Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Bad Ben'

Written by Scott Edwards

Flipping houses can be a very lucrative business, especially if you know what you are doing. Sometimes you can find a diamond in the rough and all you need to do is throw a little bit of paint on the walls and put the house back on the market. Yet, there are other times when you need to get a little bit dirty and actually do some renovations to make sure that the house is appealing to the masses. Either way, you need to have some sort of idea what you are getting into when joining this revolution, because once you think you have seen it all, there can be something that knocks you off your rocker.
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Driving out to his new house that was just closed on at the Sheriff’s sale, Tom Riley is ready to see what needs to be done so he can get his money back. Spending every dime left to his name to acquire this house, walking through it for the first time and seeing everything that was left behind, he knows he will have the payday of the century. With all of the religious things left around the house, Tom starts to clean them out first, so as to not scare away potential new buyers. But there is another problem in the house, there is no power, so driving into town to get it turned back on, he has no idea what he will be in for when returning to his new home.

After getting the power turned back on to his new investment, Tom arrives home to see that the front door is wide open. Walking gingerly to see who might be inside, he finds the living room turned upside down and knows that whomever came in must still be inside. Yelling for whomever is inside to leave, Tom checks the stairway to the basement and hears something that frightens him half to death. With security cameras all through the house already set up, Tom makes the call to have the servers reactivated so he can catch whomever is trying to scare him away. Checking all of the cameras while walking the house, he hears some commotion downstairs and once again the living room has been worked over.

Getting the cameras set up to his liking, Tom finally has everything in the house being recorded, but that is not stopping whomever is trying to get him to leave. As the power goes out at only his house, Tom tries to get it back on, but the fuse box is worthless. Following a pungent odor to the attic, Tom does not find anything out of place and luckily the power turns back on, on its own. With another night down, Tom starts to check out the massive plot that goes along with the house when he stumbles upon a grave behind the house with a rock that is marked with the name; Ben. Not knowing what this means overall, the music box that he takes back into the house with him seems to be a means of communicating with this Ben character, but this might not be the only spirit that is connected to the house as Tom is quickly starting to find out.

When I first checked out the page for this movie, I was hesitant to give it a go. As far as found footage movies go, it is hard to believe that a one-person cast can keep your attention long enough to make a full movie and story come to life, but Bad Ben did just that. With plenty of one sided phone conversations, an intriguing mystery surrounding the house and movement just off camera that you can see, it sure made me want to know what was going on. I liked all of the extras that were thrown in for good measure to make sure that we understood that there was something sinister going on in the house before Tom got there. With something evil inside the walls, it is easy to see how it would scare people away from it very quickly, but Tom is a man that is not willing to give up, so anything and everything that he can do to get his money back is the top priority and while I would have been running, he ensures his investment will be secure for the long haul. Stay Scared. 

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