gwen. This is her first IMDB film listing. Simona Grozeva was Sophie. Velin Borata was Caine. He had a role in the short thriller film, Paranoia.

Rudy Ledbetter was news reporter Simon Peterson. He is a veteran of over one hundred fifty films, including New Years Evil and the upcoming Skate to Hell.

Phil Herman was Todd Waterston, one of the missing people. In addition to acting, he is a producer of hit horror films such as Onlyfangs.

Bobby Mareva was Elara, the evil spirit that caused all the mayhem. She starred in My Wife, The Monster and Intruder Within.

Also appearing in the film were Kevin Duffy, Andrew Pierson, Morgan Milam, Oktober Layne, Rumyana Yaneva and Kristina Lafser.

And among the faces appearing on the Missing Person flyers were horror actors Paul Bradford, Anastacia Bella and Sammy Morningstar.

The film's Director of Photography was Petar Genchev. He worked on the Bulgarian segment for Onlyfangs and was the cinematographer for Intruder Within.

The music for the film was composed by Scott McLaughlin. He was the composer for Torn and My Boyfriend Stole My Kidney.

The production companies involved with the film were Spookhouse Mediaworks and Terrifying Productions. The lead production company was Enigma Movie Productions, which is headed by Miroslav Petkov. And the film was made in association with Ian Aberle and Lord Gary Dando.

I thought that Whispers would just be the first two Whisper films with filler added. But this was a separate addition to the saga. There were a couple of places where footage from the previous films were used but the film stands on its own. It might be helpful to have seen the other films to provide some background, but it really isn't crucial to the storyline.

Whispers is a really good horror thriller. You get suspenseful elements along with bits of horror. Has there really been over thirty people who disappeared from Bonnivar Park? Was the tale of Elara really true or just a boogie man story to tell little children? Though there were several scenes with horror in them, they weren't overly graphic or gory. And the story that began with the first Whisper film concludes at the end of this one. Or does it?

There is currently a distribution deal being worked out to release the film. But the actual release date has yet to be determined.

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