Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘In Memorium’

Written by Scott Edwards

It is interesting what you find in a house that was once occupied by another family, after you move in. When digging through the crawl space, you may find an old pet or toys that were hidden during a game of war many years ago. In the attic you could find some of the finer things, old chairs, and boxes of mementoes from years gone by. Thinking that these were only from the previous owner, you may be surprised that there could have been more than one as people like to move frequently these days, especially if they are trying to hide something.
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After being diagnosed with terminal cancer, Dennis and his girlfriend Lily find a little house to rent for his remaining months. Not wanting to leave her with any debt, this seems to be the best thing that he can do for her after he is gone. Knowing that his time is short, Dennis has come up with the idea to document the remaining days of his life and make a video for all of his friends, and his darling Lily. Setting up cameras all over the house, every room is covered and while the couple has fun with the cameras, they also find something that they did not expect.

Waking up in the middle of the night after getting sick, Dennis hears some commotion down the hallway and pinpoints it to the sitting room. Opening the door and seeing the rocking chair moving, he worries that someone might have broken in, but with all of the doors and windows locked, he knows that cannot be it. Checking the tape from the sitting room, Dennis finds that there was someone sitting in the chair, but it appears not to be a person, but a ghost. Trying to figure out who this could be, the couple find an old diary in the sitting room that has notes from all of the home’s past tenants and they think that they have pinpointed who it could be.

Wanting to figure out what the ghost wants from them, Dennis keeps a close eye on the videos and starts ignoring Lily. Being upset, Lily leaves the house and does some shopping and returns home to an empty house and finds out that the spirit seems to want her gone sooner than later. Getting packed up with the essentials, the couple leaves the old house, only to find that Dennis is not able to venture too far away. With his symptoms acting up whenever he opens the front door, the couple has no idea what the ghost really wants with Dennis, but after a long talk with his little brother, Dennis finds out that it could be someone that he left behind in his past life that never got to say goodbye.

This is actually a pretty good ghost story that focuses more on the people involved than the frights in the house. I liked how the story kept pace to make sure that you were watching the screen to see if anything was happening in the background, as there are a couple ghostly images throughout. But the main story was the lack of closure that Dennis has had in his life, especially with his family and how the house is making him pay for it in a very hard way. Watching Dennis as his symptoms start to escalate however is the most frightening thing that this movie delivers, as you get to see what trying to cure cancer has done to past patents. With a ghostly whisper, a happy couple, death on the line, an estranged family, a nice rental house, a pool full of leaves and an easy answer to a question that nobody thought to ask. I was rather impressed how this movie kept my attention throughout and I am glad that it did, because the ending was great. Stay Scared.

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