Something preternatural is taking place within the wicked walls of The Englewood theater down Missouri way!
Enter: Kyle Jennings (Todd Norris, who directed and co-wrote the picture along with C. Wayne Owens… who has a roll in the film as well), a paranormal investigator desperate to prove his scientific worth to the university he’s employed by.
Kyle, along with his Department Head/believer in the supernatural, Cass Charbonneau (Lisa Winegar), head out to the eerie Englewood (located in his ol’ hometown no less), and finds the theater to be managed by his old high school gal pal, Lynne Meredith (Audrey Crabtree)… who is one of two employees of the establishment along with projectionist Johnnie (Gina Tarantino).
The ghostly presence wastes no time, as shortly after our hero’s arrival a campy action/horror film called Z is for Zombie begins playing on it’s own and the doors to the outside world are locked tight by an outré force!
To make matters worse, during brief periods objects can enter… and exit the screen, so Kyle soon must journey deep within Z is for Zombie to keep those gut-munchers from putting the bite on the real world!
The Paranormal is the entreating-as-hell end result of when passionate filmmakers have next-to-no budget and an absolute fucking home-run of a clever premise!
The whole going in and out of a zombie flick under the influence of ghosts is a shit-hot awesome idea, and the cast assembled here are both fun to watch and really help make the narrative believable… well, help us suspend our disbelief is probably more accurate… but either way it’s tops!
Additionally the film makes excellent use of it’s locations which helps open the scope of the film exponentially (as does the inclusion of zombie footage from Todd Sheets’ Zombie Bloodbath and it’s sequel to beef up the hungry hordes stalking Z is for Zombie), and the electronic score from Composer Paul Andrew Roberts is a ton of fun and cleverly has echoes of Goblin’s score for the Italian cut of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead!
Because this release comes from Visual Vengeance, there are a balcony’s worth of special features present here which begin with two audio commentaries from Norris (one solo, and one with Composer Roberts) that detail what it took to bring The Paranormal to life, followed by interviews with cast and crew, and an interview featuring Norris and Todd Sheets.
Also included are a series of bumpers from the film’s broadcast on regional TV, collections of bloopers and deleted scenes, script excerpts, a storyboard gallery, four short films, and the Visual Vengeance cut of the film’s trailer.
Also included in the package are a folded mini-poster (featuring art by Giorgio Credaro), a reversible sleeve (displaying the feature’s original VHS artwork and a new piece from artist The Dude), a faux-VHS sticker sheet, a promo flyer for Z is for Zombie and if you grab a first pressing of The Paranormal you’ll get a Ghost Finder viewer!
Unique, well-acted, and featuring a heap of S.O.V. creativity, The Paranormal is a solid supernatural shocker through and through!
