Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Courtesy of James Palmer [Click to enlarge]

Once in a blue moon there are films that stand out from the rest, that make their mark upon the cluttered landscape of cinema and that require us all to stop for a moment and pay attention.

"The Ceremony," the first film by Sacramento State alumni James Palmer, is not one of them.

Having said that, it is certainly not a bad movie either, not ranking as low as say "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" or the Spice Girls Movie "Spice World." The movie is about Eric Peterson, played by Scott Seegmiller, who is a graduating senior that has just accepted a position in a Korean hospital and is in the process of moving out of his frat house.

While going through the rooms he comes across a set of candles surrounding a strange looking book. He comes to find after reading through the book, the whole setup was being used in some sort of religious ritual. So rather then spend his night in peace, he ends up going through with the ceremony described in the book altering his life in the process.

According to Palmer, the script for this film had been written for over a year but getting close to the actual production some of the details changed. The set was at one point forecasted for multiple locations and had a larger cast, that idea was scrapped for a more original approach though.

That idea was one of the parts that could have really set the movie apart from other single character films. Unfortunately, nearly all of the dialogue in "The Ceremony" is through telephone conversations that Eric has with various people including his roommate, mom, new boss, and girlfriend.

The reason I think this failed to set it apart is because they felt a bit awkward at times, almost as if the person off camera is literally reading from a script. The way this movie was set up, these conversations were vital to moving along the plot, but it's hard to fully immerse yourself in a film when you are questioning the authenticity of the people that make it up.

At the beginning I was still trying to decide how much I liked Eric, a very important question given that I was going to be stuck with him for the next hour and a half. Once the film starts to pick up, Eric begins to endear himself to the viewer through some very relatable emotions and actions as well as his journey to becoming a more complex character.

He does this by coping and figuring out how to handle moving furniture, strange sounds, and a disappearing man in a white suit. Who, through the research he does on the book, he finds turns out to be an interpretation of Satan. These paranormal events are also caused by the book, which describes a ceremony of sorts to take place, which is where the namesake of the movie comes from.

It could just be that the horror/suspense genre has been worn a bit thin, but throughout most of the film I never got the scared feeling I was hoping for. Palmer says though that the experience has been rewarding and tells aspiring filmmakers that if they have the initiative to do it, then do it.

"If I can do this, you can do this. And I really mean that. It wasn't my cache of innate talent that made this project a reality. It was just determination and good ol' fashioned ass bustin'," Palmer said.

Matt Rascher can be reached at mrascher@statehornet.com

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