re:mote voices

Title: Long Time Dead

Cast: Joe Absolom, Lara Belmont, Melanie Gutteridge, Lukas Haas, James Hillier, Alec Newman, Mel Raido, Marsha Thomason, Tom Bell, Michael Feast

Director: Marcus Adams

Long Time Dead is a British attempt at hip, contemporary horror; revolving around a group of about a half dozen students. One night at a rave in an abandoned warehouse the group of friends decide to hold a séance using a ouija board. Setting up in a dark corner of the warehouse they improvise a board and are able to connect to some kind of spirit. The result of which is one of their group dies that night. Even worse it seems that what they have contacted plans to kill them off one by one. As the film goes on it becomes clear that this is not the first time this has happened, and one of the group survived a previous event.

In composition terms Long Time Dead is decent enough, with the cast doing their jobs. However, at times it perhaps feels like there isn’t a lot of depth and with that Long Time Dead lacks any real tension. Given the idea of some kind of “demonic” presence, effects are light, which can work, but for it to work there is a real requirement for a sense of tension. Which no doubt explains why Long Time Dead wasn’t particularly much of a success when it was released a few years ago.