The Life After Death Project

Director - Paul Davids (The Sci-Fi Boys)
Starring - Paul Davids, Richard Matheson (Somewhere in Time), and Whitley Strieber (Race to Witch Mountain)
Release Date - 2013
Genre - Sci-Fi/Horror
Tagline - "If you're out there, give us a sign"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     When I started writing for Horror Society I never expected that I would be asked to review people's films.  I love when a filmmaker, actor, actress, producer, and so forth ask me to check out their work.  Nothing is more humbling. By this point most of you may have noticed that I can appreciate all types of horror and horror documentary for what it is, however, when it comes to documentaries and the proof of the supernatural I typically call bullshit way before I give the film a watch.  I, personally, do not believe in life after death and the existence of ghosts and other beings but I am friends with many people that do so I am open minded towards the idea.  Sometime ago the fine folks over at MVD sent me the Life After Death Project double feature to review but I avoided it on purpose because it is a subject I don't really care for.  However, after letting it gather dust for several months I decided I owed it to them to check these documentaries out.

     This documentary begins with director Paul Davids and an unexplained incident that happened to him in his apartment when a schedule he had printed out became wet and the ink smeared hours after printing it thus inspiring him to make this documentary.  The documentary then follows his irrational accusations about how the ink blot was a result of the spirit of horror auteur Forrest J. Ackerman who passed away in 2008.  The film then goes in depth on how Ack was dedicated to horror and the unknown, along with other occurrences in which it is suspected he is trying to communicate from beyond the grave.  He then takes a scientific turn when Paul takes his document to a lab to have tests run on it and they are unable to duplicate the ink smear.  It then finishes with Paul calling in various mediums who use the "Penn and Teller" approach to discover the supernatural causes and to speak with Ack.
     When I watch a documentary on a topic that is debatable I expect to see two sides of an argument; the pros and the cons.    What truly pisses me off about documentaries around the supernatural is that they never interview people who say they can disprove the topic.  That is something this documentary suffers from.  It would have been so more effective if we would have heard people from both sides of the topic.  The film goes above and beyond to gather scientific data and personal accounts to prove that there is life after death and that shows how much dedication the film crew had for this film and topic.  Sadly, it was a little one sided.  The information is also distributed at a good, slow pace and that makes it easier for the skeptic to swallow.  Finally, the documentary is decently put together.  The film has no visual effects, some footage showed is rough, and not all scenes are in the same aspect ratios.  This is one of the few documentaries that is no that visually appealing.  This films one saving grace is all the info and retrospective on the life of Forrest J. Ackerman.  If Paul Davids was smart he would have made a good documentary on Ack instead of ghosts.  Overall, The Life After Death Project is a boring, one sided documentary about ghosts.  Fans of the supernatural might like it but this documentary has a lot of info pertaining to Forrest J. Ackerman that is worth seeing.  Check it out!