Review of Purgatory House (2003) by James H — 11 Nov 2003

[font=Arial][size=4][color=#000000]HALFWAY HOUSE OF THE HEREAFTER HOME RUN.

[/color][/size][/font][font=Arial]by Ellen Sherman.

Watching Purgatory House is somewhat akin to experiencing a summer thunderstorm, with all the attendant darkness, light, ending in a rainbow of hope. Hope is a good ending for a film about teenage suicide written by a fourteen year old. Writer Celeste Marie Davis also plays the lead, Silver Strand, and convincingly gives us a portal into the confusing and pressure ridden world of a teen age girl in an atmosphere totally devoid of adult sensibilities.

After committing suicide, Strand finds that life, or afterlife, keeps going on with the same repetitive monotony. Strand?s attempt at escape from her life has brought her to a sort of half way house of the hereafter. The cast includes Jim Hanks who plays both God, and the saint that runs the house where self enlightenment is taught to the wayward teens using highly unorthodox methods. Ultimately its the quality of the acting and the special effects that pull the audience deep into the story almost from the beginning. The message of the film is hope; hope for teenagers, hope for parents, and hope for young writers.

The sold out World Premier at The 2003 Woodstock Independent Film Festival, and the audience?s overwhelming positive response gave director Cindy Baer hope as well. [/font][font=Times New Roman]"I had told Celeste that we would make a five minute video that she could star in, but after typing it into proper script format, I knew her story had to be told in it?s entirety." [/font][font=Arial]Baer said. Davis and Baer were paired in the Big Sisters of Los Angeles program in 1997, when Davis was only 11.

"I was an actress and she was a writer, so they put us together and its been a great experience." Baer said.

Purgatory House expects to find distribution shortly following its West Coast premier. This is a film that stays with you long after you see it because it is such a departure from anything that has been done before. Watching Purgatory House is to experience what audiences must have felt in 1939 seeing The Wizard of Oz for the first time.

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