Waverly Hills, "Death Tunnel" Review

Waverly Hills. The two words are bound to get a reaction from anyone around Louisville. It's internationally infamous for being one of the most haunted places on the planet. The five-story gothic hospital started off as a TB sanatorium in 1926. When TB was cured in the 1960's, Waverly Hills closed temporarily and reopened as Wood Haven, a nursing home. Unfortunately for its residents, abuse and neglect was rampant, and the state closed it down in 1980. Vacant and abandoned, vandals quickly wore it down and tore it up. Tina and Charles Mattingly, the current owners of the property, now seek to maintain and restore Waverly Hills; one of the ways to generate that revenue is ghost tours. (For more historical information, check out the property's official site.)

WH has never been known as a happy place; over 60,000 people died there during the TB years, at one point at the rate of one patient each hour. After 1980, however, the ghost legends began to take hold. I first heard them as a teenager; I was told WH was an insane asylum, and not knowing its true history, believed it. Way before the "official" tours began, while in my late teens, I took a (ahem) visit to WH with some friends. It affected me in a way few places have since. No, I didn't see or hear ghosts. But I felt a somber weight that is almost impossible to describe. Before I knew the truth of its TB patients and neglected seniors, I could sense the sadness of WH. And I immediately thought, "What a great place to set a movie."

When WFPK gave me a chance to do another Halloween radio drama in 2003, I knew I wanted to do a hoax show, where the participants seemed to be "real people" broadcasting live from somewhere. In fact, the participants would be actors and the show would be edited from previously taped material. I pitched it as "Blair Witch" meets Welles's "War of the Worlds." It was Dan Reed, WFPK's program director at the time, that had the infinite wisdom to suggest the setting of a haunted house. Immediately, I knew it had to be at WH. So, I plotted out the story, put together my actors, and even got live ambient audio from Waverly Hills itself (slamming of doors, running up stairs, an empty hallway). We cut the thing together in WFPK's studios and broadcast it on Halloween -- supposedly, "Live From Waverly Hills." It was no movie, but I was satisfied to have finally gotten the chance to fictionalize an adventure there.

So this very long introduction brings us to Death Tunnel, the DVD I finally had a chance to watch today.

DT was filmed on location at Waverly Hills in 2004, the first Hollywood film to do so. For fans of the hospital's legend, this seemed a dream come true. The story has a clever hook: five college girls are "volunteered" to stay in the five floors of the abandoned sanatorium for five hours. The catch? Five ghosts don't want them there. When I had heard about the movie, I contacted the producer Christopher Saint Booth (the director's twin brother) and exchanged a few emails; I even sent him a copy of my WH show. The movie was put in limited release last year, and finally came out on DVD back in February. I was eager to see it, but didn't have a chance until today.

The good news: The cinematography is beautiful, and I'm comparing it to movies even outside the horror genre. Philip Adrian Booth shot, wrote, and directed the picture. Opinions may differ what he accomplished in those last two departments, but I'll challenge anyone to beat Booth's camerawork. The special & makeup effects -- indeed, production values overall -- are very good as well, especially considering the movie only had a budget of 1.5 million. The filmmakers are adept at utilizing the WH location to set the mood. In terms of looks, the characters are well-casted; the five lead girls are all gorgeous.

The mediocre news: the acting and script. For a genre flick, I ain't expecting The Godfather, mind you. But the overall acting was merely efficient (mostly screaming and crying), and the script was weak. I believe all the dialogue for the 90 minute film could be written on the front and back of a postcard. Also the original (excellent!) premise wasn't fully realized. If there were five ghosts, I couldn't tell you who all of them were. As for the five hours, the movie first counts them down as a possible tension device, then drops the idea midway through. I could spend another whole blog entry on describing plot holes and continuity errors but I'll stop while I'm ahead.

The bad news: the editing. It's in this area that finally kills Death Tunnel. Its first editing fault: it's cut like a hyper music video. I'm always wary of this, since most of the time it never works for me (see any Michael Bay movie) although there's always an exception (Moulin Rouge is an excellent example). If this was its only editing flaw, it would merely be irritating. The second and greater problem is incoherence. There are so many flashforwards and flashbacks you lose any sense of story, much less a build up of tension. The (over)use of slow-mo didn't help either.

The verdict? I was disappointed. Rent it only if you're a huge WH fan and leave your brain on autopilot.

Death Tunnel is more confusing then scary. It's a shame. Based on the initial hook of the story, DT could have been a great little thriller if done in a more straight-forward manner. However, I believe Booth has talent worth watching. He reminds me of another new director in the horror genre, Rob Zombie. I saw House of 1000 Corpses and can't say I dug the flick, but it had nuggets of gold and I saw his directing potential. When Zombie did Devil's Rejects, I was impressed and convinced of his filmmaking talent. I hope Booth gets that chance as well.

Let's end on a happy note. If you're curious about Waverly Hills, what you should buy is the documentary Spooked. It was filmed while Booth was making Death Tunnel, and directed by Christopher Saint Booth. The documentary is much more scary and coherent than the feature film. and its style mostly adds instead of detracts from the experience. (I saw Spooked on the Sci-Fi channel. It is now out on DVD.)