Unlike so many other recent movies of all genres filmed in Toronto, this one does not make any blatant attempts to pass itself off as being set in the United States, or, worse yet, try to foist off total idiots as being Americans. So in THE CHAIR's opening minutes, when a neurotic psychology student on anti-psychotic medication moves into a creepy 150-year-old house as the sole occupant and immediately experiences frightening paranormal events, one can easily suspend disbelief and think "yeah, eh, in Canada they probably have just one opening for student housing at a time in a college town." And when the troubled student's sister, who holds down a 9-to-5 job, gets called across town at 4 a.m. every other night to stay in her sibling's bed until sunrise, NEVER ONCE SUGGESTING MAYBE BOTH SISTERS SHOULD SLEEP IN THE WORKING SISTER'S HOME, one can suspend disbelief again and muse "yeah, eh, maybe Canadian law makes it a hate crime not to humor the death wishes of the mentally ill." Therefore, while the movie itself rates an above average 6/10 as a horror flick, I highly recommend THE CHAIR for anyone interested in quaint Canadian customs.

Horror films are a gamble but it's easy to tell fairly quickly when it's time to hold 'em and when it's time to fold 'em. The direction, cinematography, and character introductions reveal promptly where the film is aiming at on the stupid scale and how serious an effort it's going to be. The Chair was shot on video but looks remarkably good to my eyes and Brett Sullivan's direction is smartly done—not so much in the way he captures the scenes but for the way he gets to them—the camera peers around a corner, or from across the room, from inside a closet, or it nestles itself on the ceiling and observes from there. It's not rocket science to make those choices for a film about a haunted house, but Sullivan's execution is inspired.The Chair begins with a few black & white moments of spooky snippets and background data on mesmerism. Then we're brought to the present in the presence of a blond pony-tail. Uh-oh ... a quick shot of pony-tail girl from the attic of the house she's about to move into letting us know there's something up there, and pony-tail's off to the bathtub to relax and pleasure herself. Umm ...Alanna Chisholm plays the pony-tail and looks like she could be Nicole Sullivan's twin sister. Her performance makes this film a winner. Once she's out of the tub and on to developing her character it's refreshing to see she's not playing it anywhere near bimbo. She's got big expressive eyes and a quirky yet confident mixed-uppedness about her that's appealing, inviting both fear and empathy. We know she's medicated and has a history of breakdowns, which she uses to her advantage. Since she is operating under suspicion of not having both oars in the water, she is unpredictable—but never hysterical. She never imagines anything; it's all really happening. It's just up to her grad school self to find the paradigm it all fits into. When her sister and the cleavage she rode in on arrive to act as the reasonable foil, Chisholm begins playing with a cold determination that works as a transition to the possessed by the "never quite dead 100 year old spirit of a killer" that invades her body, character.Said spirit belongs to a man who was mesmerized right at the moment of death—while sitting in a spooky chair in the very house Chisholm now inhabits—and then buried alive causing him to remain in a state of horrifying limbo for a hundred years—a fate the mesmerist feels is worse than death for the man who killed his daughter, or something like that ... so there's some plot going on behind Chisholm's performance.Plot is a difficult thing and even if we give it only a 3.8 on a scale of 10 it could still win a batting title. What interests me more are the nuances and subtle humor Sullivan and Chisholm bring to the proceedings, which also grant the film membership in the much vaunted Horror version2 category.When it's time to explore the dark and secret room they discover in the house (plot), Chisholm and her sister's cleavage use one of those flashlights you have to wind up to get any light from. It's done without fanfare, making it quite funny. The big race-against-time action sequence toward the end of the film seems to fizzle out empty and unproductive, deliberately, making it funny and absurd. My favorite bits of the film, however, are when Chisholm settles down to research and does a slow roll of her neck, cracking it. Makes creepy noises.

