The Butcher Possessions (2014) User Reviews

Good enough, but nothing you haven't seen before

[chrismackey1972 · 5/10 · 2 October 2014]

Five friends go to an out-of-the-way house to summon a ghost called The Butcher. Nobody thinks it's real, so they believe they'll have one or two days of just sitting back and trying not to laugh too hard as they conduct a ritual to summon the spirit. Unfortunately for them, the ghost turns out to be all too real. This is filmed through camcorders, as most of these found-footage films are, so don't expect anything out of the cinematography.

I have to disagree with one of the other reviewers who said it's the best found footage film since The Blair Witch Project. It was interesting, but kinda boring until the entity finally showed up. First of all, it was only 69 minutes long. When you have 5 characters in such a short film, it's hard to build enough of an attachment for the audience to care about them. That's what happened here. Plus, it's not as though a group of people looking for a ghost by using dark magic hasn't happened before in a movie, so it wasn't very original. And then the clichés of no cellphone service and the car not working happened. There were a few scenes of special effects, but it wasn't over-used, so I think they got that about right.

I gave this a 5-star rating, because the acting was pretty good, and the people conveyed a real sense of fear. However, I've seen better found-footage films. Still, it was entertaining enough for what it was. I'm glad it wasn't longer, because I couldn't take much more of the screaming and the jerky camera footage from the running. If you're a found-footage fan, I recommend this. However, if you have limited time to put into movies, I'd advice you keep looking.

Nothing new but enjoyable! Understand's what Found Footage is meant to be!

[SpannersGerm669 · 6/10 · 17 September 2014]

Coming into Beckoning the Butcher, I was expecting nothing. I wanted to like it being from Australia, but I had my hesitations. But I am glad to say that it wasn't a waste of time, in fact, it was quite entertaining.

What I liked about this little movie the most was the low budget approach. Now, I know this is out of the hands of the director and if he had his way, I am sure it would be a bigger budget, but for Found Footage, the whole idea is to make you believe that its an amateur found footage. With a higher budget, the authenticity of the whole situation is lost in translation.

The way Beckoning the Butcher is made, reminded me of the Blair Witch Project. While not as good as TBWP, it still had the slow burn atmospheric grip, unlike films like Paranormal Activity, which relies on cheap jump scares. Beckoning the Butcher takes its time and it gradually becomes scarier, which is what I appreciated the most.

If you are a die hard fan of this sub genre, then definitely check this one out. If you are only a casual fan, or a fan that is fed up with the amount of Found Footage stuff coming out, give it a miss, but I am definitely happy I have it in my collection!

Nice format

[adeleysim · 6/10 · 13 January 2019]

I liked that they nestled found footage into a documentary with interviews. The film was entertaining and eventful, which can't be said of many other films in this sub genre.

Formulaic but entertaining.

[Rancid_Planet · 5/10 · 29 February 2020]

Fairly standard found footage horror film with a few pluses and minuses. For starters the cast is exceptionally good. Great chemistry and acting. Very believable which serves to make t even scarrier. Poor audio makes it one of those you keep having to crank up during the quiet parts and then down again during the loud parts.

The movie isn't too long and doesn't take forever to get going. All in all a good movie for what it was.

Good for insomnia

[steven-venable · 1/10 · 24 November 2018]

Fell asleep three times. Might have missed something good but I doubt it.

Slow bore plus a few scares at the end

[moonmonday · 3/10 · 2 June 2016]

This is a really dull film. It's presented as a faux documentary, but the way it's assembled comes off as obviously fake and unconvincing, which makes it hard to suspend disbelief before even the opening credits.

The main characters aren't particularly compelling or likable, and one has to wonder why anyone would take most of them along if all they're going to do is freak out at the slightest indication of weird happenings...after they've blithely engaged in a blood ritual! There's a sort of feeling about the whole affair that seems like they went down a checklist of things you do in found footage horror and added them, not because they made sense with the script, but because they were expected.

It's especially odd when things happen like them finding a car they abandoned earlier because it didn't start and having a fit because...it didn't start. They were the ones that left it earlier! There are other leaps of illogic, like "we can't go to the main road, no cars will be on it at this time of night", so of course they don't go. But wouldn't it be a higher chance of cars being on it than a side road nobody knows about to an abandoned house? Couldn't you just wait a couple of hours until the road would be busier? Similarly, at one point they make a circle in salt on the floor and light a candle, saying they'll be safe as long as they stay in the circle. Almost immediately they hear a noise and all of them instantly leave the circle and abandon the candle, which they're shocked to find has gone out by the time they come back. You don't say! Added to this are things like characters just disappearing abruptly, but we don't really see it always happen clearly and it's just something we're supposed to assume after the fact. The incoherent ending was also pretty amazing in its confusion, and it was just an unsatisfying mess.

