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This movie opens with a disclaimer: The following motion picture is based on an actual case of mysterious deaths and the viral video known as "Sleep Study GR16 1971." We have used footage and interviews with real people whenever possible.
Late night radio host Charlie (Dallas Roberts) is more than a little displeased with his job. His divorced life is equally dissatisfying as he is serially disrespected by his ex and their son (Mattie Liptak; Quarantine 2: The Terminal). At an all-time low in his career he gets a call from a frightened teenager who claims to see ghostly shadows at night. After readily dismissing the teenagers story, he receives a package from the disturbed caller containing documents pertinent to a strange sleep study in which the subjects all reported seeing shadowy creatures as well. The teen calls again to talk about the study and his fears. He concludes that "when you think of them, they come for you." During the call the teen describes his fears, reveals he has a gun, fires, and well, things seem to have escalated along with Charlie's ratings.
His producer Tom Dimartino (himself and Christopher Berry) suggests that he visit the caller, who is now in the hospital after shooting the wall, to follow up on the story for the sake of ratings. Charlie goes to the hospital to meet the boy only to learn that he died in his sleep during that first night of his stay. Now a bit perturbed, Charlie goes to Camden College (where the sleep study was conducted). He does some library research and a student librarian assistant (Mariah Bonner) who takes an interest in his show happens to find out what Charlie's researching when she fixes a paper jam in the copier he was using. She was found dead by her roommate that night.
With this second death, Charlie becomes a believer and makes his radio show all about it. His radio show is now abuzz with talk of drugs, mental illness and schizophrenia as callers flooded the airways with likely causes of how two healthy young people died in their sleep. "Real footage" of locals' and witnesses' testimonials add flavor. Over time, the calls shift from attempts to explain the sleeping deaths to callers' accounts of experiencing sleep paralysis and sightings of shadowy figures. Charlie questions, with so many telling the same story "Could it all be real?"
Sophie (Alison Eastwood), a CDC researcher rep, meets with Charlie to discuss the recent sleep-related deaths. Autopsies revealed no pathogens, heavy metals or health history to explain the deaths. Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome is the suggested cause. But Charlie believes in something of a more primordial, sentient cause. His mission to reveal the truth leads to a national media blitz…will it work? Can he stop these deaths?
As we stare at the screen waiting to sleuth out the next rogue shadow we are left with a haunting notion: The shadow people know when we think of them and then they come for us…so how do you stop thinking about something?
Whereas some of the shadow effects were perfectly executed in my eyes, others were not ideal. For example, running shadowy figures may make me jump, but that's not the same as eliciting fear. The shadows that are still and suddenly noticed in the background, or slowly moving, or out of sync with the caster of the shadow...THOSE are the scary effects. THOSE are chilling.
Overall I was pleased with the jump scares. Watch this in the dark. This film is good at building tension as you anticipate seeing something weird in the shadows, much like the intensity of Paranormal Activity (2007). It's creepy. You know it's probably about to happen, then it happens, and you're still shaken by it! The ending, while not some super clever twist, was elegant and simple and I appreciated it. From start to finish, I was very surprised and pleased with this. I find none of the typical, in fact expected, flaws of horror: over-exposition, poor character development, stale writing, effects demonstrative of a forced and over-extended budget, frightlessly empty scares, inconsistency in pacing or story and, perhaps worst of all, lame endings indicative of a lack of vision.
This solid film was written and directed by Matthew Arnold, who has done basically nothing else in terms of feature length films or horror. Like The Day (2011), The Shrine (2010) and The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh (2012), this film really shocked me. While not as original as the other three in story or style, Shadow People was without a doubt finely crafted, acted and filmed such that I am excited to see whatever Matthew Arnold does next.
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