Scare Value Award Winner – Best Screenplay
Top 10 Film of 2023
Brooklyn 45 review
War is Hell….and after it’s over you carry pieces of Hell with you. New Shudder release Brooklyn 45 is a story about specters. In every meaning of the word.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Brooklyn 45
Directed by Ted Geoghegan
Written by Ted Geoghegan
Starring Anne Ramsey, Ron E. Rains, Jeremy Holm and Larry Fassenden
Brooklyn 45 Review
I had never looked into why this movie was titled Brooklyn 45. I like to go into viewing movies with as little knowledge as possible. It turns out the title is pretty important. The opening titles tell us that we are in Brooklyn in 1945…which means the title makes complete sense and I probably should have put it together on my own. What I would not have put together, however, is how important the time period would be to the story of Brooklyn 45. This is an unapologetic look at post World War II trauma. The kind of trauma that results from one’s own actions.
Five military veterans come together at the request of Clive (Larry Fassenden), a Lieutenant Colonel in the war. Clive’s wife has recently taken her own life and he employs his friend’s service in a séance to see if there is something out there after death. They become trapped inside of the room and are confronted by their secrets and regrets. Resentments, and secrets, come to the surface and threaten their attempt to escape.
The surprises start early in Brooklyn 45. We meet the principal characters and get to the séance rather quickly. It’s for good reason…no one is showing their full selves at first. Learning the specific backgrounds of the five characters…and exactly what kind of horrors they are carrying inside is at the heart of Brooklyn 45. Everyone worked in some aspect of the war…not everyone is what they seem.
We don’t want to get into the surprises that Brooklyn 45 has in store for viewers. There are some genuinely shocking moments. Best experienced with unspoiled eyes. That makes reviewing the movie a bit tricky…but the gist is going to be a recommendation to watch this movie. From here on we will discuss themes while keeping secrets intact.
Brooklyn 45 is an examination of the horrors of war on the people who both experienced and perpetrated them. The specters that hit the hardest here are the ones hanging over the characters’ past actions. All will be exposed by the end of the story. Brooklyn 45 isn’t interested in letting people off the hook. It takes opinion that “following orders” and “doing what must be done” aren’t valid excuses.
There is also an actual specter in Brooklyn 45. It is unleashed in fun, unexpected ways. As I mentioned…you’ll be forgiven for forgetting that this story had a supernatural aspect the deeper it dives into the real-world horrors of its characters. The movie does an excellent job in making you forget. It builds personal tension and paranoia between its cast.
The characters handle their time at war (and actions therein) in different ways. We get a nice and realistic portrayal of post war actions. Some are full of regret. Some bury their truths deeply. We can’t initially see who they are. Others act as if the war is not over. Heinous orders still need to be carried out. Orders that we are never given confirmation are right or wrong. There’s talk of the most unforgivable war crimes and an effective scene of torture.
Brooklyn 45 does inevitably remind us that it is a supernatural story. Impressively, it doesn’t use it as a device to let its characters (or us) off the hook. Too often movies with paranormal aspects use it as a throwaway construct to give a satisfying conclusion. Brooklyn 45 knows that there are no satisfying resolutions to its themes. It unleashes the supernatural aspect to further hammer home that lesson. Everyone’s hands are dirty in war. They aren’t easily washed in the aftermath.
Scare Value
Brooklyn 45 works so well as a discussion of actual horrors that you might forget there is something supernatural afoot. Thankfully, the movie doesn’t forget and turns up the ghostly occurrences in its third act. It gives us a climax that is surprising, entertaining, poignant, and haunting. A lesser screenplay would give the characters something to defeat as an out…a way to send you home happy without having to deliver a true resolution. Brooklyn 45 makes the lack of easy answers a feature…not a bug. Its obstacles reinforce what it truly means to be haunted.
4/5
Brooklyn 45 Link
Streaming on Shudder
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