100 Feet – 2008

100 Feet is a movie about house arrest. What’s more, it’s a movie about house arrest in the very house where you committed the murder you are doing time for. To add even more to that, it’s haunted. Of course, no one knows that the place is haunted. The police certainly don’t and not the women, portrayed by Famke Hansen, either. We soon learn that she killed her husband and that he was a cop. His former partner is there time and time again to check up on her. She wears an electronic device around her ankle and when she’s more than 100 Feet from the main transiever for more than three minutes the alarm goes off.

We get to know her side of the story, that she killed her husband in self-defense since she was living in a relationship with him where domestic violence was everyday life. We also get to know that no one believed her. The police look after each other and if one of “them” is accused the others are soon there to cover up. That’s what she says anyway.

Supernatural

She soon experiences something supernatural when coming back to the house. At first, she cannot make out what it is but the longer she is there the more the ghostly presence there. She discovered that it was her dead husband that is there to haunt her. Imagine that. A terrorizing ghost in a house from which you can’t escape! That must be pure terror. If she wanders more than 100 Feet she will attract the police and her sentence will be transformed to real prison time. For a long period of time. I think they’re talking about 10 years or something.

It takes a while before 100 Feet really gets into its message. I don’t think it’s very frightening early on. There are a couple of jump scares there but apart from that the feeling of haunting isn’t very high. But as the movie runs along it gets more and more intense. Never to a point where it’s really terrifying though. It’s like the filmmakers couldn’t make up their minds whether she’s utterly out of her mind or if the place is haunted. To us, the audience, it’s a pretty mild experience with the haunting and all. But I guess it must be hell for her. There is one scene in particular where they went all in with the special effects though. It’s not gory over the top or anything like that but it’s really intense. I liked that scene.

All in all it’s not s very surprising movie though. You pretty much figure it out long before it gets so far. The structure of the story told is very standard I’d say.