"The Passing" Review by Anthony Thurber

The Passing
Year: 2008
Director: John Harwood
Stars: Crystal Day, Elizabeth Bennett, Jason Hamer
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Litenight Entertainment
Running Time: 91 Mins
Review Rating: 5 Stars
Official Website: http://www.thepassingmovie.com/


The Passing is a film that I’ve been looking forward to for two reasons. First, I liked the trailer that I saw on Myspace, sometime last year, as I thought that this looked like a very cool movie. The other reason and most sadly, this is one of the last films that veteran character actor, Paul Gleason (The Breakfast Club, Trading Places, Die Hard) appeared in, before passing away from mesothelioma back in May of 2006.

The Passing is about three family members who inherit a vast estate from their late grandmother, after she passed away. To get the estate, they have to have spent the weekend at the house or else forfeit their share of the inherits. So they decided to throw a party at the estate to pass the time by with their friends. Soon their grandmother’s spirit begins to plague the mansion, as she isn’t happy with the events taking place. Soon, she begins to make sure that the family tree and her spell isn’t broken, as the guests start disappearing. Soon, the living relatives begin to realize that the guests are disappearing. Is it possession or reflections of their own madness, as the guests start to die? Brian Gleason, Colleen Shannon, John Harwood and Paul Gleason also co-stars.

One of the things that you need to do is in order to make a supernatural movie scary is to have the scares make you jump out of your seat. The Passing was a frightening and scary thril-ride. Director John Harwood’s direction of the film was very good. He does a very good job setting the scares up, as they were frightening. Harwood does that by making the film darkly lit along with some very good camera-work from cinematographer, Rudy Harbon, which helped the scares be effective and some very good gory and ghost effects. His direction of the actors was very good, as the chemistry with each of the actors provided some tense moments in the story. The film also has a very good performance from its lead, Crystal Day. She does a great job making her character very dark and neurotic, which helps the film especially with the scenes with Harwood and Gleason.

The screenplay written by Harwood and Paul E Clinco was very suspenseful. In order to make a supernatural film’s screenplay to work is to make the film, scary and suspenseful, which is the case here. The writers did a great job developing the characters and the atmosphere of the film, which was dark and creepy. But what made this a fun film, was the way the writers build up the suspense. The suspense in the film is build up to the point where you really get scared at times. They do that by focusing on the psychology of the characters. It helped add more tension to the film, which in return made it more suspenseful. They also put in plenty of scares in the film. That made me frightened at times, as this was an effective supernatural film.

The Passing is a frightening and scary film that leaves you with goosebumps.