We Are Still Here

USA, 2015, DCP, 2.35, colour, 84′
15.4. | 19:00 | Kinodvor

directed and written by Ted Geoghegan cinematography Karim Hussain music Wojciech Golczewski editing Aaron Crozier, Josh Ethier cast Barbara Crampton, Andrew Sensenig, Larry Fessenden, Lisa Marie, Monte Markham festivals SXSW, Stanley Film Festival, Boston Underground, Fantasia, Sitges, Film4 Frightfest, Fantaspoa (Best Special Effects), Neuchâtel, Trieste Science + Fiction

After the death of their son, Anne and Paul Sacchetti relocate to the snow-swept New England hamlet of Aylesbury, a sleepy village where all is most certainly not as it seems. When strange sounds and eerie feelings convince Anne that her son’s spirit is still with them, they invite an eccentric, New Age couple (Larry Fessenden and Lisa Marie) to help them get to the bottom of the mystery. They discover that not only are the house’s first residents, the vengeful Dagmar family, still there – but a primal darkness slumbers under the old home, demanding the fresh blood of a new family.

A debut feature director with an impressive screenwriting and production slate, Ted Geoghegan knows his influences and wears them proudly. With We Are Still Here he grabs the haunted house plot by the horns, and breaths vibrant new life into the well-worn subgenre via a heap of genuine wit and moments of pure terror. When indie horror legend Larry Fessenden (in a glove-fitting role) appears at the doorstep, it’s like meeting an old friend… possessed by the forces of primordial evil.

“In the 1980s, subversive – and, god forbid, foreign – horror films weren’t easy to find in the video stores of rural Montana, where I had been brought up. Therefore, it wasn’t until I was well into my thirties that I began to be inspired by the cinema of Italian director Lucio Fulci – namely his open-ended, brilliantly bizarre House by the Cemetery (1981), a film that unabashedly poses more questions than it answers – and has such a monumental fingerprint on my own feature that all of my characters are named after members of its cast and crew. As traditional haunted house films such as The Conjuring, Sinister and Insidious became more and more popular, I saw a unique opportunity to combine my beloved inspirations with modern horror aesthetics and create something wholly new – an original film that would embrace the tone and pacing of 70s and 80s genre films, yet was fuelled by modern genre cinema. The end result is a dreamlike, dark, splattery human drama that’s eerily familiar, yet unlike anything you’ve seen in a very long time. I sincerely hope you enjoy the trip.”
– Ted Geoghegan

“The spirit of horror maestro Lucio Fulci is alive and well in Ted Geoghegan’s wildly entertaining haunted house thriller, in which a middle-aged couple copes with the death of their son by moving to a remote home in the New England countryside. /…/ Despite a retro style that mimics the alternately awkward and menacing tone of the seventies and eighties titles it calls to mind, We Are Still Here still manages to deliver an enjoyable series of surprises … Plus, indie horror actor-director Larry Fessenden (Wendigo) surfaces in a delightfully unhinged role as one of the couple’s aging hippy pals who eventually gets possessed by deranged forces, leading to one of his best performances since his breakout vampire drama Habit.”
– Eric Kohn, Indiewire

“A masterfully crafted slow creeper that knows when to ratchet up the tension and release.”
– Patrick Cooper, Bloody Disgusting

“A sublime concoction of creeping dread and outright terror.”
– Shawn Macomber, Fangoria

“We Are Still Here works on multiple levels; new horror fans will enjoy the thrills and chills, while experienced horror nuts will delight in the clever twists on an old formula.”
– Peter Martin, Fandango

“Genre fans with a sense of history should make this entertaining chiller a sought-after item for midnight slots…”
– Dennis Harvey, Variety

“The first incredibly scary and pure horror film of 2015. There’s just nothing out there like it, and there hasn’t been in quite some time.”
– Steve Barton, Dread Central

“…a wildly original and terrifyingly entertaining ride, sure to be the most memorable genre film of the year.”
-Jerry Smith, Icons of Fright