The Skeptic
Dir Tennyson Bardwell
Rating 3.0
IFC Films
89 Minutes
After a cynical lawyer’s aunt dies of mysterious causes, he takes a break from his wife and son to camp out in the empty Victorian mansion left behind. It all seems like a swell idea, until the house comes alive and scares the pants off him. Timothy Daly’s dry depiction of skeptic Bryan Becket is the perfect garnish on a skin-crawling recipe, although director Bardwell fails to fully exploit the ripeness of Becket’s spooky marital separation. Instead, he dwells too long on the subplot of a comely psychic derelict (played by fetching Zoe Saldana) passing by for a supernatural slumber party. Without the slightest hint of chemistry between the two outcasts, and few detectable stakes for her involved, it’s tough discerning why we should have wanted their tracks to cross in the first place.
Helping hands offered by Becket’s psychiatrist (Edward Herrmann) and local priest (Robert Prosky) are no match for things that go bump in the night. Tom Arnold, the brightest light in this shadowy thriller, radiates with simpatico as Becket’s law partner. Arnold’s expressive mug steals the spotlight in a memorably creepy seizure which lead him to identify the source of evil in Dead Auntie’s closet. Now, if only there were more of Tom Arnold (a possession, perhaps, by the loathsome anti-Tom), and more interactions between Becket and his gloomy son (this is a wasted opportunity to flesh out troubled filial bonds and wreak havoc on audiences’ nerves) and more jilted wife (there’s never even any question as to whether she might catch on or object to the psychic babe kicking it with her estranged husband). Squandered chances at blood-curdling, all of them. As Becket’s rationalism gives way to suspicions of an unearthly cohabitant, his life begins to unravel. He misses meetings. He’s lost in daydreams. He insists on staying on in his late aunt’s home even after he learns that it has been willed to a professor (Bruce Altman) who conducts labs on the paranormal. But these are the least of his problems considering that he’s haunted by the worst specter of them all: a lousy childhood.
To its credit, The Skeptic does throw in a few really unnerving wrenches and does its duty, overall, as a scary movie, threading together a series of very frightening moments with classic visual effects and deft pacing. The most dreadful scares are downright elegant in their simplicity and effectiveness, so count on this one for goose-bumps rather than satisfying character development.
NB: The Skeptic is no longer playing theatrically but is available nationwide on-demand. It is available on the Movies on Demand channel on most cable systems.
by Joan Wolkoff
