Horror Movie Review: Trace (2015)

Trace, also known as Straight from Hell, is an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) horror. These were all the rage in the mid-noughties with there even being a big budget release called White Noise starring Michael Keaton. With little expansion & heavy emphasis on jump scares, this style of horror disappeared…until Trace.

Trace was written and directed by Ryan Brookhart and stars Jeremiah Benjamin, Mike Capozzi and Nick Fink.

The film opens in the early 90’s as we see the USSR’s experiments into EVP go a bit awry, resulting in a few deaths.

Jump to modern times where a group of students & friends have decided to try & invoke a demon after talking about EVP. We get the usual naysayers of the group, either not believing in it or not wanting to risk it. It doesn’t matter as we wouldn’t have much of a film if they didn’t.

Not that we actually have much of a film anyway as the group are so bland & forgettable. Their eventual peril will have no effect as it’s impossible to care one bit about them. They’re just poorly written characters that could have been pulled from any other generic horror on the market.

Anyway, the demon Abigor is invoked and everyone heads home. Now the scares start…sort of. As the group are picked off one by one often in what looks like suicides. One of the group comes to believe that Abigor is after them so plays back the EVP session & discovers a voice saying the order of everyone’s eventual death.

Now that all the surprises have been spoiled the movie drags its way towards its awful twist ending, one that can be seen coming from a mile away. It happens & then the movie is over & you won’t be any better for it.

This is a horror that shows a total lack of effort from all involved. EVP horror wasn’t particularly scary over 10 years ago & it’s certainly not now. You need to do a lot more then just have a disembodied voice talking creepily & any potential tension is lost once you know who is dead next.

It’s no surprise that the cast phone in their performances, it’s not like they had anything interesting to say or do anyway. They wasted their time as will you if you watch this film.

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