The Chair starts as psychology student Danielle Velayo (Alanna Chisolm) moves into 216 Archwood Drive, a large three storey Victorian house. Initially excited at moving in Danielle starts to get second thoughts when strange, ghostly & supernatural occurrences begin to happen. Doing some research on the house Danielle discovers that 100 years ago a mesmerist named Mordachai Zymytryk (Paul Soren) hypnotised sadistic child killer Edgar Crowe (Adam Seybold) at the point of his death leaving his soul in limbo. However Crowe's soul is back & begins to possess Danielle in order to carry on his murder spree, can Danielle's loving sister Anna (Lauren Roy) save her from Crowe's evil soul & influence?This Canadian production was directed by Brett Sullivan & I am constantly amazed at how much an audiences opinion can differ, I mean I had a quick scan through the other IMDb comments for The Chair & quite frankly I'm wondering if they saw a completely different film than I did! I'm sorry but I can't see how anyone could use words like 'awesome', 'great' & 'I loved it' to describe The Chair, I just can't. Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course but even so. Anyway, I personally thought The Chair was a pretty slow going fairly dull supernatural horror flick that I admit passes the time but there's not enough story here to fill a 90 odd minute film, it's pretty repetitive & I will probably have forgotten everything about it by the end of the weekend. There are a couple of plot holes that I found distracting here, for start how was Danielle connected to the house & the plot twist at the end when her tutor turns out to be Mordechai is just daft beyond belief & doesn't make a blind bit of sense. I mean if Mordechai knew that Crowe's evil spirit was still around & he knew how to stop him (obviously he does since he does at the end) then why didn't he kill Crowe before? Why wait until Crowe possessed someone & started to kill innocent people? Also there is supposedly footage shot by Mordechai back in 1902 when he first hypnotised Crowe & he talks to the camera & explains everything in a quick & easy exposition scene. Right, well that's OK if it wasn't for the fact film cameras couldn't record speech back then in 1902! In fact the very first 'talkie' film was The Jazz Singer & wasn't made until 1927. I usually don't mind the odd goof in a piece of fiction but this really bugged me & I picked up on it straight away, it irritated me the entire film! Then there's the question of how an unemployed student could afford to rent & run a huge three storey house on her own, lets keep it real people OK? Then there are some truly bizarre scenes like a shot of a hand pushing Danielle under water while she takes a bath but the film suddenly cuts & the next time we see Danielle she's alright & the hand is never mentioned or seen again. There's also a strange scene in which Anna comes home & her sister Danielle is hiding from her on the top shelf in the bathroom! What's wrong with a cupboard or something simple like that? Then Danielle gets down & walks around the house naked for no apparent reason! What makes it even stranger is that Danielle isn't even hiding from Anna so why the top shelf? The first hour or so is pretty slow going, the last thirty odd minutes is better & at times is even quite good but overall The Chair didn't do much me at all & a glaring plot hole or two doesn't help.According to the IMDb this was shot in director Brett Sullivan's own house, I suppose it keeps the budget down. There is very little variety in The Chair & the film takes place almost entirely in this one location which becomes boring. The chair of the title refers to a torture device the killer Crowe made & uses in the films best moments. Gore wise there's very little here, a screwdriver in someone's head & a bit of blood on a cut. Director Sullivan places his camera all over the place, there are extreme close-ups, there are lots of shots from the ceiling looking down presumably to give some impression of space & he thankfully keeps the CGI computer effects down to a minimum. There's nothing that scary here & as a whole you won't be on the edge of your seat!Shot in Toronto in Canada the film actually looks quite nice, it certainly looks a lot better than a lot of recent low budget horror & the lack of awful CGI really helps too. The acting is average, I thought the leading lady lady Chisholm looked nice but her performance was wooden, there wasn't any difference between her being possessed by Crowe & not being possessed by him.The Chair is a film that is just about watchable but isn't anything great, I think it would have worked much better as a thirty minute Tales from the Crypt style episode with a dark twist ending which the material lends itself to perfectly. Not to be confused with The Chair (1989) which is another horror film & is about a cursed electric chair in a prison.

After reading lots of positive reviews for THE CHAIR, I just had to order the DVD. Now I have seen it I got to say it's a decent effort...although not brilliant.The film was shot entirely in Director Brett Sullivan's apartment, which is a brave thing to do if you ask me, because can you imagine having an entire film crew living in your house for a few weeks! But considering the budget he obviously had he's done a remarkable job, the reason I gave 6 out of 10 was because the first half of the film was very good, but the second half fell away I thought it did'nt capture the great atmosphere that the first half had. But nethertheless well worth seeking out.