As an actor, William Butler had the distinction of being the only guy to be killed on screen by Jason Voorhees (in FRIDAY THE 13TH THE NEW BLOOD), Leather face (in the third TEXAS CHAINSAW movie) and Freddy Krueger (in an episode of FREDDY’S NIGHTMARES). As a filmmaker, he follows up his genre directorial debut MADHOUSE with FURNACE and proves to be a more assured director than screenwriter.
The new flick boasts a nonsensical “Inspired by real events” tag at the outset that seems de-rigueur for 21st century horror flicks. Technically, the “Inspired by…” caption could merely mean that Butler visited a real prison, got spooked by it and was “inspired” to make a film about a spooky prison. The movie is more obviously influenced by a variety of vengeful Asian ghost flicks, and American horrors with a similarly oppressive backdrop such as Renny Harlin’s superior PRISON and Brad Anderson’s awesomely frightening SESSION 9. (The asylum-set MADHOUSE was also derivative of the latter, and here Butler duplicates that film’s swirling aerial shots of its institution for FURNACE’s various exterior overhead visuals of its prison).
“Black Gate Prison” was originally built on cursed land (aren’t they always?) and over the years has developed a reputation for horrible tragedies, including fatal fires and apparent suicides. Loner detective Michael Pare is unhappy with the suicide verdict declared for a recent mysterious death and launches an investigation. At the prison he discovers an allegedly haunted sealed south wing and a shrink (Jennifer McShane) who insists that drugs circulated inside are responsible for the various cases of hallucination-induced suicides. We the audience know better : years earlier a warden inadvertently killed his young daughter and both ended up burning in the prison furnace. Their presence lingers on, in a ghostly charred form within the prison walls.
Like MADHOUSE, FURNACE boasts an above average cast, though the likes of Ja Rule and Danny Trejo (as inmates) and Tom Sizemore (as an unhelpful security guard) have little to work with. Pare has an easy charisma and bonafide screen presence though unfortunately his character is saddled with a bog standard back-story-trauma and an even more clichéd candlelit love scene with McShane. (MADHOUSE also suffered from a pace-deadening romantic interlude).
Commendably avoiding the easy gore option (aside from some crawling severed fingers and decent burn make-ups courtesy of John Vulich) and largely resisting cheap shock effects, Butler strives for creepy atmospherics. To this end, he succeeds in generating a slow-burning sense of menace and, consequently, the intermittent appearances of the dead little girl possess an eerie charge. On the whole, however, this well crafted, modest flick verges on the bland and could have really used some more adventurous plotting.
– Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