The acting was pretty good for most of the cast, and the photography was also solid enough, even for a found footage film. The scares and effects were mostly pretty good, although some will stand out as ridiculous. There's a shot of something that looks like it was picked up on the cheap at a Spirit Halloween store, and it's very obvious; they don't cut the shot quick enough, so it's easy to notice.

The scares start about ten to fifteen minutes from the end, which really is waiting too long. So much nothing happens. It would have been a better film at half its length, and it was barely over an hour. Its short running time makes it worth a watch if vaguely spooky found footage is your thing, but don't expect it to challenge the genre or your expectations, and expect to be disappointed by the ridiculous ending and some of the laughably inane captions the "documentary" provides.

It can do some good, solid scares, but for whatever reason it only seems to have about three and they're all saved for the last few minutes. If only they could have sprinkled them throughout the rest of the film to keep it interesting!

Not too bad

[HorrorMoviesLover · 7/10 · 24 January 2020]

Enjoyed most of this movie.

It was lacking in sections though. I liked watching the found footage.

The 'real time' interviews with the brother was terrible. He seemed so flat when speaking to the camera and his voice didn't portray the emotion he should have felt at times.

Psychic lady was cool.

The creepy doll looks like it was purchased 5 minutes before they started filming. That just made me laugh. It's was so clean and perfect, not a hair out of place. Could they not have taken 5 minutes to rub it in some dirt and poke an eye out???

Made me jump a couple of times and really held my attention during the scary spots. Not in the league of some other Australian horrors but a good watch!

You See a Lot of Things When You are Tired

[nogodnomasters · 2/10 · 1 July 2017]

A group of Australian kids test ghost summoning rituals they discover on the Internet. The one called "Beckoning the Butcher" seemed to have worked.

The entire film is hand held camera. The story line wasn't good and the scenes were not scary. The acting wasn't too bad and in fact I thought heart throb Sophie Wright to be quite good. Unfortunately the film stank. This film is not related to Karl the Butcher, I think. Picture on cover is not in the film. DVD has no extra other than trailers.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity

pretty good

[caylamflynn-96315 · 7/10 · 17 April 2020]

An interesting find footage movie. some parts you can see lights from houses or equipment and the scary scenes with the ghosts are very edited. the idea behind the movie is really interesting.

Guess You Better Be Careful What You Pull Off The Interweb!!!!

[wandernn1-81-683274 · 3/10 · 18 June 2020]

So another found footage film...this one Australian. Starts off really slow slow slow.....

-1 Star for the very slow boring boring start......

-1 Star for the talk about rituals and rituals being finished.. and yet no real talk or description about what the rituals are... other than lighting a candle and sprinkling some salt about....what else is involved???

Finally some stuff starts happening as one of the group gets up and wanders off, her recorded footage on camera she seems possessed or at least not herself.

After that the films descends into the typical screaming and running around with shaky cameras and woe is me speeches.

Whenever a camera is dropped we must rush to rescue it, as the main importance is not survival of course but it is that everything must be recorded, and survival be damned!!!

I did like the ending the summary wrapped the movie up nicely. However not enough to give any bonus to this 'movie'.

3/10

Frightening!

[parry_na · 9/10 · 12 July 2015]

An Australian found-footage horror, steeped inevitably in the trappings of 1999's 'Blair Witch Project', where we, the viewers, are invited to become the sixth member of a group of five bloggers. The group is filming a ghost hunt and, as we are, hope for some spooky manifestations. When the name of 'the butcher' is mentioned, they appear to get their wish.

The characters here are likeable (which is not always the case in such films) and naturalistically played, so when 'bad' things happen, we're given reason to care. Only physicist Shannon comes across as 'acting', and that is mainly because she is given spurious academic dialogue to help explain away the phenomena. A very good found-footage entry; my score is 9 out of 10.

just what the horror doc ordered

[killercharm · 6/10 · 5 November 2021]

A group of five head out to stay at one guy's abandoned parents' summer home to video the Beckoning the Butcher ritual for his internet show. This gem is just what the horror doc ordered. Good and gripping. This possession plays with time much like Blair Witch did. It's a pretty safe bet that any legacy from that FF mega classic is going to be on point. This legacy in particular is great because it is so subjective, which, after all, is what the entire horror universe is about, nay?

By the Book

[bhsfacebook · 4/10 · 5 April 2019]

Yet another "found footage" paranormal flick. It's like every one of these you've seen before. The sort of movie one is likely to forget having seen as it fades into the background with all like it. 😴

Creepy found footage film surprises with eerie moments and a manicured scary story

[frank-c-giugliano · 7/10 · 27 May 2020]

Beckoning The Butcher is a bare bones, low budget Australian gem, that while obvious of its budget, didn't stop director Dale Trott from using all the resources at his disposal to create a successful found footage horror movie.

