Hello Good Reader,
Mr. Noel Graham brings you something "spicy" with this week's #Slashtag#
Sunday, November 2, 2014
The Popcorn Box: The Bridgewater Triangle: A Review
The Bridgewater Triangle (2013)
Documentary
Directors: Aaron Cadieux, Manny Famolare
91 Min
Much like the
majority of film making today, documentaries of this genre all follow a similar
blue print. There’s usually a housewife sitting in her kitchen describing what
it was like hearing footsteps move from one room to the next, finally stopping
in her young son or daughter’s room. She describes the cold spot that was
associated with the disturbance and how she could hear her son or daughter
talking to someone who wasn’t there. This is usually followed by the inevitable
dramatization of what happened, and Good Reader, don’t you know that it will be
filmed in slow motion?
The Bridgewater Triangle comes
bearing some of these hollow gifts. At least at first.
In 1983 cryptozoologist, Loren
Coleman, published a book entitled, “Mysterious America,” in which he dubbed
the triangular area of southeastern Massachusetts that stretches from Abington,
Freetown and Rehoboth, the Bridgewater Triangle.
The reported sightings that have come
out of the triangle include everything from bigfoot, thunderbirds, demon dogs,
UFO’s, ghosts of all shapes and sizes, and malevolent nature spirits that can
lead even the most experienced trail blazer astray. There are some who even
argue that an old Indian curse was placed upon the land, and started the whole
thing off.
A
few weeks ago, our local cinema announced that they would be screening the film
and that some of the crew would be present for a Q&A session afterward. Needless
to say, I bought my ticket and was off to the show.
The
filmmakers did a passable job of trying to cover as much as possible, though the
early half of the film lost some footing with over-dramatized spirit
interactions and some assumptive eye-witnesses that seemed damn near fanatical.
In one instance, a dramatization of
a hitchhiking ghost had the audience in stitches. All I’ll say is that the
ghost bore a striking resemblance to a pervasive trend that makes me cringe. I’ll give you a hint, beanies, flannel,
pants that are too small, and ridiculous beards. Still over the course of
the film, the audience remained roped into the fact that the people on screen believed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they had seen something unusual.
Another plus for the film was that
Loren Coleman was featured several times, discussing what drew him to the area
and the research that he has subsequently done regarding the strange
occurrences in the triangle.
It wasn’t until the latter half of
the film, however, that shit got real and the audience stopped talking. Satanic
rituals, human and animal sacrifice, blood, guts and enough archival news
footage to choke a yeti, knocked the campy atmosphere of this film right on its
ass. It didn’t slow the pace, but brought things clearly into focus. Crime
scene photos were splashed across the screen, while an aging police officer
that was on duty during the worst of it, discussed what it was like. He spoke candidly
about his experience and a collective shiver ran through the audience. We saw
still images of him as a younger man, during an investigation, kneeling on the
forest floor at the site of one of the murders. Suddenly, everything we had
seen up to that point didn’t seem so funny and far-fetched anymore. The
audience was left with the bulk of the sum and it was heavy.
When the film ended, the house
lights came up and there were a few seconds of chatter before I decided that I
needed to be going. It was a late night showing, and I had a job to get to
early the next morning. As I began
to rise, gathering my things, a sharply dressed older man emerged from the din,
straightening his tie and being led hastily to the front stage. Here was our
policeman from the documentary, in the flesh, to answer questions from the
audience. The struggle not to leave was immense, but regrettably, I did. I’ll
know better next time.
All in all, the Bridgewater
Triangle rises above your average SciFi sponsored documentary. It has its
moments of weakness, but remains true to its cause until the end. The sheer
amount of reports almost seems unbelievable, but it makes one thing very clear
. . . something is going on out there.
So, Good Reader, even if you don’t
have the stones to investigate this place on your own, the Bridgewater Triangle
is a compelling documentary that I recommend to anyone who enjoys the mysteries
that can be found no further than our own backyards.
You can find the Bridgewater Triangle for sale here:
Check out Loren Coleman and his International Cryptozoology Museum
here:
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