Banshee Chapter (2013)

Overrated and overhyped

How sad is this?

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

All the interesting moments were squeezed into the trailer. The rest of the film was disappointingly bland and not thought through. I liked the general idea and some of the concepts that were introduced in the movie but really disliked the execution.

A movie about government-sanctioned experiments with psychotropic drugs, and the effects they had on the victims, could be interesting. If the actual events were fictionalized into something with supernatural elements, that also could work, as could a movie that exploited a presumed otherworldly origin for short-wave "numbers stations." As other reviewers have noted, however, Banshee's film-makers seem to have taken a jumble of such plot elements that might have worked on their own, and thrown them together in a way that just comes across as messy. Although the acting is competent, the characters lack any sense of motivation, and they do not appear to be changed in any way by the bizarre events that involve them. By the end of the movie everything is as it was at the start, so we might as well not have bothered with any of it.Not the worst movie I've seen, by any means, but not particularly engaging. After the first thirty minutes I wanted it to stop.

This movie was outright creepy and that's why it's my #1 favourite. I recommend that you DO NOT watch this at night. The Banshee Chapter was a mix of mystery and horror which perfectly blended together to create something horrifying. The broadcast that was trying to be solved was rather disturbing and there was also a major jump scare near the beginning that you would never expect. Normally, with those corny horror movies, you can usually tell if something is about to jump out (aka- the creepy music starts to play). But this movie, however, was nothing like that and you just can't predict when it's going to scare you which makes it the best horror movie I have ever seen. The only thing I was confused about was the broadcast, which they never really explained.Solid 10/10 :D

The title "Banshee Chapter" intrigued me, though the poster gave away the jump scares. (I saw this on Amazon, I can imagine it was better in the theatre and in 3D.) The MK-Ultra hook grabbed me, because I remember when the CIA documents were released via the Freedom of Information Act and President Clinton actually apologized to the country. However, it was when I saw the term "numbers stations" I knew I had to see this movie.Shortwave radio has been a fascination of mine since childhood. Having ham radio enthusiasts for parents means you get a few old radios to "play" with. The shortwave frequencies fascinated me endlessly because you could hear the cosmos, using radio astronomy you could hear pulsars, quasars, supernovas ... pretty cool, right? I'd listen for rhythms in the chaos, moving the dial the slightest of notches.Then I found the "numbers stations." And this is why I give this movie 9/10. That's only -1 for everything other reviewers complain about. Numbers stations are real, and they are quite spooky when you find them. The station used prominently in this movie is REAL, you can find it for yourself. I had listened to that station so often, for so many years, I'd had so many dreams and nightmares about it, that it made the movie feel very, very real to me. I'm pretty sure the film makers were counting on some audience members' familiarity with shortwave numbers stations, or with mind-altering drugs, to give it a boost.I recommend this movie to all my friends, *after* I play them a few numbers stations ... they say the movie is horrifying, truly scary. Great use of real facts, events and real news clips in an otherwise standard horror flick. Google "CONET Swedish Rhapsody" before watching and listen for a real scary treat at 2:48 in the recording, then watch Banshee Chapter.