The editors’ decision to label this movie a slow-burn thriller is indeed justified, yet this would be placing the Lanier’sHaunted by Her Name’ work into a box, considering the rich and dynamic scope of the narrative style. Haunted By Her Name is brought another genre thanks to its drama based on true story, based on parents’ struggles who adopt a daughter with severe mental disorders and strong psychotic breaks. As such the movie operates on multiple levels, actually providing a polyphonic experience, and straying away from a linear plot which most feature-length films are based on. The various standard model of narration that combines elements of comedy, suspense, drama and horror was executed perfectly thanks to meticulous direction. However, the most appropriate would be to call this film a slow drama, because the most tension was added by the quiet scenes of domestic life where all emotions were carefully controlled. This allows for an easier visual engagement as there is not too much to distract the audience. However, what really does detract from this stunning movie are those aforementioned moments of action.
Haunted By Her Name begins with an interesting, unsettling image. A woman is shown walking out to the waterfront, jumping into it and walking back a short while later, but as soon as she climbs back onto the bank she is caught by someone and they jump into the water together. The way this sequence is captured with a fixed camera makes the scene pretty gripping and dramatic. It zwishes to Jaron’s present life who is attending to a funeral ceremony of his ex-girlfriend Bridget in Washington and now is driving to his family living in Kansas City in his camper all the way from Washington. Jaron, during the course of the relationship and after a year’s time, was simply abandoned by Bridget out of nowhere who hadn’t spoken to him for six weeks. Jaron received conflicting reports from different authorities that said that Bridget died under suspicious circumstances after drowning in Lake Washington, and after her death, a note was found suggesting that someone was harassing her. Bridget was very much addicted to the nomadic camper life and when she was with Jaron he moved in that direction with her.
Now that she is gone, Jaron is starting to remember her as he drives back home in the van, spending his nights inside it. But Bridget seems to have left a little too much of herself with Jaron. His ex-girlfriend’s figure casts ghostly images in front of him at night, and there have been instances when he senses something malevolent around the camping van. Jaron gets even more disturbed because many texts come from her number and there are instances when Bridget appears around him in very fluent ways. Of course, such incidents leave Jaron with a lot of unanswered questions and it would not be an exaggeration to say that he is feeling quite miserable at the moment, especially because he is such a loner without anyone to listen to him.
But Jaron’s heartbreak was not persistent. He saw a woman when he got out of the van but things went south when his heart was broken again. Due to a man squatting next to him and screaming ‘help,’ Jaron was surprised once again. So, there was little sadness from this incident.
Judah is invited by Jaron to go to a nearby camping ground for the night as he offer rides for the greater part of the next day while Jaron asks Judah to get some numbers for the towing company or the repair service. Thus, using the hitch, Judah goes with Jaron’s van to the camping ground. To Jaron’s surprise, he discovers that he and Judah have a common interest in playing the guitar. In fact, Judah is on route to a venue in Seattle for a performance. At first, Jaron does not get involved as he does not want to be around an overly bubbly Judah, and since Jaron is a quiet character, their conversations fall into small talk. Still, at night, after Jaron has been having visions of Bridget, he starts seeking contact with Judah. After looking at some of the problems that Jaron’s van has, Judah tells Jaron that he can get one of his contacts who is a mechanic to help fix the van for a small amount, and warns Jaron that going to a standard garage meant a huge expense. Jaron accepts Judah’s suggestion to help them jam together.
Judah tells a lot of stories including his true self, his childhood traumas and vulnerability as during the night, the two seem to get a lot closer around a campfire.
It surprises Jaron that Judah is his birthday twin because his birthday is only a day later. For Jaron, it is easy to have a level of trust in Judah-a man who lost his mother at a young age and suffered abuse from his father as a child-as they share a very similar way of looking at life. With that sense of trust that he has built in him, Jaron recounts his issues and the trauma that he has just experienced to Judah. In this manner, Judah refrains from placing blame on Jaron and instructs him to work through it so that the memories he has of Bridget will no longer trouble him. To everyone’s surprise, Jaron sleeps well that night, it’s the first time in a long while that he has had a good night’s rest. Contrary to his expectations, the next morning Judah informs him that his mechanic had completed the van repairs the night before. After Jaron compensates for the repairs, Judah indicates that he is ready to depart. Before setting out for Seattle, he talks about how he and Jaron’s birthdays should be commemorated with a small piece of cake and a cigarette and adds rather vaguely that it would be good for Jaron to come to Seattle with him.
After Judah departs, Jaron remains at the campsite for a day; having been with his new friend for a single day, he is quite fond of him. And having gone through another uneventful night, he is nearly convinced that it was none other than Judah who saved him from the awful dreams that seemed to be a consequence of his mental dilemmas. Instead of going back, Jaron goes straight to Seattle to meet Judah and he can hardly believe his eyes when he sees him walking through the entrance doors.
Up until now, the movie was going okay and quite enjoyable with some nice and dark vibes, something close to a nice buddy drama if one must put it so. However, this was the point where Pyn was clearly happy with himself; such a strong turn around at the end of the movie is never a good sign for the pacing of the movie and as expected it went all downhill from there. In the night, Jaron is once again plagued by the specter of Bridget. They play gas poker and the propane gas heater built into the van basically lets Jaron die of asphyxiation. Outside the van, Judah watches as the two of them reveal exactly what was so puzzling about the previous five plot hours, which was why Jaron was leading Judith towards the spot where Bridget died. Judith was Bridget’s jealous ex, and Bridget left Judith for Jaron while still pregnant with his twins.
Bridget dismayed the couple by aborting her children and went on being Jaron’s girlfriend for a year until Judah re-entered her life and ever since then, she has outrun Jaron. Following the death of Bridget under suspicious circumstances, most likely, engineered by Judah, plans to take revenge on Jaron were meticulously made, and surrounds himself with Bridget’s twin sister who had been resentful ever since her sister was thrown and abandoned for Jaron. Sadistically enough, Bridget’s twin kills Judah, stabbing him fatally, and heads towards Jaron, blaming him for separating her from her sister. Jaron begs for mercy, but teleportation had other plans, and Judah shoots Bridget’s twin, who was about to kill jaron. It is quite possible that Jaron has somehow managed to get into his good books after all this pain and torture.
In the end, Jaron leaves behind a dead Judah and Bridget’s twin on the edge of the waterfront, takes Judah’s camping van and straight into the backseat, comes across an unconscious Bridget hidden in the back of the seat. Tired of always making things more complicated, Jaron drives away with Bridget, and whether or not she is nothing more than a piece of his insanity is never made clear.
It is unfortunate that the rest of the movie is so well designed, because the complex conclusion diminishes quite a bit of the enjoyment the story would otherwise have.
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