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Released by: Shock-O-Rama Cinema
Released on: February 17th, 2015
Director: Andrew Spencer
Cast: Ian Brooker, Peter Wight, Louise Paris, Bella Hamblin
Year: 2012
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The Movie:
An entry in the faux-documentary sub-genre, The Casebook of Eddie Brewer follows a paranormal investigator, Eddie Brewer (Ian Brooker), as he works on two separate cases. During his investigation, Brewer learns in the end the cases may have more to do with each other than he could have guessed. Along the way, we discover the documentary was meant to expose Brewer, and those like him, to be frauds.
The Casebook of Eddie Brewer works as neither a horror film nor a believable mockumentary. Throughout the film, the documentary format is dropped in favor of utilizing a traditional narrative film structure. This is done so the filmmakers can include scenes of paranormal activity while also having the documentary crew be non-believers until the climax. These scenes are quite jarring as there is nothing to warn the viewer that we are no longer in the documentary film. All of the sudden, the picture quality and camera set-ups change and no explanation is given. In addition, the scenes of ghostly hauntings also destroy any ambiguity surrounding Brewer's character. While the documentary crew and various other characters believe Brewer to be a fake, the viewers are aware right away he is the real deal. The inclusion of the non-documentary style scenes jettison any sort of mystery
For a faux-documentary to be effective, the performance should be believable and while none of the actors are truly bad, there is a local theatre quality to each performance. Every line and action is delivered in a broad, over thought out manner. This, like the non-documentary style scenes, destroy any sense of realism and continuously remind the viewer they are watching a fictional film.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Shock-O-Rama's DVD of The Casebook of Eddie Brewer features adequate picture quality, although some scenes are much too dark. The traditional narrative scenes are cleaner looking and brighter than the documentary footage.
The audio is rather poor. The film is presented in Dolby 2.0, however the dialogue is mixed very low and hard to make out, subtitles would have been a plus.
The extras are pretty slim. Three trailers are presented for the main film, along with a collection of trailers for other films released by Shock-O-Rama.
The Final Word:
The Casebook of Eddie Brewer is neither scary nor intriguing. It is a rather slow moving film that has a case of schizophrenia. The film tries to be a faux-documentary but wants the advantages of a traditional narrative film and this hurts the mystery of the Eddie Brewer character.
