“The pacing in Find Me is another point in its favor, plus the fact we don’t need to wait around very long before we’re rewarded with some ghostly activity, with things moving along fairly consistently once the fun begins.”
by Nav Qateel
Newlyweds Tim and Emily spot the house of their dreams and quickly snap it up when they find it’s for sale and the price is extremely low. The first night they move in, Emily (Kathryn Lyn) sees the ghostly apparition of a woman who looks just like her. It’s not long before Tim (Cameron Bender) also gets to meet the unfriendly ghost, up close and personal. After the words “Find Me” are found written by the ghost, Tim, Emily and her best friend Claire, attempt to communicate with the spirit but this spirit isn’t easy to appease, with things going from bad to worse.
Andy Palmer’s Find Me may feel a bit too familiar to anyone who watches a lot of horror movies, with quite a few cliches and borrowed elements, particularly from James Wan’s The Conjuring, being incorporated here. A larger cast, the Annabelle doll and clapping hands coming out of a wardrobe, was all that was needed to completed the effect. Luckily for Palmer, the somewhat derivative Find Me has been very well made with great performances and some nice cinematography from DP Josh Gibson.
- Find Me
- Directed by
Andy Palmer - Cast
Cameron Bender, Kathryn Lyn, Rachelle Dimaria - Release Date
2 September 2014 - Nav’s Grade: C+
The pacing in Find Me is another point in its favor, plus the fact we don’t need to wait around very long before we’re rewarded with some ghostly activity, with things moving along fairly consistently once the fun begins. I did, however, roll my eyes when Emily’s bestie Claire makes an impromptu visit, and frightens her at the door by jumping out and shouting “boo!” in what felt rather sophomoric.
Another thing I did like was that Tim was quick to believe Emily after she tells him about seeing the ghost. In the majority of horror flicks, this could go on for the first two acts, regardless of the evidence stacking up, and can be frustrating to sit and watch.
*****
This is the second film, also horror, Kathryn Lyn and Cameron Bender have worked on playing husband and wife, with Lesser Miracles‘ being their first. The multi-talented Kathryn Lyn put in a great performance and played the terrified Emily with the right amount of fear on display. This is something I find can ruin an actor’s performance, when they can’t find the right balance and end up overdoing it. Not so, here. Lyn also co-wrote Find Me, along with Cameron Bender and Andy Palmer. The actress also recently starred in the drama PHX (Phoenix).
Cameron Bender is an experienced actor who handled his character like the pro that he is. He didn’t have as much screen-time as Lyn but certainly had enough dramatic scenes to make an impression. Rachelle Dimaria was as great to watch as Lyn, and although I haven’t seen anything else by Dimaria or Lyn, I’ll be sure to pay attention when I see their names attached to anything I might be interested in, in future.
Andy Palmer has put Find Me together on what looks to be a rather meagre budget, yet he’s produced an enjoyable horror. It may not be a film that’s bursting at the seams with originality, however, for a low-budget indie horror there’s more than enough entertainment to keep genre fans satiated. It would be a shame to dismiss this little movie based on the premise alone. How many films are found-footage, where a group of twentysomethings get killed by masked slashers? On that score, this is a breath of fresh air, thanks to being none of those things.