In the US the film was released under the title The Butcher Possessions, and can currently be viewed on Amazon without additional charge for Prime members.

Beckoning The Butcher is the story of Chris Shaw (Damien E. Lipp), a social media personality who performs rituals he finds on the web. Wanting to increase his viewership, Chris invites four friends to a weekend gathering in a desolate countryside home where together they will participate in a ritual called Beckoning The Butcher.

For the ritual, participants must write their name on a piece of paper, dab a drop of their blood next to their name and then burn the slip of paper while chanting a Latin phrase. The completed steps are said to then conjure the butcher.

With two video cameras recording at all times; one set up in the house and the other carried for POV, Chris's hope of capturing even just a small moment of paranormal activity becomes more than he bargained for when the butcher shows up with a plan of his own.

The main moments of Beckoning The Butcher are bookended with a backstory via sit down interviews by a family member, a psychic and a sheriff-all of whom add a well rounded linear structure to the narrative.

Beckoning The Butcher (or The Butcher Possessions, depending on where you live) is the perfect party night or Halloween night scary movie.

just what the horror doc ordered

[killercharm · 6/10 · 5 November 2021]

A group of five head out to stay at one guy's abandoned parents' summer home to video the Beckoning the Butcher ritual for his internet show. This gem is just what the horror doc ordered. Good and gripping. This possession plays with time much like Blair Witch did. It's a pretty safe bet that any legacy from that FF mega classic is going to be on point. This legacy in particular is great because it is so subjective, which, after all, is what the entire horror universe is about, nay? Ing the Butcher.

Hidden Aussie Gem

[outerhaven101 · 10/10 · 10 July 2014]

Horror is no longer in the eye of the beholder, but digitally chronicled and fearfully observed – such is the notion of the 'found footage horror' craze of the past decade that has already seen its fair share of terrifyingly inventive highs to eye-rolling lows, faster than any other sub-genre. Yet unlike the torture porn or neo-grindhouse subgenres, this has bred a whole new generation of talented filmmakers on a far more global scale; innovative in terms of methods of filming, centralized narrative, unexpected scares and all while on the lowest budget possible. It's main selling point. Australian filmmaker Dale Trott (A.K.A. Alexander) is no stranger to this and with Beckoning The Butcher (Interspliced Media's debut effort) he doesn't attempt to reinvent or outdo others but instead revel in a traditionalist approach to the archaic haunted house formula. As such, he succeeds in creating a well-written, character- driven, low budget thriller capitalizes on found footage's core principles.

In his latest escapade internet sensation and wannabe-ghost hunter, Chris Shaw (Damien E. Lipp), his girlfriend Tara (Stephanie Mauro), and their closest friends (Sophie Wright, Tilly Legge and Tristan Barr), venture to an isolated countryside property in order to conduct and document a supposed 'blood incantation' found only on the deepest, darkest underbelly of internet web forums. However the group's investigation into the ritual's legitimacy turns sinister as their bid for internet fame rapidly descends into a night of survival when they unknowingly summon forth a malevolent entity known simply as 'the Butcher'. When a low budget film is dipped in enough fright tactics and character development to warrant genuine concern for the welfare and survival of these doomed characters, you know you're in the hands of an incredibly adaptive filmmaker. The only setback for Beckoning The Butcher is guilt by association; the obligatory camera static, distorted sounds, visual trickery akin to that used in Paranormal Activity and the unavoidable comparisons to said franchise aside; however, these stylized motifs are used assuredly, yet as sparingly as possible, within the confines of cinematography. Trott is a triple threat serving as director, writer and editor who cunningly employs the use of the budgetary limitations to his advantage and infuses them into the film's aesthetics resulting in a psychologically effective chiller – thus illuminating Trott's understanding of the cinematic mechanisms behind found-footage's two main staples; timing and execution. The two are enhanced and achieved by opting for far more traditional atmospheric scares à la the works of James Wan and Scott Derrickson, drawing out the anticipation during the relentless stalking of the hapless individuals desperate to outmanoeuvre the Butcher. From ominous beginning to blood curdling end, the symbiotic relationship between the performances and dilapidated property matches the intended psychological approach with vigour, as every faint creak and startling door slam is complimented by the deeply invested cast.

A cautionary ghost story for the digital age, Dale Trott's surprisingly cerebral and refined supernatural thriller Beckoning The Butcher is a must see hidden gem for genre fans, especially those of the 'sceptical-till-proven-scared senseless' demographic. Trott's focused screenplay and tight direction intersected with his even tighter editing skills and outstanding sense of timing, boasts an air-tight sense of assertive control and confidence serving as an example for any aspiring filmmaker interested in this sub-genre. Technically proficient the film never forgets to have fun with the standard horror formula, especially during the chilling final act.

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