Family Secret Movie Review 171

Family Secret is a new horror movie written and directed by Geno McGahee. He is the director of Rise of the Scarecrows which I have reviewed here. That movie had me in stitches, but this one is a lot better.

Let's start at the beginning. A local journalist called Geno(Forris Day Jr.) learns that his grandmother,Phyliiss McGee has died.Instead of being upset, he is just reminded of how horrible a woman she was. He tells his wife, Danielle(Leeann Aubuchon) about her and says that he doesn't even want to go to her funeral. He doesn't get on with some of  his family and he would rather not see them ever! His brother in law Rod(Martin DuPlessis) is paying for the funeral and he isn't too happy about it! All of Geno's family are having their own problems. Geno has a nightmare about his grandma and he wakes up with a start. He tells his wife that his grandma killed his dog in front of him. She was just an evil woman.

The funeral arrives and Geno heads to meet his family. He tries to talk to some of his in laws such as Scott(Logan Lopez) who is having awful problems with his lazy wife and the others are not very friendly either. He is happy when it is all over. Geno's uncle, Gary(Alex Pierpaoli) is a slob and he tells his daughter, Sarah that if she brings home a black guy, he will kill them both. She does so and he goes mad! They run off to the woods for some late night fun, and who should show up but old Phylliss and she ain't happy! She disposes of the boyfriend first and then Sarah. Geno is put on the story and he doesn't realise who the victims are until he gets a look. It is his cousin Sarah!There are two cops investigating the case- Detective Dwyer(Brent Northup) and Detective Adams(Josh Tienson). They think that it is a crime of passion because no money or cards were taken. The cops wonder if Geno knows anything....

Back at the paper where Geno works, his co-worker, Eric Geibner(Patrick French) is bitter that Geno is getting the big story and he isn't. Geno talks to the cops and he tells them that Gary fought with Sarah and her boyfriend before the murders and they bring Gary in. While this is happening, Geno's dad, Geno Sr(Crazy Carl Robinson) turns up looking for cash. Geno throws him out. Interesting note here, the actor that plays Geno's dad looks way younger than Geno. I had a chuckle at this! It doesn't take away from the movie, but it is funny. Geno has more nightmares about granny and he thinks that she might have come back from the grave. Geno's sister, Claire(Jaki Valensi-Lauper) and her hubby argue and when he goes outside to take out the garbage, granny is out there and she makes a mess of him!!! Gary is cleared as he was in jail when this happened. There are so many suspects that the cops are baffled.

Who is it? Is it really Phyllis McGee? Is it someone else dressed like her? The cops wonder if Geno is guilty.

Geno and Gary's son, Nelson(Jamie Swimm) talk and Nelson tells him that he thinks that there is a family secret. They go and see Geno's grandad, Walter(Mark Scarborough) and they ask him.He seems scared and he won't tell them the secret. He warns them to stop digging up things. He tells them not to trust anyone.

This leaves Geno more determined than ever to find out the secret. As Geno gets closer to the truth, he uncovers a lot of secrets which may be better left buried.......Will Geno be next on Granny McGee's hit list???? You will have to watch it to find out!!!!!

This movie is a vast improvement on Rise of the Scarecrows. The acting is better, the production is better. The story is better. I really liked the story in this film. I liked the mystery element and it was a lot more than some slasher movie. There are a lot of characters in this film and it could be confusing, but I liked Scott played by Logan Lopez. He was a good actor. I also liked the main character, Geno played by Forris Day Jr.  Another character which was good was Gary played by Alex Pierpaoli. He is such an ass that you dislike him. He played the part well. I liked that you were left guessing until the end and I liked that it wasn't obvious who the killer was. It is good to see some original horror with mystery thrown in. I have seen so many bigger budget horrors which are boring as hell. I was surprised by Family Secret and I was not expecting the story to be as good as it was. Jigsaw and I were very impressed with this film. We were impressed with the DVD too. There were plenty of special features and we learned about candlepin bowling which we had never heard of before!

If you are interested in getting the DVD, then just click here. The DVD will be released on March 22, 2011. It is worth watching and I guarantee that you will be surprised, like we were. I am not often surprised by horror movies, but I have to admit that this movie is very good for a low budget horror and it did entertain us. So, if you think you might like to know more about Geno McGahee, here is his website, Scared Stiff Reviews where he reviews movies and much more! There is also a Facebook page for this film! This movie gets an 8/10.